Hasler hits 500 after songs and curtain rod brawls

Joel Gould | July 24, 2025

Few rugby league fans could imagine Des Hasler singing “happy birthday” down a phone to an octogenarian, although visualising him having a ding-dong duel with curtain rods is another matter.

Manly legend Peter Peters has been on the receiving end of both and has paid tribute to Gold Coast coach Hasler as he prepares for his 500th game as an NRL mentor in New Zealand on Saturday.

While doubt hangs over Hasler’s coaching future, there can be no doubting his legacy as a success story and larger-than-life character who has brought pizazz, drama-charged headlines, fun and a unique mystique to his craft.

Hasler is famous for his blow-ups, once ripping a door off its hinges in the Manly sheds, to the bemusement of Manly players. Just last week he gave Titans players a spray and called them out of the showers after they had shown a bad attitude after a dismal 21-20 loss to Wests Tigers. 

Peters, known as “Zorba”, won the 1973 premiership with the Sea Eagles before becoming a successful journalist and broadcaster. He held a plethora of roles at Manly and was by Hasler’s side when he coached the team to the 2008 and 2011 titles.

Few handle Hasler’s personality like Peters. He was the circuit-breaker to bring stability to the Manly scene after a blown gasket. 

“Des needs to be challenged, but unfortunately in today’s game there are too many ‘yes men’ that are desperate to hang on to their jobs,” Peters told AAP.

“His temperament is such that he needs to blow up now and then. Then he is the best coach. 

“I had senior Manly players and members of staff say to me ‘can you have a dead-set blue with Des and get him to let off steam and then we will be right for a few months?’ We would do that regularly. 

“We used to belt each other with curtain rods and have raging arguments where our wives would be telling us to grow up. 

“‘Crusher’ (Manly great and former recruiter Noel Cleal) could do it with him. I could do it with him.

“We just had to do what we could for the team and the club with Des … and it brought us a couple of premierships.”

It is doubtful the last-placed Titans have a character of Peters’ ilk to do likewise.

“I don’t know whether he’s had people around him in recent years to challenge him, but he needs people that know him inside-out and can ride his emotions with him,” Peters said.

“When he gets the right people with him he is a heck of a coach and that’s been proved. He helped rebuild Manly. Admittedly he had Bob Fulton riding shotgun for him, who was another one that could tell him what he needed to do and he would listen.”

Hasler is often misunderstood, but Peters, despite their barneys, insists he’s one of the most decent people you would ever meet who cares about people, his team and staff. 

“I can’t speak highly enough of him as a person and a coach,” Peters said.

“Like all of us, he has got faults, but his pluses are 98 per cent and his minuses are two per cent. 

“I’ll tell you what kind of person he is. Last week was my 80th birthday. I saw his number come up on my phone, the old busker from Penrith. 

“In his busking days he used to get a train from Penrith and bring his guitar and do busking all day at Circular Quay and go back home. Well, the old busker was singing ‘happy birthday’ to me on the other end of the phone.”

Hasler took Manly from nowhere to dual premiership winners with household names such as Brett and Glenn Stewart, Anthony Watmough and Steve Matai, but they were not always such. 

Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans, who won the 2011 title and are still going strong, credit Hasler as their ultimate guide. 

Peters has a story on two-time title winner Matai that “shows how ruthless Des can be” in pursuit of success.

Matai, who became a powerhouse centre, had played under Trevor Gillmeister at Ipswich before signing with Wynnum Manly.

As part of an affiliate deal with Wynnum Manly and Manly, the Sea Eagles would bring down two of their best players to train in the pre-season before going back to Brisbane. 

 “Matai never played one game with Wynnum Manly,” Peters chuckled.

“I picked him up at the airport and we got him housed with a team supporter at Collaroy Plateau and I dropped him off there. My last words to him were, ‘mate, it is a great opportunity for you. The door is ajar, just make sure you go through it’. 

“He said, ‘I will knock it down’. He trained with us for three weeks and Des said, ‘phone Wynnum Manly and tell them they are not getting Matai back’. I said, ‘mate, he is their player’. He said ‘Zorba … now’. 

“So I negotiated with Wynnum Manly and that’s how we got Matai. He stayed and became one of the greatest players we’ve ever had.”

Hasler, who also won two premierships as a player, has become one of the greatest coaches the NRL has had. Asides from his two titles, he also took Canterbury to two grand finals. Will he survive the mooted purge about to unfold at the Titans?

“I don’t know whether he will survive, but his legacy in the game is fantastic,” Peters said.

“He has got too much experience to be lost to the game.”