Why Mick Ennis is quitting Manly; Willie Peters out of Newcastle race

2 weeks ago 3

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The man sounded out by Manly to succeed Anthony Seibold as head coach will depart the Sea Eagles after Friday night.

Manly CEO Tony Mestrov approached Mick Ennis at the end of last year to gauge his appetite to take over at the end of 2027 after Seibold flagged a desire to move into a management role.

But sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly confirmed Ennis will pass on a 12-month extension on the table at Manly and explore his options elsewhere.

Ennis, who worked as an assistant and in specialist roles with Canberra, Cronulla and Parramatta before he settled into a part-time role on the Northern Beaches, feels he is ready to take on a job that offers greater responsibility.

St George Illawarra need a coaching replacement for Ryan Carr, who will head to the Super League to take charge at Castleford, and have already been linked to Ennis.

The premiership-winning former hooker has aspirations to become an NRL head coach, and knows he will first need to quit his media commitments with Fox Sports. As it stands, the flexibility of part-time coaching allows him to remain in his role in front of the camera.

Michael Ennis is departing Manly, despite being sounded out to succeed Anthony Seibold.

There will be several openings across the NRL in the coming weeks. North Queensland are expected to advertise for new assistants to Todd Payten, while Cronulla and Penrith have openings with Josh Hannay and Ben Gardiner departing to begin jobs with the Gold Coast Titans and Perth Bears respectively.

Meanwhile, it’s expected Willie Peters will not entertain a move to the Newcastle Knights so he can focus on Hull KR and the Super League.

Peters has been touted as contender to replace Adam O’Brien as head coach, along with Blake Green, Justin Holbrook and Dean Young. Newcastle asked Peters to apply but the 46-year-old is happy to bide his time and keep developing his skills.

Though he spent time in the Hunter as an assistant coach between 2020-22, Peters does not want NRL speculation to disrupt his efforts in England. He has made some tough calls at the club in terms of the roster and now has them fying high on top of the Super League ladder.

Meanwhile, still on Manly, Seibold confirmed Joey Walsh would debut off the bench on Friday and spend time in the halves with Daly Cherry-Evans whose No.7 jersey he will one day own.

“I feel like Joey has been our best player in second grade, he’s only 19, and I wanted to give him an opportunity to play the back end of the game in the halves with ‘Chez’; it’s a good reward for him, and gets him keen for pre-season,” Seibold said.

“He started the year eligible for SG Ball, and he’ll finish the year playing 10 to 15 minutes in first grade.”

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