James Hooper on Seibold sacking

Rugby League Insider's James Hooper and Brandon Savage sat down on Saturday for an emergency podcast to discuss the sacking of Manly coach Anthony Seibold.

Hoops kicked off saying he feels the seeds of Seibold's undoing were planted as far back as June last year when the coach instigated a mid-season review that went down badly within the playing group. "A lot of the players got the shits," Hooper said. "It was predominantly criticisms of the players, what they were doing wrong... [he] didn't have any solutions, wasn't offering constructive criticism as such... It went down like the proverbial lead balloon."

Co-host Brandon was equally unimpressed with the optics of the exercise. "It just made it look like he was trying to do something about it and nothing really came of it," he said. "I remember that Tigers game late in the season - they were up by 20 points and the Tigers chased him down."

The friction only grew from there. Hooper revealed that senior players, including captain Jake Trbojevic, openly clashed with Seibold over his game plan - specifically his preference for shifting the ball wide rather than going through the middle. "Jake fronted Seibold and said, 'Mate, I don't like this game plan, I don't think it works. We want to go back to playing a more traditional and simplistic style of game.' Those two have had an extremely strained relationship ever since."

Things were complicated further when Seibold stripped Trbojevic of the captaincy over the summer and handed it to Tom Trbojevic - a decision that, according to Hooper, landed poorly given the tension that already existed within the group.

The real turning point, Hooper believes, was the departure of CEO Tony Mestrov, who had been Seibold's key ally inside the club. When Jason King was appointed in his place, the dynamic shifted completely. "Once Mestrov was moved on, that meant that Seibold's security blanket and his protection racket was over. That meant he was exposed." King, Hooper says, wasted no time doing his homework. "He's very quietly and under the radar gone about his due diligence. He's clearly been speaking to the players a hell of a lot, and I think they've had a loud voice in Anthony Seibold ultimately being sacked."

Seibold's camp has since pointed to budget cuts and reduced resources as a contributing factor, but Hooper isn't buying it. "The suggestion that Manly aren't spending all of their salary cap - horseshit. I can't buy into that." The broader criticism, Hooper says, was that Seibold was viewed around the game as a coach who could analyse brilliantly but struggled to translate that into results on the field. "I think where he really started to lose the Manly playing group was the fact that at times he ran into similar criticism at Brisbane. He's viewed as a bit of a PowerPoint presentation coach."

On the appointment of Kieran Foran as interim coach, Hooper was enthusiastic. "Kieran Foran was a gun player, a brilliant analyst of the game, and understands what it means to wear the Manly jumper better than most. If there's a bloke who can come in and very quickly galvanise a reaction out of a pretty broken playing group, I want Kieran Foran in my corner." Brandon agreed the timing of the move was deliberate. "I feel like they bought themselves nearly two years by doing it this way, doing it early enough that they can put all their ducks in a row this year and then they've got next year as leeway as well," he said.

As for who eventually gets the full-time role, Hooper expects a push from the Manly old boys for Broncos defensive assistant Matt Ballin, while Brad Arthur is also expected to put his hand up.

For now, all eyes are on Foran - and whether he can steady a club that has been anything but steady for some time.