NRL: Ill luck again sees Lowe quit Sea Eagles

Graham Lowe has resigned from Manly. Photo / Janna Dixon

Graham Lowe has been close to dying - suffering brain haemorrhages, strokes, heart bypasses and blood clots - but only recently did his health really scare him.

He talks almost dispassionately about it now but Lowe's health is no small matter. He has aggressive coronary artery disease and has had to resign his post as Manly chief executive - something that pained him on a different level.

He was boss of a club he loves and once coached and, more importantly, he was involved in a game that has been his life.

But he had to give it away. He had no choice. Otherwise he might not see his seven-year-old twin boys Jack and Sam grow much older. As he says: "The boys have had a greater effect on me than any footballer has. My goal is to make sure I'm around to see them grow up. That's the most important thing to me.

"When my coronary issue raised its ugly head again, I just knew I was putting too much at risk family-wise, and for myself as well. As the cardiologist over here said to me, and I've known him for 17 years, [giving up the Manly job] is the first time I've shown any common sense."

It's the end of his long association with the game at the highest level. He's done just about everything possible - been coach of various teams including the Kiwis, Queensland (the first and only non-Australian to do it) and Manly; been on various committees; was a part-owner of the Warriors; and a television and newspaper commentator. He saw his Manly position as a way to nicely round out his career, his life in the game.

The club approached him to be their chief executive in October 2009 and he had little hesitation. His health was good at the time and he saw himself in the job until he was 70 (he turns 65 in October).

He immediately set about restoring Manly's battered image after a series of high-profile off-field incidents involving alleged sexual assaults, scuffles and scuttlebutt about discord in the boardroom.

"There was a lot of emotion around a number of things when I started," Lowe says. "I tried to introduce a calmness to it, and I would like to think I have delivered that. I am proud of what I have done. A footy team is like a big family. There are always different things going on at one time but the most important thing is to be calm, honest and forthright. That's what I have tried to do."

Everything was going well, including Manly's healthy position on the table, until things took an ominous turn for Lowe about 10 weeks ago. Despite what he has been through in the past, how serious his health issues had been, this was different. It scared him.

It's meant he effectively stopped work when he announced his decision to step down last month. He is helping out only in a limited way.

He still has a desk at Brookvale and is finalising a couple of sponsorship deals he's been working on for some time but, as he says, he needs to be selfish for a change.

He will stay in Australia for another month before returning to his home in Dairy Flat in July. It will be a vastly different existence to the one he has enjoyed over the past 18 months but his head is already swimming with ideas.

Lowe has already written more than 20 children's books and wants to write more. He's also written a comedy play he's keen to see make it to the stage.

Around it all, of course, will be some involvement with rugby league. He's not sure what, and it might be a return to coaching the local under-8s side or some work in the media, but it's hard to see him being detached from the game.

"What I am is a rugby league person," he says. "I have been involved since five years old and it is absolutely seared into my heart and soul. It doesn't matter what happens, it's always there.

"I'm really looking forward to getting back to Dairy Flat, getting the boys in school and just being involved in the community and a part of the fabric of the game over there."

It doesn't mean he's not leaving Manly without a heavy heart. He's found it less emotional than the first time he resigned, in 1992, when he gave up the coaching job; also for health reasons. But it won't be easy when he walks out of Brookvale for the last time.

"I'm dreading that moment because I have thoroughly enjoyed it here and have some great friends who I've been through a lot with together," he says. "I really enjoy [coach] Des Hasler's company.

His health problems remain but through good management Lowe believes it's controllable.

He's usually taken two approaches to tasks - flat out or not at all - but knows he needs to manage things better than he has in the past.

But Lowe is also working on the premise that, like a cat, he has nine lives, "and I've got a couple left in my pocket".

Graham Lowe intends to take full advantage of it.