Manly Sea Eagles make another mistake by forcing Trent Barrett to stay as coach
THEY were once the league’s glamour club, but a new twist in Trent Barrett’s long goodbye at the Sea Eagles has left Manly’s legends dumbfounded.
Opinion
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LOOKS like Trent Barrett will have to put the desk and outdoor furniture back in the family station wagon and head over to Brookvale again.
And the missus and kids better get the brooms and mops out too.
The Sea Eagles aren’t finished with them yet.
Reports this week that Manly is forcing Barrett to work out his notice until July next year is the latest twist in a saga that exemplifies the sorry state of affairs at the one-time glamour club of the league.
Anyone who doesn’t think that Manly is as big a mess off the field as it so clearly was on the field this season has only to look at the way the club has handled Barrett’s departure.
Hiring an inexperienced coach was a big enough gamble in itself, without compounding the risk factor by hanging him out to dry with substandard facilities and inadequate support staff.
The once-proud Sea Eagles became a laughing stock when Barrett revealed the farcical situation of having to bring furniture from home to give him and the players somewhere to sit, and his wife and kids giving up their own time to clean the gym.
It all sounded almost too bizarre to be true, yet Manly boss Scott Penn never denied Barrett’s claims, other than to allege his coach had not acted “in the spirit of the club”.
Given that, you would think that Penn and the Manly board would want Barrett out of the club as soon as possible so they could get on with the job of putting the whole sorry experience behind them.
If reports that they are holding him until halfway through next year are true the question must be asked, why?
The only possible answer is spite and churlishness. They want to make him suffer and make it impossible for him to pick up a new job before the start of next season.
Regardless of their motives — and even regardless of whether the reports are in fact correct — the situation at Manly is of huge concern to long-time supporters and former greats of the club.
A reunion of ex-Manly players held on the Gold Coast recently was by all reports a joyful and rollicking affair — except when the current state of the club was mentioned.
And no-one was more upset than the man once known as The Godfather of Manly, Ken Arthurson.
“I’m very concerned,” he said. “Of all the people you talk to no-one is more devastated than me. It’s not just what is happening on the field, it’s what is happening behind the scenes.
“People can say the team lost five games by less than seven points, but when you keep losing by small margins there’s always a problem. In those tight situations you have to defend with passion and passion comes from what is happening off the field.”
‘Arko’, the former Manly halfback and coach who was Chief Executive for 20 years said he would be stunned if the current administration held Barrett until the end of his notice period.
“That’s ridiculous. If the bloke wants to go, let him go. I thought it was all done and dusted. The names I heard as replacements were Michael McGuire and John Cartwright.
“Surely you’d just want to put a line through all this stuff and get on with things. I really feel for the supporters. They deserve better.”
Originally published as Manly Sea Eagles make another mistake by forcing Trent Barrett to stay as coach
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