Sea Eagles’ bid to retain Daly Cherry-Evans still splitting the club in two
- by: James Hooper
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- May 08, 2015 12:00AM
HE hornet’s nest at the Manly Sea Eagles is becoming increasingly complex by the day, headed by the latest bid to convince Daly Cherry-Evans to backflip on his $4 million Gold Coast Titans deal.
Through no apparent fault of his own, Cherry-Evans has split the Sea Eagles like never before.
Champion fullback Brett Stewart and Immortal Andrew Johns have barely spoken in six months, all because the Sea Eagles halves coach apparently supported DCE instead of Manly’s senior players.
Johns and Anthony Watmough are also in the no speakies boat, with the two almost coming to blows over summer. It’s a sad state of affairs considering Johns, Stewart and Watmough were once great mates and regular drinking partners.
The latest Sea Eagle caught in the crossfire is John Gibbs, who publicly stated on his 2UE
Sports Today show how DCE had been bullied out of Manly. This angered fullback Stewart, who is also close mates with Gibbs.
As the Sea Eagles clamour to try and get DCE to renege on the Titans, what the club seems to have conveniently forgotten is how new owners Rick and Scott Penn and CEO Joe Kelly lowballed the star halfback when they initially took control late last year.
Not only did they slash DCE’s $1 million-per-season offer tabled by the previous administration, next they pulled it off the table entirely.
At the same time as all of this was going on, Manly Immortal and recently-appointed Strategic Football Consultant Bob Fulton was meeting with Kieran Foran, Brett Stewart and Steve Matai, with the primary focus aimed at convincing the Kiwi five-eighth to remain at the club.
The bid failed, leaving the Sea Eagles clutching at thin air in relation to both star playmakers.
All of this after Scott Penn promised Manly fans both halves would be signed, sealed and delivered, hopefully by Christmas?
To make matters worse, the latest Sea Eagles board room projections have the club poised to post a $1.5 million loss come October.
Then there’s the matter of how poorly club legend and coach Geoff Toovey has been treated. It’s no secret Sea Eagles powerbrokers have had a crack at luring Des Hasler, Brad Arthur and Ivan Cleary to replace Toovey, all to no avail.
How any of this instability is supposed to make DCE possibly want to perform another backflip is anyone’s guess. Still, under the current rules, Manly has until round 13 to convince him to renege and the Eagles are doing everything in the club’s power to convince him to do so.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...-the-club-in-two/story-fnp0lyn3-1227343942634