Manly in Crisis (a mega thread)

[Terry Zarsoff]

Just read on Twitter that Zorba said on radio this morning - surely someone can check, I'm not about to chase it - that Donny, Managhan, and Randall are all going.
I'm just the messenger - don't shoot me!

He didn’t say they were leaving. In a typical piece of (admittedly overt) white anting against his former club, he suggested their contributions (to the current state of play) should be looked at.

He mentioned John Bonasera (Good evening John) as well - why did he know about the jersey and not the coach.

Of course he never mentioned his own nephew by name and the systemic failures at Manly that lie at his feet. Those failures were merely hinted at.

 

[SeaEagle007]

Seriously some of you guys talk crap sore losers looking for someone to blame.. We were out of the race from the dragons loss.. trying to blame the 7 .. look how many injuries we have had and still have…even if the 7 did play that day we still have those injuries to attend to no other team will be competitive with so many out .. pull your heads in

No. We lost to the Dragons because our three best defenders were out with covid. We were never going to win with Jake, Croker, and Davey all missing in the same game. That's what put us in a precarious position and made the game against the Roosters a must win. And then seven players decided the team did not mean enough to them to even show up.
The guys who did turn up that day busted their guts and only lost by 10.
And the next week, when you'd expect that the matyrs would really try to repay their club for listening to their pastors rather than showing up for their employer, they put in a piss poor performance and have ever since.
Don't rewrite history that we were out of the race after the dragons loss. We were not.

yep I guess that would stop Garrick and Saab to be added to injury list.. no idea if you can’t see we were not going to win a GF this year I can’t help you ..

 

[Rorz]

Penn needs to sign a few players that are keynoted at other clubs that will bolster our side.
I also have my doubts if some of the players are of a first grade standard,bearing in mind some are rookies and need time.
Next year we will be losing a considerable amount of players but yet we have signed only one player.
We are still waiting for the attack to come us,and our attack is clunky.
We can resurrect things the way our success used to be but the supporters deserve better than what is being delivered!
.

 

[AndWeDon'tCare]

So that’s how Des fixes things is it , when things go wrong sack everyone else around you because it’s their fault and not yours ??

What else would you expect him to do, sack himself or just hand the laptop to the assistants?

I'm no fan of how things are and have transpired under his second tenure but you'd have to be somewhat foolhardy to think that Penn (who is as tight as a fish's a$$h0le) would sack Des or Des, who is renowned for having his first yellow pay envelope, walking away from his contract.

They are the easiest to dismiss and project change but at the same time, leave him little room to apportion the blame onto anyone else.

In the broader spectrum that is the NRL player and business community, we are a laughing stock and whilst many savage Tony Mestrov in the infancy of his appointment, cop this little hint, he has managed to put a couple of player managers back in their place, one in particular was told in no uncertain terms if he wants to agitate matters pertaining to our Club, he is happy to play ball... YOU get YOUR players to hand in their notice pursuant to their contract.

Over to you DES, blood is in the water...

The silence is now deafening.

 

[Bomb Voyage]

What else would you expect him to do, sack himself or just hand the laptop to the assistants?

I'm no fan of how things are and have transpired under his second tenure but you'd have to be somewhat foolhardy to think that Penn (who is as tight as a fish's a$$h0le) would sack Des or Des, who is renowned for having his first yellow pay envelope, walking away from his contract.

They are the easiest to dismiss and project change but at the same time, leave him little room to apportion the blame onto anyone else.

In the broader spectrum that is the NRL player and business community, we are a laughing stock and whilst many savage Tony Mestrov in the infancy of his appointment, cop this little hint, he has managed to put a couple of player managers back in their place, one in particular was told in no uncertain terms if he wants to agitate matters pertaining to our Club, he is happy to play ball... YOU get YOUR players to hand in their notice pursuant to their contract.

Over to you DES, blood is in the water...

The silence is now deafening.

How do you know that about Tony ?

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

This isn't about money, this is about half a playing roster who couldn't give a rat's arse about the club they play for.

Jumping to conclusions. No reason to thing they don't care, every reason to think they are people who care about things and take things seriously.
But they want the club to be one thing, the club says it is something else.
It will need time to work out if the two can come together. That will of course require an open mind on the part of the rebels. One season is broken but I'll wait to see how it pans out.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

Let me guess, the player manager in question has a surname that sounds like a robot featured in an early Asimov or Heinlein novel?

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

How do you know that about Tony ?

He is Tony.

 

[AndWeDon'tCare]

He didn’t say they were leaving. In a typical piece of (admittedly overt) white anting against his former club, he suggested their contributions (to the current state of play) should be looked at.

He mentioned John Bonasera (Good evening John) as well - why did he know about the jersey and not the coach.

Of course he never mentioned his own nephew by name and the systemic failures at Manly that lie at his feet. Those failures were merely hinted at.

Zebra and his clique on that show and the NewsCorp media are becoming irrelevant and he can't stand it.

Terry nailed it on the head, his nephew is laughed at left, right and centre, now referred too, by a couple of other owners as "the Yank"... he isn't taken too seriously by his peers.

 

[AndWeDon'tCare]

How do you know that about Tony ?

Advice is sought by many in the NRL community and the business community involved at large and when one is not happy with another, you close your mouth and you listen to your client complain about X and Y and Club A and Club B.

I work in a profession where the players and player managers seek my counsel and that of my colleagues.

Fun times let me tell you.

 

[mickqld]

Penn needs to sign a few players that are keynoted at other clubs that will bolster our side.
I also have my doubts if some of the players are of a first grade standard,bearing in mind some are rookies and need time.
Next year we will be losing a considerable amount of players but yet we have signed only one player.
We are still waiting for the attack to come us,and our attack is clunky.
We can resurrect things the way our success used to be but the supporters deserve better than what is being delivered!
.

We are losing approx 500 games experience in 1st grade and rep games with Foran, Walker, Taupau and Davey leaving. This will take years to get experienced heads into our side so now is the perfect time to rebuild from the ground up. Get rid of the staleness and get in new ideas, new coaching, new captain and new blood. Yes we will be down the bottom for a couple of seasons but the period 2007-2014 was built from the ground up. Time to go Des and time for new leadership on the field.

 

[HK_Eagle]

Zebra and his clique on that show and the NewsCorp media are becoming irrelevant and he can't stand it.

Terry nailed it on the head, his nephew is laughed at left, right and centre, now referred too, by a couple of other owners as "the Yank"... he isn't taken too seriously by his peers.

I'm not surprised. I've never taken him (the nephew) seriously and I'm not even moving in those circles. He comes across as aloof and disconnected. I also see him as insecure and trying to be something/somebody he's not. It's just a superficial impression from the outside and I certainly don't know him personally.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Advice is sought by many in the NRL community and the business community involved at large and when one is not happy with another, you close your mouth and you listen to your client complain about X and Y and Club A and Club B.

I work in a profession where the players and player managers seek my counsel and that of my colleagues.

Fun times let me tell you.

Let me assure you my comments aren’t “ anti Tony Mestrov “, the guys just landed I do not expect miracles overnight.

I’ve also stated “ he’s got a big job ahead of him “.

From what I hear he’s a hard nut and just what we need , as long as he’s supported by “ the yank “.

 

[AndWeDon'tCare]

Let me assure you my comments aren’t “ anti Tony Mestrov “, the guys just landed I do not expect miracles overnight.

I’ve also stated “ he’s got a big job ahead of him “.

From what I hear here’s a hard nut and just what we need , as long as he’s supported by “ the yank “.

MFB,

My apologies, those comments weren't directed at you or anyone in particular, just a read of comments across the forum, I suppose from people wanting immediate change.

My only gripe so far (in his tenure) is what Ryan stated regarding the late Barbara Arthurson, the club not having anyone attend her memorial is disgraceful.

 

[Ryan]

We are losing approx 500 games experience in 1st grade and rep games with Foran, Walker, Taupau and Davey leaving. This will take years to get experienced heads into our side so now is the perfect time to rebuild from the ground up. Get rid of the staleness and get in new ideas, new coaching, new captain and new blood. Yes we will be down the bottom for a couple of seasons but the period 2007-2014 was built from the ground up. Time to go Des and time for new leadership on the field.

Don't bother mate. we have to pretend things at the club are going along swimmingly. If you don't think in that positive way, we've been told you're not allowed to suggest or discuss it here, because it makes you negative / toxic.

 

[joeboy]

Personnel likes/dislikes and club politics aside. The fact and largest issues is we don’t look coached, we don’t look fit and we have no structure either side of the ball.

This won’t change without turning over the squad, changing coaching stuff or said staff admitting they were wrong and completing overhauling the way things are done

It doesn’t look like any of those things are happening so I imagine we will have similar issues till they do.

Our club captains leadership, attitude and lack of attention to detail and selflessness is also a big issue.

The fact some seemingly intelligent posters cannot see what’s going on scares me

 

[Wombat64]

Don't bother mate. we have to pretend things at the club are going along swimmingly. If you don't think in that positive way, we've been told you're not allowed to suggest or discuss it here, because it makes you negative / toxic.

We're a joke and anyone that can't see that has their head up their arse.

 

[WiseyEagle]

Keep the faith my feathered friends. For it may not be today or even tomorrow but mark my words that we will rise again 🦅 and when we do I’ll be standing arm in arms with you singing the eagle rock 🙌

What? 3 years down the track? 5 years down the track? 10 years down the track I can't see this turning around anytime soon. I hope I am wrong

 

[Wombat64]

@highlandeagle no I'm not going to dislike your post. I'm glad I asked for your contribution, and thank you for responding.

Reading your post actually shows we don't disagree on everything, and actually, you have highlighted the really deep problem - deeper than the 7 - we have no leaders!

You are right, DCE has not behaved like a leader. He says all the nice words, but does not hold his teammates to account. Des is not longer the leader he was . Instead he looks like a snake-oil salesman spruiking all his technical detail each week on what went wrong, yet fails to mention when the team don't put their bodies on the line or make the recovery tackles in broken play. They look pathetic out there, and Des won't admit it. His press conference reveal nothing and are at best painful to watch. How can we fix a problem if he keeps denying we have one?.

Worse still, and hear me out, where your thoughts and mine come together to uncover the real problem is this:

By Des and DCE stepping up to defend Jerseygate it made them look like the leaders. As we have said, they are not. Yet in the background, and avoiding accountability are the real leaders and influencers who have kept their traps firmly shut - i.e the Executives at the Manly club for their total mismanagement of this and other debacles this year, and the leader of the 7 who could have stepped up like a leader and explained why they boycotted that game. That's all we fans would have needed. This is not about gay rights, or Polynesians, or any label you could want to put to this - it is about stepping up as human beings and giving their perspective to us. We are not stupid. We know and agree the 7 were not given enough time to consider the situation, and by stepping up like leaders and explaining themselves we would have understood and moved on.

However, by these execs and the 7 leadership not stepping up and talking like leaders, they have disrespected all of us as paying fans of Manly, and now we are all suffering for it. Instead, we have these two fake leaders stepping up and saying words that are contrary to their actions as coach and team captain. Empty words.

So here we are. The team is falling apart on and off the field, the 7 are isolated as part of the team and also rightly by us, and we as fans are left isolated, and there is no communication between any of us.

That's why we are all angry, because we truly fear long-term repercussions for this club that could have been avoided.

NYEagle

Wow. Very good.

 

[Budgie]

MFB,

My apologies, those comments weren't directed at you or anyone in particular, just a read of comments across the forum, I suppose from people wanting immediate change.

My only gripe so far (in his tenure) is what Ryan stated regarding the late Barbara Arthurson, the club not having anyone attend her memorial is disgraceful.

I suppose there’s no path for Mestrov to secretly put together a group to make Penn an offer he can’t refuse, so to speak?