1. Des is a control freak. A very successful control freak.
2. When some nuffty named Dave perry started to tell him what to do, he didn't like it. Hard to blame a 300 game manly legend who coached us to two premierships for getting a bit upset about some nobody coming in and telling him what's what.
4. Des achieved success by back ending contracts. That allowed us to keep a champion team together for a decade.
5. When you are a resource poor club like manly, there is very little you can do to achieve prolonged success against teams like the Broncos, storm and roosters. You don't have access to TPAs that enable you to keep and attract star players, and you certainly don't have news limited backing. Back ending contracts is one of the few ways clubs like manly can compete on a close to even playing field.
6. If you were CEO of a company that you built up to achieve multi millionaire dollar profits year after year, who was then told by the board that the new office boy was now going to tell you what to do, I imagine you'd be a tad upset too.
7. The coaching staff that des poached were put together by him during his time at manly. They were his trusted lieutenants. Hard to blame him for taking them with him elsewhere. Manly didn't own them. If they loved manly so much, they could have stayed. Fairly sure des wasn't holding a gun to their heads.