Defiant Manly coach Anthony Seibold says any notion that one game would define his tenure is “nonsense” ahead of a must-win clash with the Wests Tigers as speculation about his future intensifies.
Seibold also denied that Daly Cherry-Evans would be removed as captain after he made the call to quit the Sea Eagles at the end of the season.
Manly has lost three of its past four games, including a 28-8 trouncing by cellar dwellers Gold Coast last week that fuelled talk that Seibold was coaching for his future against the Tigers.
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But Seibold, while conceding the gap between his team’s best and worst this season was “too wide for my liking”, said any notion that a round 17 clash, which could put Manly on the verge of the top eight with victory, could decide his future was wrong.
“Let’s look at the facts. I came here at the end of 2022, the club had lost seven or eight games in a row,” he said.
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“We won more games in 2023 than we did in 22, we won more games in 2024 than we did in 2023 and this year we’ve played some exceptional footy, but we also played poorly at times, and the gap between our best and our worst has been too wide for my liking.
“So to suggest that one game, you’re a good coach if you win the game, you’re a poor coach if you lose the game, is just for me, that’s nonsense.”
Seibold also refuted suggestions that Cherry-Evans, who doesn’t yet have a new club after opting not to sign a new deal with Manly, would lose the captaincy.
He said a “campfire chat” between the coach, Cherry-Evans and his teammates had made it clear there was no “need to change” and he’d never even thought about it.
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“I don’t make decisions lightly and if you look at a couple of case studies, the last person in Chez’s position to say that he’s not going to stay at a club was Adam Reynolds in 2021 and Souths stayed the course with Adam – he was their skipper, he did a great job and they ended up making the grand final,” Seibold said.
“I don’t see the need to change. Chez is our leader. I’ve said that publicly a number of times, so I’m not sure where that suggestion has come from.”
Seibold praised Cherry-Evans for the way he explained his situation to his teammates.
“I thought Chez explained and summed it up really well,” he said.
“He wanted to give the club plenty of time to find a replacement, which we were able to do – find a really high quality replacement (Jamal Fogarty) because Chez has been the No.7 here for such a long time, 14 and 15 seasons and done a fabulous job.
“And he just wants some time to work out what he wants to do next. I don’t see how there’s anything sinister around that.
“Ultimately, it doesn’t affect how we prepare to play the West Tigers and that’s all my focus is on – how we prepare and play ball tomorrow night.”
