'Not in my nature to say no': Kieran Foran steps up as Manly coach after Anthony Seibold sacked

Manly has unveiled premiership winner Kieran Foran as the club's interim coach after sacking Anthony Seibold.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday morning, chairman Scott Penn announced the 35-year-old will lead the team for the rest of the season and will go from player to coach in the space of six months.

Foran was an assistant to Seibold after he retired at the end of last season with the Gold Coast Titans.

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He won the 2011 premiership with the Sea Eagles and the club is hoping he can inject a different attitude.

"For the last six months in an assistant coach capacity he's brought that attitude to the coaching staff, which is one of the key reasons why we've appointed him as our interim head coach for the rest of the year," Penn said.

"That's one of the key reasons we made the decision as early as we have."

Foran said he was surprised by the phone call from the club last night and felt he wanted to step up and help.

"Late last night, I received a call from Scott and Jason and at the end of the day it's not in my nature to say no. There hasn't been a challenge I haven't walked towards in my career.

"I know there will be plenty of people that would say there's no chance. I'm ready to take control of this team but I believe in myself, and my standards and values and if the club asks me because they think I'm the best person to step into the role, I'm going to take it on."

Foran beat out current assistants Jim Dymock and Brett Kimmorley for the job. Speaking on Fox Sports on Friday night, Foran said there was no indication that Seibold was on his way out.

"I was shocked. It was business as usual for us this morning," he said. "We were in there at 630am with Seibs going through the review of last nights game and preparing for Sunday's training."

The newly appointed Manly interim was asked if he was ready to coach NRL.

"I don't know if you're ever ready for anything to be honest. I played 318 NRL games and at the end of the day I walked into a final at the end of my Test career and didn't know which way it was going to go.

"I love this club and I've been asked to step into the interim coach role and that's what I'm going to do.

"I was shocked. My first response was 'are you sure, are you comfortable with the decision?' and the words from Scott and Jason were 'yes we are'. I'm extremely grateful."

Manly CEO Jason King said Foran is "the right person for the job."

"In terms of a longer plan, it's early days. We're focused on supporting Kieran as best as we can then think about an appropriate process to go through to think more broadly beyond 2026."

Penn said axing Seibold was a difficult decision but felt it needed to be made after certain objectives weren't met, following the end of season review last year.

The Manly chairman said the late drop off in games was brought up in that meeting and felt there wasn't improvement on that to start the season.

After giving up a 14-0 lead in round one, followed by a terrible performance against the Knights and then falling away late against the Roosters, the club felt compelled to act.

"The back half of last year didn't meet our expectations and we capitulated in a few games," he said.

"We did have a number of injuries but we also had solid leads but didn't finish them off. We knew we needed to turn it around this year so during the review process last year, we said we thought there was more potential in the team but we didn't see that progression in 2026.

"We lost three games at home for first time in 20 years and we're not happy about that.

"It doesn't meet our standards. We need to win now and get back on the park and get everyone's head in the right space. We think Kieran is the best man to do that."