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Manly boss fires back
AUGUST 19, 2018
Manly chair and majority owner Scott Penn has spoken of bitter disappointment and utter frustration at criticism of his family, and chief executive Lyall Gorman, as they deal with the ongoing fallout from coach Trent Barrett’s decision to hand in his resignation.
Penn also ridiculed suggestions he had taken his eye off the ball by spending much of his time overseas, and rejected claims the football club had not been given the financial backing required to be successful.
Barrett has given the Sea Eagles 12-months’ notice under the terms of his contract, a decision that has effectively turned the playing group against club hierarchy. Gorman is expected to meet senior players this week to clarify the situation but Penn, who only returned from the US yesterday morning, insists the argument around Barrett has been clouded by mistruths and inaccuracies.
Barrett has been reluctant to divulge the details of his concerns, citing legal issues, but the rumour mill suggests he has been disappointed with the support from the club.
Penn disputes any suggestion he and his family have not provided the financial backing for the Sea Eagles to be successful and insists they have given Barrett unwavering support.
It is understood club officials sat down with Barrett last November and agreed to all his wishes. The club also re-signed all his coaching staff to extensions two months ago.
The suspicion among club hierarchy is that Barrett resigned because he had another job lined up and was also concerned about the deterioration of his relationship with club legend Bob Fulton.
Penn refused to be critical of the coach, but he did reject some of the accusations that have been made against the owners.
“What is the tangible criticism?” Penn asked The Australian.
“The truth is the truth and … it has nothing to do with management at all. We are the only private owners in the entire NRL paying the full salary cap and funding the juniors.
“No other private club in the league does that. They have a leagues club to finance their juniors or they don’t run their juniors. If anyone is suggesting we are not funding the team that is absolute bull****. It is a disgrace that other people are pushing their own agenda and trying to blame us.
“We are sick of it, absolutely sick of it. Give one example of us not providing that support. There is not one tangible example.”
Penn and his family have ploughed millions into the club over the years and are likely to face another shortfall this year given crowd numbers have been down and results have been poor.
They have been accused of not providing Barrett with a recruitment manager or other support staff. Yet Penn points out they made an offer to recruitment guru Peter O’Sullivan only for him to take up a deal with the New Zealand Warriors.
“We put a formal offer to him and he chose to go to the Warriors,” Penn said. “We have had a number of people we have looked at and we put formal offers into a couple. That is absolute crap. It’s not as if we haven’t been trying.”
In response to claims the club’s facilities were substandard, Penn said: “The facilities are fine — we just spent $500,000 on the gym. We have made four grand finals from those facilities too. They are fantastic. The (NSW) Waratahs would love to be back in there, too. That is a furphy.”
Penn also strongly defended Gorman amid a torrent of criticism.
“It is totally unwarranted,” Penn said. “He couldn’t be working harder. We are super strong and we know what we need to achieve. We have to protect the club and do what is best for the club. We know that eventually the truth will come out and from an ownership and management point of view we have nothing but the club’s best interests of heart. A lot of the suggestions that have been made are just not true.”
Penn said he and his family remain as committed as ever to the club and denied his work overseas had affected their season.
“We are certainly sick of the criticism when all we have done is put our hard-earned into it,” he said. “It is ridiculous. This constant barrage that I am constantly overseas — I am on the phone every day to Lyall. We are literally on the phone every day. We do not rest. We have to fix it — we are totally committed to fixing it.”
