CEO

[Jerry1]

On 25 November 2009, Lowe was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Manly Sea Eagles.

Graham Lowe is a New Zealand former rugby league football coach and current CEO of the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. He previously coached in Australia and England. He coached in the NSWRL, the premier Australian competition that has since evolved into the National Rugby League.

Lowe was coach of Otahuhu during the 1970s. He has also had experience coaching in the Brisbane club competition (now the Queensland Cup) in the 1970s with Norths, and in Britain with the Wigan RLFC. He coached the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles between 1990 and 1992, and also the Queensland State of Origin team in 1991 and 1992, becoming the first non-Australian to coach in the rugby league showpiece.

Lowe was also coach of the New Zealand and Western Samoan test teams.

In 1996, Lowe coached the North Queensland Cowboys on a one-year contract before stepping aside for Tim Sheens.

In the late 1990's he was a part owner of the Auckland Warriors. In 2008 he coached the Bay of Plenty Stags in the National Provincial Competition.[1]

On 25 November 2009, Lowe was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Manly Sea Eagles.

Since then has done very little as far as I'm concerned. I don't expect he'd be getting a performance bonus.  

I'm hoping for some big announcements & soon.

 

[The Wheel]

Dont hold your breath

 

[Ryan]

 

[WAMF]

haha. very good mate.

Seriously, I will say this here and now. Lowe's appointment was a bad joke that has back fired.
Why has it back fired? Well, let's just say we are now 12 months behind where we would have been had the owners of the club invested in a 'career CEO' not a bloody jack of all trades that knows the streets of Auckland through his time as a cab driver.

The money that's been saved on Lowe's appointment could have been returned to club 10 fold via new sponsor and the proven ability to deal with the top end out town.
Massive fail.

No announcements of any significance. A home ground that is rotting in front of our eyes and all we can do is look at taking games to NZ and PNG.
Can't even confirm that Foran will be with us next year?
Has Matai signed yet or is this another of those 'verbal agreements'?

Please don't give the 'not all of that is his job' line.
The buck stops with the CEO.

 

[ayjay007]

WAAMMMF....you know that you can't say anything bad about the great management we've had all year.

 

[Jatz Crackers]

PorkChopsville.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

We've heard bugger all from you know who, so he has achieved something vital.

 

[The Eagle]

I think the guy is an absolute cock,2 bluetongue games a year,havent lost at that location,why move until we lose one of those home/away games?

 

[Wolfpack]

I think the guy is an absolute cock,2 bluetongue games a year,havent lost at that location,why move until we lose one of those home/away games?

Well, for more money of course.

Bluetounge is a hole as well, I'll be stoked if they find somewhere else to take our 2 'home' games in the future.

 

[Chip and Chase]

PorkChopsville.

Best seen in the rear view mirror.

 

[Manly To Win!]

I think the thing that annoys me the most is that they STILL have that huge 2009 team poster on the top wall of the Leagues Club. How lazy is that?

 

[vidmar]

And the point of this post is...and you are hoping to achieve what?

 

[yazman78]

Signing decisions are made by Des, CEO only needs to see where money is coming from and is available to sign a player. Zorba has gone on record to say that along with young players, Des always wants security of experiences players in the team. Unfortunately with some our players and not many third party deals, we can't keep them all. So it's up to Manly fans who are in the corporate business to come out and support the club by offering third party deals to these players which don't fall under the cap to keep them. So if BEaver wants to come back, someone could approach the club and say they will pay say $150k for Beaver and that won't fall under the cap. From our current team, big money players are:

Snake
Lyon
Wolfman
Matai
Kite
King
Whatmough
Stewart

The above 8 would take out more than half of the cap. Des made a decision to resign Choc, Lyon, Stewart and Stewart to long term contracts as he views them as the backbone of the club, therefore not much money for others.

At the end of the day, professional teams are like a business, and you make the decision unfortunately sometimes on money and not emotions. If more fans turn out to Brookvale each week, the club gets more money in their coffers, otherwise they will always look to play 2 games away each season as they get an incentive to take the game away, and also much bigger crowds. Remember the club has come out of near extinction and is still in the red with historical losses.

So my whole point is that the CEO is not to blame for everything. You need to consider the whole situation of the club.

 

[COMMANDER]

We are a club on the bones of our arse.  Along with Cronulla, we are the Pov's of the competition; reliant on the continued support of two wealthy benefactors who could pull the pin at any stage and playing at the worst ground in the NRL.

Forget about player signings, what has Lowe done in his first year to improve the financial position of the club.

I'm with you WAMF, the Club would have been better appointing a CEO with some business nouse instead of a journeyman.

 

[susan]

I will admit Joe Cross is a good friend of mine but compare our years under him as CEO and chairman re his general business acumen,contacts and his ability to keep the delmege/ penn and vautin/fulton fueds under control.

I dont know a lot about the present situation but i agree from afar it looks like a bit of an old school "mates" appointment by delmege.I would have much preferred a more executive oriented appointment and I think it is being reflected in the state of the club.one of the trouble with the NRL is that there are plenty of these old school types like lowe and parr running clubs and the game.having said that blaming lowe totally for our current woes is a bit of a stretch.

by the way my mail is Parr is gone in next two weeks and rightly so.

 

[Ryan]

We've heard bugger all from you know who, so he has achieved something vital.

Seriously, that should be the sole basis of hiring a CEO, regardless of what company it is? With all due respect, I don't think so mate.

Hopefully we win this weekend and reach the finals, because a report card of:-

+ Potentially missing the finals for the first time in years;
+ Losing major sponsor (plus some lower tier sponsors);
+ NYC maybe missing the finals for the first time in years;
+ Players the club wants to keep, leaving (different to the past);
+ I worry about membership numbers for next year;
+ More talk about moving elsewhere (permanently AND ad-hock);
+ No Brookie improvement on the radar;

is not so attractive for a 1st year CEO.

And to Vidmar. It's all about awareness is the reason Jerry1 & WAMF raise their issues. To sanitise their concerns because of your opinion, rather than showing empathy to a customer with their very OWN opinion that may vary to yours, is very elitist.

I mean this with the utmost respect, because I like you, and always love your contribution, theories, positive outlook & demeanour, but since you have become part of the decision making, your posts have vastly changed, and your posts have become somewhat preachy (almost in a looking down type manner). Hopefully that doesn't offend, but that's just the way it feels at times (to me anyways).

Everybody knows my thoughts on the subject, because I raised these issues (or suggested they may happen) prior to his acquisition. At a time the club needed innovation, energy, effort, pro-activity, sales ability, we ended up taking a so called "people person" to sought out back office dramas....and that's not a healthy decision. Surely someone could have been selected that had ALL of those traits.

I'm yet to see any other Manly CEO in history have such negative feedback. Surely, as someone who had input into the decision to hire him, you have a small aspect od concern with that.

Additionally, these people are not whingeing about the ceo. They are just wanting something better for Manly, which tells me they are great fans, with Manly's heart the concern.

 

[WAMF]

Actually, the Cowboys have demoted Parr to 'team manager'.

Vid, the 'point' of this thread is Manly are not an amateur club but we have an amateur CEO at the helm.
We were asked to give the guy a go. I think we have now well and truly done that.
He can be judged by members and fans only by what they can see has been achieved, or not achieved.

Our membership figures almost warrant us being kicked out of the competition on the basis that we lack the required support from the community to run a successful NRL side.

And what of the hovel of a ground that we call home?  

One thing I don't blame Lowe for, was his appointment as CEO.
That was clearly a short sighted move by the owners, scarily, both of them CEO's in their own right!
What really baffles me is the owners very recently saw what can be achieved on and off the field when you have an established, career minded CEO at the helm. Lowe's appointment was given the green light simply to minimise their losses by paying a lesser salary then previously for the same position. Why would they change what was a successful formula?

 

[clontaago]

Hey Ryan i thought you had mail on Matai leaving for sure, what happened there?

 

[ayjay007]

I think that we are going to suffer with lower membership numbers next year,either directly or indirectly,by things that have happened,or are a perceived to have happened,under Lowe's 1st year as CEO.Uncertainty about signings,poor onfield performance,troubles at MWSE.com,possibility of "home/away" games going interstate or even OS-these plus other things,are all going to possibly impact in a negative way.Who's going to buy a gold/silver m'ship,when they can't get to "wherever" to watch the 2 games?

 

[Ryan]

Hey Ryan i thought you had mail on Matai leaving for sure, what happened there?

Doug, I know the two posts you are referring to, and here is a cut and paste of such:-

1. "As I mentioned earlier - Hodko - officially gone, Matai more than likely gone, Perry definitely gone, and more to follow....watch this space..."

Other I meant was Tasi...and again, this was out prior to threse things happening. Remember - you rubbished my suggestions then as well.

2.  "the Matai being linked elsewhere through his manager, and the other guys that I have said are going, are actually going"

Remembering that I suggested the Matai thing PRIOR to him being linked elsewhere.

There was no "leaving for sure" as you have clearly stated. What are you trying to suggest here?

I know you have a soft (or hard) spot for Lowey mate. Look - I'm in a filthy, filthy mood, so I just won't post for a few days. I shouldn't take my anger out on you guys Apologies peeps.