Josh Schuster has continued training and shunned an early start to his holidays to be leaner for the start of pre-season as Sea Eagles officials remain no closer to agreeing on whether Des Hasler will coach beyond the end of next year.
Schuster, the gifted playmaker who will finally assume Kieran Foran’s No.6 jersey in 2023, has shown Manly officials how desperate he is to turn the club’s fortunes around by continuing to do conditioning work in the days after the final-round loss to the Bulldogs.
The Samoan international battled injury and fitness issues for the majority of the season, and has already withdrawn from the World Cup in the United Kingdom to prioritise his club commitments.
And so desperate is he to come back leaner next season after a syndesmosis injury started his 2022 campaign on the wrong note, the 21-year-old has already conducted gruelling fitness sessions.
Most players from bottom-eight teams have headed for or planned holidays, overseas or interstate.
Hasler will potentially be pinning his coaching future on how much he can extract from the prodigious Schuster, who was largely used off the bench this year and given only 18 minutes in the defeat to the Dogs.
Manly youngster Josh Schuster.Credit:Getty
Sources familiar with the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Hasler and his manager George Mimis still remain “poles apart” from Sea Eagles owner Scott Penn and new chief executive Tony Mestrov on the issue of a contract extension for 2024.
Management is likely to resist any move from Hasler to have the performance clauses removed from his current deal.
The premiership-winning coach would have automatically been given a 12-month extension if the Sea Eagles had finished in the top six this year, but the club’s season spiralled out of control after the rainbow jersey saga.
They lost their last seven games and plummeted out of the top-eight race.
Mestrov spent Friday consulting Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans and the Trbojevic brothers, Jake and Tom, over the club’s plans after a lengthy meeting with Hasler and Mimis at the North Sydney office of Penn on Thursday.
Penn flew back to New York on Friday after his brief return to Sydney, which coincided with one of the most turbulent weeks in the recent history of the club.
Hasler, one of the most successful coaches of the NRL era, is seeking stability with an additional year on his current deal, while Penn has asked for a clear plan on how the team will improve next year and a succession proposal for the club’s coaching staff and playing personnel.
Cherry-Evans and the Trbojevic brothers have insisted they remain on the same page and desperately want the Sea Eagles to return as a finals force in 2023, but have little room to move in the salary cap with a large chunk of it tied up in the three stars.
Manly have been offered Newcastle No.7 Jake Clifford as another halves option, but are unlikely to take up the option as they seek insurance for Cherry-Evans and Schuster.
Reuben Garrick had been linked with a move the other way to the Knights, but the Sea Eagles maintain they want to keep the winger, who has spent time deputising for Trbojevic in the No.1 jersey while he recovered from a season-ending shoulder injury.
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