Manly owner and chairman Scott Penn is reluctant to dredge up the past. All he will say when it comes to Trent Barrett and his seemingly imminent move to Canterbury is that he wishes him well.
The wounds are no longer raw, but it would be stretching things to suggest they have fully healed. The Penn family have invested millions into Manly yet they were left open to ridicule during the Barrett fiasco a few years ago.
The only consolation, albeit a rather large one, was that Manly landed on its feet when Des Hasler returned. The sage premiership winner has extracted the best from the players and made the club a success again.
Not once has Hasler complained about furniture or lack thereof. He has got on with the job — and what a job he is doing. The Sea Eagles have come a long way since Barrett walked out.
Hence Penn’s reluctance to speak at length about the club’s former head coach when contacted by Weekend Read.
“It was disappointing at the time but we have moved on,” Penn said. “We ended up with Des and it has worked out brilliantly for us. We wish Trent the best.”
Penn’s willingness to move on is admirable given the way Barrett left the club in the lurch. The Sea Eagles were the victims of a smear campaign and ended up paying Barrett to sit on the sidelines for months thereafter, no doubt rubbing salt into the wounds.
Barrett has been linked with a handful of jobs since. He was thrown up as a candidate at the Bulldogs when Hasler departed three years ago, but then-chairman Ray Dib wanted one of their own and eventually settled on Dean Pay.
Then he was a contender for the Gold Coast Titans job that eventually went to Garth Brennan. Barrett had talks over the position and impressed enough to be considered one of the favourites.
He withdrew at the 11th hour, telling the club he felt it would be unfair to put himself in the mix when Manly was the subject of a salary cap investigation.
There is no suggestion he was involved in any wrongdoing. Rather, the sense is that he got cold feet on the Titans. He has been on the fringes since, most recently at Penrith where he has been lauded for the work he has done with the club’s attack.
His name was thrown up at the Warriors by his manager Wayne Beavis. He leapt the queue at the Bulldogs, Beavis again front and centre. The rumour mill suggests Phil Gould was pushing Barrett’s cause as well.
Beavis’s part in the negotiations highlights one of the anomalies facing the game’s powerbrokers as they wrestle with putting greater restraints around agents.
There is talk that the NRL wants to prevent accredited agents representing both players and coaches. Yet Beavis continues to represent a handful of coaches despite letting his accreditation lapse after the Parramatta salary cap scandal.
Rather than agree to an interview with the NRL, he chose to hand in his accreditation and he hasn’t applied again. Yet he wields as much influence as ever because of the coaches he counts among his clientele.
Barrett’s likely return to the head coaching ranks at the Bulldogs is testimony to that.
Broncos’ bottom line
The Brisbane Broncos will hold their annual general meeting early next week. Questions from shareholders have been flooding in — about Anthony Seibold’s contract, the future of the chief executive and the club’s feelings about a second team in Brisbane.
Most interest will centre around the Broncos’ mid-year financial forecast. In years gone by, it has been a time for Brisbane to spruik their seven-figure profits.
Last year, that figure was $1.3m. The year before it was $3m. The news is expected to be more sobering next week.
The Broncos, like every other club in the game, have suffered immeasurably during the COVID-19 crisis.
Chances are for the first time in a long time, the Broncos won’t announce a half-year profit. Instead, they are staring down the barrel of a loss.
It is a sign of what is to come across the game. If the Broncos can’t make money, who can? Clubs are leaking cash and the losses will be measured in the millions.
The Broncos’ plight, which will be mirrored elsewhere, helps explain why the clubs are driving such a hard bargain in talks with the NRL over funding for next season.
The clubs could be as much as $3m better off in the 2021 season if chief executives have their way.
They are pushing to retain their existing grant but with a series of cost savings to help them survive the COVID-19 crisis.
For starters, they want the NRL to absorb $750,000 that they each used to contribute to a series of funds, including the injury hardship fund and digital levy.
The sinking fund will be gone as well, the clubs arguing that there is no need for an insurance policy when the game is talking about expansion and adding another team in Brisbane.
The biggest savings will come in the salary and football department caps. The salary cap could be cut by as much as 10 per cent through a reduction in squads to 26 players and a 5 per cent cut for the remaining players.
The football department cap could be even more severe — the clubs are proposing a 20 per cent cut that would shave more than $1m off expenditure on football departments.
All up, it means the clubs’ bottom line will be significantly better than this season.
Bellamy’s last hurrah
Craig Bellamy indicated recently that 2021 would be his last year in coaching. The Melbourne Storm is hopeful it has a trump card up its sleeve as it tries to convince Bellamy to press on for at least one more season.
Bellamy will chalk up 20 years as head coach of the Melbourne Storm should he sign a one-year extension and coach the Storm in 2022. It would be a remarkable achievement and the Storm is in no mood to bid adieu to one of the greatest coaches in the game’s history.
The club will sit down with Bellamy in the off-season and try to convince him to sign a new deal. The lure of 20 years at one club may be tempting enough for Bellamy to stay for one more year.
If so, it would fit in ideally with a Storm succession plan given the likes of Newcastle’s Adam O’Brien and Jason Ryles are off contract at the end of 2022.
O’Brien was earmarked to replace Bellamy only to move to the Sydney Roosters and then the Knights. Ryles has more recently taken up the running, although he will spend the next two years working alongside Eddie Jones in England rugby union.
What’s to stop Jones and Ryles joining forces at the Storm when Bellamy calls it a day, maybe with Cameron Smith on staff as well?
“Craig and I have known each other for a long time now and have worked together for almost as long,” Melbourne chief executive Dave Donaghy said.
“It is an exhausting job being an NRL head coach. So I am sure there is a time when all coaches feel like they are reaching an end point. We’re not giving up on Craig extending beyond 2021. It’s been a long and successful partnership between the club and Craig. What will be, will be.”
Top Crow a CEO tip
The race for the Broncos chief executive role is heating up. The latest name linked with the job is Adelaide Crows chief executive Andrew Fagan.
Fagan was the chief executive of the Brumbies for more than eight years before taking a job with the Australian Rugby Union.
Current Brisbane chief executive Paul White will stand down at the end of the season.
Paulo off the charts
Jaxson Paulo was battling away in the Gold Coast Titans system when South Sydney came knocking midway through last season.
Former head of football Shane Richardson and recruitment guru Ben Rogers saw something in the 20-year-old, who was struggling to see his future on the Gold Coast.
The Rabbitohs made their move and they got their reward in the Canterbury Cup finals at the end of last year when Paulo scored a try that Richardson rates as one of the finest individual efforts he has ever seen.
Paulo gets the ball on the wing, burns off one defender and beats another three while at the same time avoiding his own teammates on his way to the tryline.
Right then and there, the Rabbitohs knew they were on to something. Rogers got confirmation when the NRL squad underwent pre-season testing.
Paulo’s numbers were off the charts. He was one of the fittest and fastest in the squad. It was only a matter of time. That time has now arrived.
“These guys don’t get to play reserve grade (because of COVID-19) and jump out of the ground,” Rogers said. “It shows you how hard he has worked.”
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