Manly’s Future – A Club in Decline?

[Brookie1973]

How great it was to cancel our memberships and they just said ok, didn’t even bother asking why. Seems like no one at the club really gives a stuff about anything. It’s pretty rotten from the head down

Someone else said the same thing a while back, and frankly, it astounds me that the membership team aren’t trained to at least try to keep people on board. It’s basic business. Our systems should be capturing the reasons, and Mestrov or someone in authority at the club should be contacting anyone who is cancelling for reasons which are deemed saveable. It’s a simple phone call or at worst, a prepared letter.

 

[Stewbojevic]

Someone else said the same thing a while back, and frankly, it astounds me that the membership team aren’t trained to at least try to keep people on board. It’s basic business. Our systems should be capturing the reasons, and Mestrov or someone in authority at the club should be contacting anyone who is cancelling for reasons which are deemed saveable. It’s a simple phone call or at worst, a prepared letter.

Yea that’s pretty lazy business.

I renewed, but I must admit the whole process was a shambles. I originally got two separate renewal reminders for different membership tiers. One was the tier I used to be on in 2024 and the other for this year’s.

It was on me to reach out to the club and ask why, to which they responded… but it was clear they knew they had made a mistake. Pretty sure they sent 2024 renewal emails out to everyone this year which is comical.

But it gets worse… in the 2025 renewal email they had the total amount owing incorrect. It was just the cost of the add ons, which I didn’t even get to choose this year.

When I emailed back about the price they just said “yep, sorry that price was wrong. You owe more.”

Not sure who they are hiring in the member department or how they are training them but it’s pretty poor.

 

[Rocky]

Cleary is not an elite coach, he's a good coach benefiting from an elite crop of juniors.

Yes he has benefitted from that. But he's still one of the best couches in the game for mine. So I'm happy with calling him an elite coach. Not sure who is obviously better than him besides Bellamy.

 

[Waz13]

Yes he has benefitted from that. But he's still one of the best couches in the game for mine. So I'm happy with calling him an elite coach. Not sure who is obviously better than him besides Bellamy.

Yep Nick Scali version when we have the KMart version.

 

[LeonardCohen]

Yes he has benefitted from that. But he's still one of the best couches in the game for mine. So I'm happy with calling him an elite coach. Not sure who is obviously better than him besides Bellamy.

Again, I think this is one of the scenarios that pop up on the forum from time to time where we're obsessed with the idea of a dichotomy; is it the players or is it Clearly, when it's both. He's an elite coach with a great roster. Put that great roster in the hands of Barrett and they don't win four on the trot. Put Cleary in front of the Titans roster and he doesn't guide them to four on the trot.

 

[silvereagle]

It’s becoming increasingly clear that many who were once proudly associated with our club are now choosing to walk away or seek opportunities elsewhere. Day after day, we hear of players wanting out, and potential recruits—both players and coaches—actively avoiding us. What was once a respected institution in the NRL now risks becoming a punchline.

Despite this, there seems to be little concern from our management and owners. The silence is deafening.

To make matters worse, I’ve noticed my membership was auto-renewed—despite having requested years ago that this not happen. I’m now seriously considering walking away from the club altogether until there’s meaningful change and accountability from the Board and Management.

I share your frustration but I think you need to separate the facts from the obvious bias against our club you see most days in the media. Sure we have just had yet another bummer of a year but I think we all know the issues. Until these issues are resolved I think we will continue to flounder in that bottom half of the competition. One of the issues has been a seriously imbalanced cap where we have had nearly 30% of our cap tied up in 3 players that in all honesty have not delivered expected returns. That issue will be eliminated for the 27 season and that gives the club an opportunity to rebalance the books with a different bunch of potential stars. The coaching (obviously?) also needs to be addressed and I suspect will be during or after the 2026 season.

So potentially another frustrating year coming up but who knows?? We have some good acquisitions for 26 and we have some serious young talent coming through so anyone's guess. Bottom 8 or top 8. Either way I think 27 looking like the year. Hang in there.

 

[manly al]

Not to be paranoid about future N R L club developments but still would not trust or underestimate the Nth Sydney Bears [or whatever is left of their organization ] underlying ambition to again be a stand alone club in the comp at the expense of Manly
Doubt very much that they will have that much influence or significance with the new predominately W A franchise , but still a bit of a leg up gaining some more prominence being included with this new club operation Have an establishes Leagues club still to boot also
Bottom line again still some 10 - 12 mil $ required to run even a basic N R L franchise and obviously still a challenge for some clubs , including Manly to manage somehow
According to those reports at the time , Manly came within a whisker of being booted out of the comp in 2004 if not for the extremely generous effort by Max Delmege to save the club from oblivion , then pretty much after 08 , the Penns the or one of the only reasons in the general circumstances to then keep the joint viable
No doubt , a bit behind in some relatively helpful areas now like stand alone junior academies , Know that the club is still trying and have definitely managed to either attract or develop a host of excellent juniors for some years now but those more niche areas like set academies , a definite advantage
Like poster Rafferty "s suggestion for the club to start [ or try to ] start some outside investment opportunities or operations like the N R L now or looks like a couple of other clubs but that would require any existing profits being diverted and doubt would be on a scale even for a basic worthwhile outside investment measure let alone the internal set up of the club at present , franchise wise
Looks like whatever format a Manly Leagues consists of these days is a help but in the bigger picture of additional revenue streams , probably in the small fry category unfortunately

 

[manly al]

Not to be paranoid about future N R L club developments but still would not trust or underestimate the Nth Sydney Bears [or whatever is left of their organization ] underlying ambition to again be a stand alone club in the comp at the expense of Manly
Doubt very much that they will have that much influence or significance with the new predominately W A franchise , but still a bit of a leg up gaining some more prominence being included with this new club operation Have an establishes Leagues club still to boot also
Bottom line again still some 10 - 12 mil $ required to run even a basic N R L franchise and obviously still a challenge for some clubs , including Manly to manage somehow
According to those reports at the time , Manly came within a whisker of being booted out of the comp in 2004 if not for the extremely generous effort by Max Delmege to save the club from oblivion , then pretty much after 08 , the Penns the or one of the only reasons in the general circumstances to then keep the joint viable
No doubt , a bit behind in some relatively helpful areas now like stand alone junior academies , Know that the club is still trying and have definitely managed to either attract or develop a host of excellent juniors for some years now but those more niche areas like set academies , a definite advantage
Like poster Rafferty "s suggestion for the club to start [ or try to ] start some outside investment opportunities or operations like the N R L now or looks like a couple of other clubs but that would require any existing profits being diverted and doubt would be on a scale even for a basic worthwhile outside investment measure let alone the internal set up of the club at present , franchise wise
Looks like whatever format a Manly Leagues consists of these days is a help but in the bigger picture of additional revenue streams , probably in the small fry category unfortunately

Meant an additional 10 - 12 mil $ on top of the standard N R L club allocation to even basically run a franchise