Buzz: How Toovey let Manly slide

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THE Manly Sea Eagles desperately need — dare I say it — a Phil Gould five-year plan.

And stage one needs to be a decision on which coach should implement it.

Geoff Toovey still has two years to run on his contract.

He inherited a premiership-winning roster from Des Hasler and did an excellent job to take the Sea Eagles to the 2013 grand final. He is also a club legend.

Coaching is a lot more than weekly training sessions and tactics. It's about the salary cap, communication with the players, managing egos, the roster and the culture. It's why the best in the business are paid $1 million a year.

The shattered Sea Eagles concede a try. Picture: Mark Evans Source: News Corp Australia

Last July, when the Sea Eagles were leading the premiership, I wrote the following: "It's amazing that the Manly Sea Eagles continue to lead the premiership on the back of the incredible will to win of the senior playing group.

"This club is not a happy place right now, despite the smiling faces you see most weeks on Channel 9 and Fox Sports' coverage of their games. The anger over management's refusal to make long-serving forward Glenn Stewart an offer has again been reignited by other recent player deals."

This is the point I'm making with Geoff Toovey. He should have known since July last year that this was a volcano ready to erupt.

He didn't have the vision or the foresight or the communication with the players to understand Stewart's departure would rip the heart out of the club.

That Stewart was Anthony Watmough's best mate. That it would shatter his brother Brett. That Kieran Foran and Steve Matai would be devastated.

Anthony Watmough injured on Friday. Source: Getty Images

That Toovey should sign the second-rower no matter what and postpone the problem of keeping Daly Cherry-Evans and Foran for another day.

To give you an idea of how tight they all are, Watmough, Glenn Stewart and Brett Stewart were all out together on Saturday night even though they now play for three different clubs.

Manly have not been the same since the day Stewart signed at South Sydney.

The players blamed Cherry-Evans because the majority of them had taken pay cuts themselves over the years and signed for "unders'' to keep the roster together.

Toovey was in charge of recruitment and the senior players haven't forgiven him.

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Now the club is falling apart. Watmough, Stewart and Cherry-Evans have gone. Foran is about to go. They have no grunt in the forwards and now no playmakers.

Jamie Lyon, Matai and Brett Stewart have just a few years left.

Which brings us back to the necessity of a Phillip Ronald Gould five-year plan.

This club is in an almost identical position to the Panthers several years ago.

They have enjoyed many great years — two premierships and four grand finals in the last decade. But right now they are at rock bottom, as silly as it sounds after just one round.

In the last two games, a trial against the Roosters and Friday night's match against Parramatta, they have leaked 78 points.

They need to start from scratch with a new coach and a new roster.

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Like the Panthers did with Ivan Cleary and a host of new players. There will be a backlash from fans because of the removal of a club icon but so be it.

Nathan Brown is available and would be a great acquisition.

He won the Super League grand final with St Helens last season and is rated as one of the shrewdest tacticians in the game.

In fact Mark Gasnier told me recently he is the smartest coach he has played for, a big wrap from a man who played under Wayne Bennett.

Brown was ahead of his time and too close to the players in his first NRL stint at the Dragons.

Now is the right time. He is the man to rebuild a club that, judging by Friday night's performance against Parramatta, will finish 2015 closer to the bottom of the table than the top.

The round two clash between the Rabbitohs and Roosters will be a blockbuster. Picture: Mark Evans Source: News Corp Australia

FUSE LIT FOR CRACKER

WHEN was the last time we had a grand final dress rehearsal in Round 2? South v Easts, ANZ Stadium, Sunday afternoon.

This could be one of the great club games of the modern era judging by what we saw in the opening round. Let's hope we get 60,000 fans to Homebush.

Pearce v Reynolds, Jennings v Walker, George Burgess v Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Inglis v Tuivasa-Sheck. Plus Maguire v Robinson in an intriguing tactical battle between the two best and brightest young coaching minds in the comp.

This will be a colossal game of rugby league.

The ground record for a club game in Sydney is 59,708 when these archrivals played in Round 26, 2013. Let's hope we smash it.

NSW HALFBACK HEAVEN

UNDER normal circumstances the incumbent halfback from a winning State of Origin team would be entitled to retain his No.7 jersey.

Unless your name is Trent Hodkinson and you have two absolutely outstanding halfbacks banging on the selection door for a NSW jersey.

For years the Maroons had all the halfback depth — Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk, Daly Cherry-Evans and Ben Hunt — all of them Kangaroos.

Now it's the Blues turn as South Sydney's Adam Reynolds and the Roosters' Mitchell Pearce apply the blowtorch to Hodkinson.

May the best man win.

HIGHLIGHT

Live Sunday afternoon footy on Channel Nine. All we need now is high definition.

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LOWLIGHT

How do you get sent-off in rugby league these days? The Wests Tigers' Mitchell Moses and Manly's James Hasson were both lucky to stay on the field over the weekend. It's a game that bans the shoulder charge for the safety of players but at the same time allows players to stay on the field after blatant kneeing and headhigh tackles.

HOT TOPIC

A question for the highly paid geniuses at NRL headquarters. Why do the Cowboys get three of their first four games at home in Townsville when the average temperature in March is above 30 degrees?

SPEED IT UP

The thing I love about watching replays of old games on Fox Sports is the speed of the scrums. In the 70s and 80s players ran to pack down straight away. Referees didn't tell them how to bind. No-one stopped for a drink and a chat.

RADIO WARS

The NRL has fallen out with its radio broadcast partner 2GB. Ray Hadley's Continuous Call team has the rights to call the 2pm kick-off games on Sunday afternoons. Without a 2pm kick-off in the early rounds, GB asked for a refund. The NRL said no. So Hadley called yesterday's Panthers v Bulldogs off the television, the game that Triple M had exclusive commercial to call.

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