Manly Sea Eagles need to tell coach Geoff Toovey where he stands
March 6, 2015 - 2:00AM
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports Writer, The Sydney Morning Herald
Geoff Toovey was driving out of the carpark at the Sea Eagles' Narrabeen headquarters on Thursday morning when a bunch of primary school children just couldn't help themselves.
"There needs to be an investigation!" they bellowed at the coach.
Bloody kids, although they do have a point: there needs to be an investigation in what's happening on the peninsula as halves Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans decide where their future rests, and questions continue to be asked if Toovey has a future at the club at all.
Deserving of better: Manly coach Geoff Toovey shouldn't be hearing about his club via the media.
Deserving of better: Manly coach Geoff Toovey shouldn't be hearing about his club via the media.
Toovey was furious at Fairfax Media reports on Saturday that Eels coach - and Toovey's former assistant at Manly - Brad Arthur had been approached about taking over for this season.
Those reports were correct.
Toovey was also furious at a throwaway line from this reporter in a tongue-in-cheek column on Tuesday, predicting he would be the first coach sacked.
That forecast was wrong, although the response sums up how touchy the issue is.
The word now is that Toovey will coach out this season, but that doesn't guarantee his job for the final year of his contract in 2016.
Typical of the Manly club - and perhaps the great game of rugby league - there is so much subterfuge floating around it's difficult to work out what's happening there.
We do know this: Toovey is at clearly at loggerheads with club management, which continues to say their coach has their full support, when in reality he does not.
The coach did not know that chief executive Joe Kelly had withdrawn the offer to Cherry-Evans after the player's management had failed to meet a deadline of midday on Monday.
Kelly has every right to pull the offer. It's a heartening sign he won't be played by managers. But he didn't tell his coach.
That was left to host Paul Kent on NRL 360 on Wednesday night.
Kent relayed the bizarre scene to the Big Sports Breakfast on Thursday morning.
"We were getting in our ear that it was reported Daly Cherry-Evans' offer had been withdrawn," Kent recalled. "We went to a break and Geoff Toovey said he didn't know if that was right."
Oh, it was right.
"Then we had word that Joe Kelly had actually confirmed it," Kent said. "I wrote on a piece of paper that Joe Kelly had confirmed it. You could just see the confusion in his eyes about what is going on at his club. He's finding out on air that his No.1 player is potentially about to leave the club."
How absurd that the first grade coach, who has done remarkably well in sorting out a messed up salary cap after Des Hasler stormed out in 2011, should learn about such an important contract decision via the media.
Not just via the media, but on air? Surely Toovey deserved better.
Kent also claimed Toovey told him after the show that if Cherry-Evans left it wouldn't necessarily ensure Foran could stay because the Manly offer could be increased.
Sea Eagles fans need to realise Foran isn't looking elsewhere because of the money. He wants to be a better footballer.
As current and former Manly players will tell you, Toovey is a basic coach. "Run hard, make a break, score a try is basically all he says," is how one player describes his methodology.
Certain elements at Manly are declaring Foran will stay. Others say he's headed to Parramatta. He maintains an incredibly close relationship with Arthur and they are in regular contact.
But don't discount the Bulldogs. Major powerbrokers at Belmore remain supremely confident they will reunite Foran and Hasler.
The Sea Eagles, though, are ready to move on without Cherry-Evans, who has been a polemic character for much of his time at the club. They wonder if he's worth a million a year.
Whether the vitriol directed at him is deserved or not, whether this very public negotiation process with other clubs is his fault or that of his manager Gavin Orr, it's difficult to recall a more maligned player within his own club.
Last year, I interviewed Cherry-Evans at length and found him to be articulate and engaging. Not the monster he'd been painted by others.
What shocked was how angrily his teammates reacted that a favourable - we'll call it balanced - profile story had been published.
Either way, something is amiss at Manly ahead of their first match of the season against Parramatta. Manly needs to let the coach know where he stands. He deserves it.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...f-toovey-where-he-stands-20150305-13vvuc.html
March 6, 2015 - 2:00AM
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports Writer, The Sydney Morning Herald
Geoff Toovey was driving out of the carpark at the Sea Eagles' Narrabeen headquarters on Thursday morning when a bunch of primary school children just couldn't help themselves.
"There needs to be an investigation!" they bellowed at the coach.
Bloody kids, although they do have a point: there needs to be an investigation in what's happening on the peninsula as halves Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans decide where their future rests, and questions continue to be asked if Toovey has a future at the club at all.
Deserving of better: Manly coach Geoff Toovey shouldn't be hearing about his club via the media.
Deserving of better: Manly coach Geoff Toovey shouldn't be hearing about his club via the media.
Toovey was furious at Fairfax Media reports on Saturday that Eels coach - and Toovey's former assistant at Manly - Brad Arthur had been approached about taking over for this season.
Those reports were correct.
Toovey was also furious at a throwaway line from this reporter in a tongue-in-cheek column on Tuesday, predicting he would be the first coach sacked.
That forecast was wrong, although the response sums up how touchy the issue is.
The word now is that Toovey will coach out this season, but that doesn't guarantee his job for the final year of his contract in 2016.
Typical of the Manly club - and perhaps the great game of rugby league - there is so much subterfuge floating around it's difficult to work out what's happening there.
We do know this: Toovey is at clearly at loggerheads with club management, which continues to say their coach has their full support, when in reality he does not.
The coach did not know that chief executive Joe Kelly had withdrawn the offer to Cherry-Evans after the player's management had failed to meet a deadline of midday on Monday.
Kelly has every right to pull the offer. It's a heartening sign he won't be played by managers. But he didn't tell his coach.
That was left to host Paul Kent on NRL 360 on Wednesday night.
Kent relayed the bizarre scene to the Big Sports Breakfast on Thursday morning.
"We were getting in our ear that it was reported Daly Cherry-Evans' offer had been withdrawn," Kent recalled. "We went to a break and Geoff Toovey said he didn't know if that was right."
Oh, it was right.
"Then we had word that Joe Kelly had actually confirmed it," Kent said. "I wrote on a piece of paper that Joe Kelly had confirmed it. You could just see the confusion in his eyes about what is going on at his club. He's finding out on air that his No.1 player is potentially about to leave the club."
How absurd that the first grade coach, who has done remarkably well in sorting out a messed up salary cap after Des Hasler stormed out in 2011, should learn about such an important contract decision via the media.
Not just via the media, but on air? Surely Toovey deserved better.
Kent also claimed Toovey told him after the show that if Cherry-Evans left it wouldn't necessarily ensure Foran could stay because the Manly offer could be increased.
Sea Eagles fans need to realise Foran isn't looking elsewhere because of the money. He wants to be a better footballer.
As current and former Manly players will tell you, Toovey is a basic coach. "Run hard, make a break, score a try is basically all he says," is how one player describes his methodology.
Certain elements at Manly are declaring Foran will stay. Others say he's headed to Parramatta. He maintains an incredibly close relationship with Arthur and they are in regular contact.
But don't discount the Bulldogs. Major powerbrokers at Belmore remain supremely confident they will reunite Foran and Hasler.
The Sea Eagles, though, are ready to move on without Cherry-Evans, who has been a polemic character for much of his time at the club. They wonder if he's worth a million a year.
Whether the vitriol directed at him is deserved or not, whether this very public negotiation process with other clubs is his fault or that of his manager Gavin Orr, it's difficult to recall a more maligned player within his own club.
Last year, I interviewed Cherry-Evans at length and found him to be articulate and engaging. Not the monster he'd been painted by others.
What shocked was how angrily his teammates reacted that a favourable - we'll call it balanced - profile story had been published.
Either way, something is amiss at Manly ahead of their first match of the season against Parramatta. Manly needs to let the coach know where he stands. He deserves it.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...f-toovey-where-he-stands-20150305-13vvuc.html
