{"id":577124,"date":"2026-03-31T21:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577124\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:45:10","slug":"nrl-news-ugly-accusation-levelled-at-manly-sea-eagles-as-kieran-foran-appointment-sparks-huge-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577124\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news: Ugly accusation levelled at Manly Sea Eagles as Kieran Foran appointment sparks huge debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kieran Foran’s appointment as Manly interim coach<\/a> has been labelled a “PR stunt”, with Sea Eagles bosses coming under fire over the sacking of head coach Anthony Seibold<\/a>. Manly club legend Foran was thrust into the top job for the rest of the season, despite just three games as an assistant coach under his belt, having retired from the NRL<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Critics have questioned whether Foran is ready to take the reins with so little experience, but Manly owner Scott Penn and CEO Jason King insist he’s the right man to lead the struggling club froward. But News Corp league journalist David Riccio took a blowtorch to the decision-making process at Manly on Tuesday night’s episode of NRL 360 on Fox League.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/p>\n

Manly owner Scott Penn (middle) and club bosses have been slammed over the process that has seen rookie coach Kieran Foran thrust into the top job at the Sea Eagles. Pic: Getty<\/p>\n

He said other clubs would have a clear strategy or succession plan in place if they were going to replace a coach. And Riccio says he feels for Foran after claiming the rookie coach is on a hiding to nothing at the embattled Sea Eagles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s absolutely been thrown in the deep end, to the point that I honestly can\u2019t believe the appointment,\u201d Riccio said on NRL 360. \u201cManly fans will jump at me because they love that one of their own is taking control of this football club which is in disarray. I won\u2019t say it\u2019s brain dead, but it\u2019s close enough to it because it lacks strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran journalist Paul Crawley agreed, questioning why Manly didn’t let go of Seibold last year after a season of disappointment both on and off the field. \u201cYou\u2019re right Dave, that they\u2019ve throw (Foran) in the deep end because right now it is probably the right decision for them but it\u2019s the wrong decision because it shows no foresight which has been a problem for ages,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sea Eagles bosses have repeatedly talked about the importance of having someone with “Manly DNA” when discussing who their next head coach might be. Foran ticks that box after playing 196 games for the club and winning a premiership with Manly, but Riccio claims his appointment is more about appeasing disgruntled fans, than any kind of clear strategy.<\/p>\n

\"Pictured<\/p>\n

Kieran Foran has been named interim coach at Manly despite having just three games as an assistant under Anthony Seibold. Pic: AAP\/Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re throwing in a 35-year-old who has been at the football club for less than four months (as an assistant) with limited coaching experience and putting that type of pressure on him to rectify this problem that could\u2019ve been sorted by the pre-season,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to make this clear, I love Kieran Foran. He could be a future coach but it\u2019s a decision made by a management of a team that are completely focused on appeasing fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Manly playing for next week against the Dolphins and that\u2019s it? Because it feels like all they\u2019re worried about is ass-covering for next week\u2019s game and getting a result next week. There\u2019s nothing to do with the vision or a plan here and I say this knowing the likes of the Storm and Panthers plan two and three years in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kieran Foran’s appointment as Manly interim coach has been labelled a “PR stunt”, with Sea Eagles bosses coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[8082,24164,64,63,30088,1119,6086,4484,761,762,158,29378,60859,4523,85],"class_list":["post-577124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-anthony-seibold","tag-assistant-coach","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-david-riccio","tag-football-club","tag-interim-coach","tag-kieran-foran","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-rookie-coach","tag-scott-penn","tag-sea-eagles","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}