Manly have been fined by the NRL for salary cap breaches totalling $1.5 million over the past five years, with Chief Operative Officer Neil Bare and former CEO Joe Kelly receiving 12-month bans.

The Sea Eagles will also be forced to play the remainder of this season and the 2019 season with a salary cap of $330,000 less than other clubs, which involved 13 players over a five years period.

Toovey, who was head coach at Brookvale Oval from 2012 to 2015, said he wasn't aware of the cap rorting.

"I didn't know. It was quite well-publicised that I had to let players go," he told NRL.com

"It was a very emotional time for the club with some players being there for their whole careers. With the back-ended contracts that were at the club at the time I couldn't afford with the salary cap to keep them employed.

"The last year of my contract I was on my way out so I had very little to do with recruitment and retention at that stage."

No one from the NRL contacted Toovey as part of the investigation, which he admitted surprised him.

"No one spoke to me at all about the investigation (in) the year or two years that its been going on," he said.

"I have no knowledge of what's hapenned. At the end of the day they've done their job I suppose."