SMH - Adam Pengilly - March 3, 2023 — 7.45pm
The NRL pre-season is prime time for tall stories, but have you heard the one about the time they wheeled a pig on a spit into Bob Fulton’s grandstand?
On a balmy summer night, the Sea Eagles organised a barbecue for some 200 guests including players, staff and their families, with the hog roast the centrepiece amid an array of food stations representing different cuisines and cultures.
In front of the group stood Manly’s new coach: Anthony Seibold. He didn’t want, or need, to say much.
Here was a club in desperate need of healing, and he knew the small gesture of the spit would mean more to his Pacific Islander players, who stood down from a game last year over the club’s rainbow jersey, than any words.
“We all just mixed,” says Manly chief executive Tony Mestrov.
A few months beforehand, there was no chance a get-together like this would have happened at Manly.
Nothing is ever straightforward on the northern beaches, least of all their new coach’s return to the NRL in November after Des Hasler’s sudden sacking.
Seibold left his last club after overseeing a stunning freefall on the field. He left the Broncos in just the second season of a potential six-year deal as the club hurtled towards its first wooden spoon in the COVID-wrecked 2020 season.
Naturally, his next NRL coaching job is at another club trying to move past an era of factionalism and in-fighting.
On Saturday, Seibold will start his second coming as an NRL head coach trying to unite the perennially divided Sea Eagles against another new boss, Cameron Ciraldo and his Bulldogs.
Forget Anthony Griffin and the Dragons, Nicho Hynes and the Sharks, Latrell Mitchell, Joseph Suaalii, Penrith’s three-peat and Craig Bellamy’s probable last dance, the Seibold story is as captivating as any this year.
The early signs have been good. Despite not joining pre-season training until several weeks after his players returned due to his commitment with English rugby union, the Sea Eagles won the NRL’s inaugural pre-season challenge and the $100,000 bonus that came with it.
More importantly, his players looked happy.
“We wanted a coach who can connect with the playing group, but not only do that but be prepared to bring in whomever it takes to get the job done,” Manly owner and chairman Scott Penn says.
Full story:
www.smh.com.au
The NRL pre-season is prime time for tall stories, but have you heard the one about the time they wheeled a pig on a spit into Bob Fulton’s grandstand?
On a balmy summer night, the Sea Eagles organised a barbecue for some 200 guests including players, staff and their families, with the hog roast the centrepiece amid an array of food stations representing different cuisines and cultures.
In front of the group stood Manly’s new coach: Anthony Seibold. He didn’t want, or need, to say much.
Here was a club in desperate need of healing, and he knew the small gesture of the spit would mean more to his Pacific Islander players, who stood down from a game last year over the club’s rainbow jersey, than any words.
“We all just mixed,” says Manly chief executive Tony Mestrov.
A few months beforehand, there was no chance a get-together like this would have happened at Manly.
Nothing is ever straightforward on the northern beaches, least of all their new coach’s return to the NRL in November after Des Hasler’s sudden sacking.
Seibold left his last club after overseeing a stunning freefall on the field. He left the Broncos in just the second season of a potential six-year deal as the club hurtled towards its first wooden spoon in the COVID-wrecked 2020 season.
Naturally, his next NRL coaching job is at another club trying to move past an era of factionalism and in-fighting.
On Saturday, Seibold will start his second coming as an NRL head coach trying to unite the perennially divided Sea Eagles against another new boss, Cameron Ciraldo and his Bulldogs.
Forget Anthony Griffin and the Dragons, Nicho Hynes and the Sharks, Latrell Mitchell, Joseph Suaalii, Penrith’s three-peat and Craig Bellamy’s probable last dance, the Seibold story is as captivating as any this year.
The early signs have been good. Despite not joining pre-season training until several weeks after his players returned due to his commitment with English rugby union, the Sea Eagles won the NRL’s inaugural pre-season challenge and the $100,000 bonus that came with it.
More importantly, his players looked happy.
“We wanted a coach who can connect with the playing group, but not only do that but be prepared to bring in whomever it takes to get the job done,” Manly owner and chairman Scott Penn says.
Full story:
How a pig on a spit helped mend divide in Manly’s playing group
Seemingly out of nowhere, Anthony Seibold is back in the NRL coaching furnace. And it’s a summer dinner which is being held up as evidence of how far the once-broken playing group has come in just a few months.
