Despite still having time to go on his contract, the Manly Sea Eagles have already begun re-negotiating with coach Des Hasler, amidst rumours that he is headed to the Panthers, following the sacking of Matthew Elliott.
Due to a get-out clause in Hasler’s contract, the fear from Manly officials, is that Hasler may act on that, hence the clubs keenness to ensure that he remains with the club.
Whilst Hasler is contracted to the end of next year, should he decide to enforce his get-out clause before June 30, then he is free to explore his options in the NRL.
With Manly officials racing to ensure that he does not invoke that clause, they have begun re-negotiations with Hasler, in a deal that will see him as coach of the Sea Eagles for 11 years.
Chairman Scott Penn would rather get all the negotiations sorted, as they are keen on retaining Hasler as their coach for years to come.
“I believe Dessie is pretty entrenched as a Sea Eagles person, but he does have that get-out clause and we do not want to leave things as they be”, Penn said.
“We have started discussions with him about an extension, and the dialogue so far has been pretty positive”.
“We are talking about two years on top of his current deal, which runs until the end of next year. We have significant long-term plans for the club, and we see him as being a big part of that, so we decided at last weeks board meeting that we would get things rolling”.
“We’ve been clear in the past that our normal time-frame for making decisions of this nature 12 months prior to contracts running out, but there has been a lot of talk about the coaching market-place recently, and since we want to retain Dessie, the board believed it was time to initiate something.”
“We would like to have a deal done by June 30, or at least be a long way down the track by then”.