Hasler defends under-fire Toovey

Des Hasler has jumped to the defence of Manly coach Geoff Toovey and insists his under-fire former assistant is the right man to lead the Sea Eagles.

Toovey’s side was heavily beaten by a rampant Parramatta last Friday with the build-up to the game dominated by the future of halfback Daly Cherry-Evans.

Cherry-Evans’ failure to meet a deadline imposed by Manly chief Joe Kelly to let the club know if he was re-signing or leaving was withdrawn 48 hours before the clash with the Eels.

Toovey was unaware such a deadline existed, leading to speculation his future at the club he’s been associated with since 1988 was on rocky ground.

The 42-12 loss to the Eels was compounded by Cherry-Evans’ announcement after the game that he was leaving for the Gold Coast at the end of 2015 with five-eighth Kieran Foran tipped to follow him out of the door to Parramatta.

With Anthony Watmough and Glenn Stewart also exiting the club under a cloud at the end of last year, questions have been raised about the future of one of the most successful clubs of the modern era.

But Canterbury coach Hasler, who played alongside Toovey in the 1996 grand final, and brought him back to the club as part of his coaching staff in 2004, said nobody’s better qualified to coach the Sea Eagles.

“I feel for every coach who comes under pressure at a stage in their career,” Hasler said.

“Tooves is a man of great integrity. He is a great fella and was a great footballer.

“He always has the best interests of his players at heart and he will handle it.”

The fortunes of Hasler’s former club were the least important thing on his mind on Wednesday after he was slapped with a breach notice by the NRL for commenting on referees after his side lost to Penrith on Sunday.

The 54-year-old was handed a suspended fine of $10,000 for his outburst at Pepper Stadium and said he’s now fully aware of the new guidelines – and would now reference match officials as ‘Voldemorts’.

Lord Voldemorts is a character from the Harry Potter movies who is the leader of the Death Eaters and often referred to in the films as ‘he who cannot be named.’

“It’s about understanding the policy of ‘he whose name you cannot mention’ so let’s call him Voldemorts,” Hasler said.

“Paragraph 31, sub clause two says that comment on means you can’t say anything nice about them, you can’t say anything positive about them, you can’t say anything about the Voldemorts.

“That is what they think is pragmatic and reasonable. If you are an advocate for free speech, then it’s not too good.

“So when it comes to the Voldemorts, I’ll just follow the policy.”

Stay up to date with the latest sports news
Follow our social accounts to get exclusive content and all the latest sporting news!