At the end of last season, with Manly in discussions with Anthony Seibold and his manager Isaac Moses about a contract extension, the coach brought up the possibility of setting a finish line.
He admitted he didn’t want to remain an NRL head coach for the long term, and sought an extension through to the end of 2027 that would take him to the end of his career with the clipboard.
That didn’t mean he was ready to sail off into the sunset. Instead, Seibold opened discussions about moving into a management role at the club once his coaching days were over.
As part of those discussions, Sea Eagles CEO Tony Mestrov approached Michael Ennis, a consultant on Seibold’s coaching staff, to gauge his appetite about succeeding Seibold.
Ennis, who had been recommended by Seibold as his long-term replacement, has long held aspirations to coach in the NRL.
At the time Mestrov approached him, Ennis had only just put his hand up for the Parramatta job vacated by Brad Arthur last season. The Eels ultimately decided he did not to have the relevant experience to take the job.
Mestrov had a similar view and wanted Ennis to move into a fulltime role to help his transition to a head coach.
As it stands, Ennis is at every Manly training session bar the captain’s run. If he moved into a full-time assistant’s role, Ennis would have to forego his lucrative contract at Fox Sports just to add an additional 30-60 minutes of training per week to his commitments at the Sea Eagles.
It wasn’t a move he was ready to entertain immediately, but Ennis indicated to the club he would do so in 2027, the final year leading into his proposed takeover.
After discussions with his management, Ennis decided against signing a deal with the Sea Eagles that could have guaranteed him the top job in 2028. A lot can happen in three-and-a-half years.
Meanwhile, in the background at Brookvale, some have been agitating for the return of a Manly identity to lead the club into the future.
There is a strong push for Broncos assistant coach Matt Ballin to return to the Sea Eagles, where he previously played and coached in an assistant capacity.
He has since served a five-year apprenticeship in the lower grades, rival NRL clubs and the State of Origin arena with Queensland.
Ballin recently met with Seibold at a Freshwater cafe, where Ballin indicated that he saw his future back in Sydney.
The Sea Eagles deny there is a move to bring Ballin back to the club, but he does have the old boys in his corner.
The push to brink back Manly figures to fill positions of power – led by a vocal group with ties to the club – extends to the administration, with NRL integrity boss Jason King being backed as a potential replacement for Mestrov.
The CEO has previously denied looking for the exit door, despite rumours that he had expressed interest in a job at NRL head office.
The other coaching option is Arthur, who has taken Super League club Leeds Rhinos from ninth to third on the ladder since taking over midway through last year.
Arthur, whose Rhinos team is currently on a five-game winning streak, worked as an assistant coach at Manly under Geoff Toovey in 2013 before taking on the head coaching job at Parramatta.
He was heavily linked to a return to Brookvale as Toovey’s successor, but knocked back attempts from the late Bob Fulton to bring him back to the club to remain at the Eels.
Arthur wants to return to the NRL and was close to getting the job at the Perth Bears before missing out to Mal Meninga.
Much will hinge on the next few weeks. Manly will do some soul-searching during the bye this week before two winnable games at Brookvale Oval against the out-of-sorts Wests Tigers and the injury-ravaged South Sydney before another bye.
If they lose those two games, and if the lack of effort that has plagued their last two performances is not remedied, there will be a lot more than
a series of seven-minute player interviews taking place behind the scenes.
Seibold is starting to lose members of his dressing room. Frustrations with the way he handled the player performance interviews on Monday, coupled with a growing view that his coaching methodology is limited, are placing enormous pressure on him to turn things around.
The blaming of the Daly Cherry-Evans saga for his team’s poor performances is viewed by sections at the club as a valid distraction, but not enough of an excuse to justify their underwhelming efforts on the field.
“At the moment, Seibs is safe at this point,” Mestrov said on Monday. “Seibs understands as well as I do, it’s all about winning games. Seibs is safe at this point.”
In rugby league, those words can often be the kiss of death.
The Ennis succession plan and push for an Eagles old boy: Inside Manly’s coaching conundrum
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