Manly lost DCE after a messy contract negotiation. Could Tommy Turbo be next?

Manly have failed to learn from their mistakes with Daly Cherry-Evans and are now running the risk of watching history repeat itself with Tom Trbojevic.

My colleague Michael Chammas reported on Friday that Trbojevic was set to sign a three-year extension worth about $2.5 million to stay at the Sea Eagles until the end of 2029.

That’s what Trbojevic thought as well.

However, Manly have moved the goalposts and angered one of their favourite sons, who has had enough of the politics from the club’s management.

Trbojevic’s agent met with Manly general manager Peter Gentle during the week. There was an understanding between the two parties that Trbojevic would be given a contract worth about $850,000 to $900,000 a year for three years.

Trbojevic was comfortable with the situation. It just required board approval. At that point, he was ready to knock back interest from UK Super League clubs to stay at Manly because he felt wanted by the Sea Eagles despite his reservations about the club.

You can imagine his disappointment then when the club reached out around the time Chammas’ story went live on Friday to inform Trbojevic’s agent that their offer was close to $100,000 a season less than originally discussed.

Complicating matters is the uncertainty around who made the decision. Did the board demand the salary be reduced or did chief executive Tony Mestrov order Gentle to offer less than originally discussed?

The sad thing for Manly fans is that Trbojevic was more than happy to take a significant pay cut and understood the club’s concerns about offering him more than $1 million a season due to his wretched run with injuries.

The negotiating tactics of Manly’s management early in the season led to Cherry-Evans’ decision to leave the club.

Trbojevic is far more entrenched in the Manly area and football club than the Sea Eagles halfback, but the fact he is ready to walk away from it all speaks volumes about his frustration with the club.

Trbojevic has previously offered to take a $750,000 pay cut to help the club. He also knocked back a guaranteed $30,000 to be the NSW Blues’ 18th man in game one this year to be available for Manly.

This has never been about money. It’s about respect. Manly appear to have a funny way of showing it.

Did Bella the poodle and Pearce save Radley?

Victor Radley can thank Bella the poodle and former Roosters favourite Mitchell Pearce, at least in part, for not being kicked out of the Tricolours.

Radley avoided the axe but will serve a 10-game suspension without pay and donate $30,000 to St Vincent’s Hospital after he was implicated in a Queensland Police investigation that led to former teammate Brandon Smith facing a drug supply charge.

There may be another consequence as well with the Roosters now considering banning mid-season trips, such as the Sunshine Coast adventure Radley and his golf mates went on, altogether.

Radley’s level of contrition and expression of remorse as he tearfully begged the club he loves to allow him to stay played a role in his survival.

However, in the background was a level of lingering anger from the playing group, coaches and officials who regret not standing up to the NRL in 2016 when Pearce was banned for eight games and fined $125,000 for simulating sex with Bella, who is sadly no longer with us. To be clear, nothing at all actually happened to Bella.

The Roosters caved in after an extraordinary level of media outrage, and in the cold light of day they realised they buckled when they could have refused to accept the punishment.

There was a feeling at the Roosters this time that given Radley was not charged by police, they would regret sacking him when he could still deny taking cocaine.

It meant challenging Roosters chairman Nick Politis, but they talked him down when he was ready to fulfil his promise to sack Radley.

But anyone who thinks that Politis has avoided taking the difficult decision should think again. It shows the club is not a dictatorship.

Radley, the former Clovelly Crocodile, shed real tears when explaining his level of sorrow for his alleged text messages with Smith and an alleged drug dealer. When first implicated, he was so distraught that he had to be driven home from Moore Park to his eastern suburbs home by coach Trent Robinson.

While there is a level of sympathy at the Roosters, and an acknowledgement of Radley’s tremendous contribution and love for the red, white and blue, Politis is entitled to take the alleged text messages as a distinct slap in the face. Politis’ strong anti-drug stance was known by all the players.

Earlier this year, Politis said he wanted a zero-tolerance policy at the club when it came to drugs.

“My view is if somebody’s caught doing cocaine or leaning over snorting something, we’re going to get rid of them,” Politis told The Sunday Telegraph. “Our stance is zero tolerance. We are very strong on it. We haven’t had to do that yet [move a player on] but we want to send a message to kids, and to mums and dads, that our club has that sort of stance towards this sort of thing.”

There is a lot to like about what the Roosters chairman is advocating. He doesn’t want his club to be a home for players not completely committed to the cause. And there’s every chance Politis will not only double down on his views, but also look to ban mid-season trips, such as the one Radley and six other players went on.

Politis wants his club to be as professional as possible, but more than that, he wants it to be a place where parents are confident they can send their kids to not only become professional footballers but to live in a healthy working environment and become better people.

It might sound idealistic, but when you see Politis, one of the richest men in Australia, glowing with pride at a dinner at the Roosters junior academy, then you understand why he is the way he is.

Politis has done it all in the business world, but you rarely see him happier than when he is walking into the block of flats at Kingsford that houses the Roosters’ future talent. He will go there with leaders of business and sport, and sit and eat dinner with some of the finest young rugby league talent in Australia.

I’ve watched him wax lyrical about the Roosters and what the club means to him when I was invited to one such dinner with some high-profile businessmen who are Roosters tragics. They shared their experience in the business world and explained their love for the club that Politis runs.

At that dinner were some of the academy players who lived in that nondescript block of flats not far from Matraville Sports High.

Sitting at the table were now first-grader Blake Steep and a young hooker who at that point had not made his NRL debut, Benaiah Ioelu.

He was the leader of the house and took me on a tour of the set-up. As we sat at dinner, I learnt his story, and those of other young players, and you could see Politis’ pride in what the club had created for these young men.

He wants families to be able to leave their kids in the club’s care and not be subjected to outside influences that could sabotage their career. Not all of those players are going to make it, but Politis is determined to provide everything possible to assist on their journey.

The club has just bought another property in Moore Park for $10 million to house more players. That’s why, in part, Politis said what he said when it comes to party drugs. He also did it to have a crack at South Sydney for the way they dealt with Latrell Mitchell’s “white powder” scandal in 2024.

Politis is watching with interest what South Sydney and the NRL do with Brandon Smith when his court case is finalised.

Rugby switch still an itch for Crichton

Roosters and Blues star Angus Crichton has admitted rugby is an itch that he wants to scratch. And a World Cup at home in 2027 appears in to be central to his ambitions.

Crichton has a year to run on his Roosters contract, and with six weeks left until he can negotiate with rival teams, there has been no movement from the Roosters to lock him down.

Crichton has a strong history in rugby, having played for the Australian schoolboys in 2013, and with his size, skill and aggressive approach he would be a handful in the 15-man code.

“I have not played the game for 10 years, so I’d be interested in seeing how I’d stack up,” he said.

Crichton has been on rugby’s radar and was close to leaving the Roosters recently. When they chased David Fifita two years ago, Crichton was going to be squeezed out. The Fifita deal fell through and Crichton had his best season in 2024, winning the Wally Lewis Medal as player of the State of Origin series.

Crichton would be a man in demand with rival NRL clubs also, but he is a big part of the eastern suburbs community. He has a barber shop in the heart of Bondi and is looking at another location in the area to open a second store.

An offer Ennis could refuse

Michael Ennis’ departure from Manly has not been well received by leading players at the Sea Eagles. He was highly regarded within the group, who are mystified by his departure.

Some consider Ennis to be the best coach at the club, which is a bit rough on Anthony Seibold, who has had to navigate his way through some difficult times.

What hasn’t been mentioned about Ennis’ move to the Dragons is the reduction in days he was offered if he wanted to stay at Manly.

The job offer was for one day a week, making it tough to have any meaningful impact. The reduced offer is difficult to fathom, considering he was being sounded out as the man to replace Seibold as head coach whenever he moved on to become general manager.

In the end, Ennis was not ready to bide his time and wait for Seibold, preferring to jump in with his old premiership-winning coach Shane Flanagan at the Dragons.

On the scent of Ponga

Newshounds were sent into a spin with a sighting of Kalyn Ponga in the Moore Park precinct on Wednesday. The conspiracy theorists have long held the view that he will head to Bondi at some stage.

I was told by well-placed sources that he was there to do a promotion for Nike.

There is still uncertainty about Ponga’s long-term future at Newcastle. The noise just won’t go away.

Justin Holbrook will need to put an end to that chatter either way as his first job as head coach.

Gordie’s old-school approach

There will be immense pressure on Willie Peters to work on analysis and video clips when he takes up his role as an assistant to Kevin Walters on the Kangaroo tour. That is because Walters’ other assistant, Gorden Tallis, has confessed to being computer illiterate and having little interest in technology.

Speaking on Triple M, Tallis boasted about being a technical dinosaur, saying he has “never sat in front of a computer”.

In the modern game, assistant coaches are required to pore over footage of rivals and of their own team. They are responsible for dissecting vision of games and training to work on strengths and weaknesses. That clearly will be up to Peters, because Tallis will rely on his ability to inspire and motivate the Kangaroos through his considerable presence.

It’s an old-school approach, but it may just work for the Kangaroos.

Walters’ approach is also heavily based on emotion, so it appears that Peters, and any other team analyst on the trip, will be providing the information that will be needed to pick the Poms apart in the much-anticipated series.

Ramsey sighted at Roosters HQ

Cody Ramsey’s plight has been highlighted in this column, and some NRL clubs are showing interest, even if the Dragons don’t believe he is worth anything more than a train-and-trial contract.

He was seen going into Roosters HQ by media on the lookout for Victor Radley. Nothing is promised for Ramsey, but the fact a club as strong as the Roosters is on the lookout says something about his talent.

The Dragons have offered him the minimum deal, but he wants more.

NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now

Win one of 10 double passes to the 2025 NRL grand final. Click here for details and to enter the competition, exclusive to Sydney Morning Herald subscribers.