Round 21: Roast’s Rant: Manly and their (unwanted) likeability

Since their first premiership win in 1972, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles have won the most premierships of any top-level rugby league club in Australia (alive or merged). For most of this time, Manly represented a particularly objectionable target for opposition players and supporters alike.

This view still continues today in many circles, however a closer inspection of today’s Manly reveals a vastly different club and team; one with many common elements to more broadly popular teams. This subtle likeability comes despite Manly’s continued and increasingly vocal (and not very successful) attempts to bolster their old ‘hated’ image.

Manly’s success in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s was broadly built upon a foundation of wealth. Long before Roy Masters’ labelling of them as the Silvertails, Manly had acquired a reputation as a team willing to buy key inputs for success, rather than the more traditional method of developing these resources based on local talent. Manly’s popularity (or lack thereof) was not helped by the fact that many of these newly acquired players came from well-regarded but poor clubs.

Another element of Manly’s success during these decades was dubious tactics and/or accusations of bias from officialdom. In the late 1970s, Manly benefited substantially when being refereed by Greg ‘Hollywood’ Hartley, much to the chagrin of opposition coaches. In the mid 1990s, Manly’s status as the ARL darlings during the organising body’s battles with News Ltd. saw any favourable official’s call often interpreted as bias, especially from those soon-to-be Super League clubs.

However, it was dubious on-field tactics which continued to stoke the fires of hate from opposition supporters towards Manly. A common element here was Manly star player then Coach Bob Fulton. Fulton was one of the great talents in his playing days, but these talents extended to gaining advantages in less legal ways. Not surprisingly, his teams of the late 80s and mid 90s were full of players well versed in these cunning arts, such as Matthew Ridge pioneering the sliding-feet challenge on the potential try-scorer and Steve Menzies diving at the knees of kickers in his early years.

One of the great joys of rugby league in the late 1990s was watching Manly slide towards oblivion, with Fulton unable to arrange a dignified exit. Most of his leading players from the halcyon days of the mid 1990s had moved on, but some stayed, due to loyalty (Menzies), being eligible for the pension (Cliff Lyons) but also those for whom massive unpopularity/grubbiness would impact on their ability to find other employment (Hill, Hopoate, Field, Serdaris etc.)

Ultimately, Manly survived into the new millennium but only because another team was deteriorating faster than they were – North Sydney. Were it not for a major La Niña event in 1998 (with heavy rainfall continuing into 1999), as well as some bad luck in major games a few years prior to this, North Sydney would likely have completed their move to the Central Coast and secured their place in the NRL on their own. Instead, the northern Sydney rivals formed an unsteady alliance to share the 16th spot in the new competition; a spot which didn’t sit well with each traditional supporter base.

Not even four-plus years of mostly sorry, rarely entertaining rugby league from Manly or their merged entity could make people feel sorry for them. The seeds for the ‘new Manly’ were sewn after Norths became insolvent, could no longer participate in the merger and private ownership saved Manly from extinction. This new environment allowed a combination of new talent, a popular acquisition and a much more amenable attitude to emerge.

Despite their return as a sole club, Manly came very close to folding in 2003 before Max Delmege’s involvement saved the club from extinction. Over the next year and a half, Manly was not successful in terms of finishing in the NRL’s top 8, but their young talent (locals such as Watmough, smart buys such as Monaghan and transplanted juniors such as the Stewart brothers) saw them emerge on the NRL radar.

This improvement was enough to attract one of the better players in the NRL, Ben Kennedy, to sign with Manly from the 2005 season. Kennedy thrived away from the second-rate Newcastle club infrastructure and instantly became Manly’s leader. His combination with another of the NRL’s more popular players in Steve Menzies played a big role in the improved standing of Manly during this time. This standing took a few steps back when Terry Hill played one final season at Manly in 2005, but his retirement saw this process continue.

Some thought Manly’s ‘Silvertail’ status was returning when Matt Awful signed with the club for a four-year, far-too-many dollar contract from 2006, but as Manly continued to win and move higher up the ladder, this success did not translate into much profit for Delmege or new co-owner Scott Penn. As a result, there has been little to no talk of salary cap rorting at Manly.

2007 saw Jamie Lyon return to the NRL after several years in England, where he went in 2005 in order to avoid playing for Brian Smith. While some Parramatta supporters showed their disgust at Lyon, most understood his motives. After Ben Kennedy retired at the end of 2006, the emergence of Glenn Stewart to take over from Kennedy helped Lyon’s game flourish. Stewart’s rarely-seen ball-playing skills made Manly more entertaining and a better team at the same time.

During this time, Manly – coached by former premiership winner Des Hasler – had developed a relentless, physical style of play, but a style of play without excessive rough stuff or Melbourne Storm-like constant bending of the rules. Also, it became obvious in this time that Manly was a very tight-knit and loyal team. When they thrashed Melbourne 40-0 in the 2008 grand final, neutrals, almost as one, hailed Manly’s win with the sentiment that “I hate Melbourne, about time someone thrashed them”, but few admitted to themselves that this was no longer the club they grew up hating with such a passion.

Over the last few years, events have further confirmed Manly as a much more likeable team than they once were. As has happened with every team he has ever played for, Matt Awful’s departure from Manly saw him replaced by someone far more capable and attractive to watch. However, the main new player for Manly in this time is Kieran Foran, an exciting combination of toughness, guile and savvy at the five-eighth position. Surely the only supporters to dislike Foran are old Norths supporters, for two reasons: 1. he plays for Manly and 2. Foran would have been a Norths junior.

While the ‘new’ Manly has not lost any support from their traditional constituents on the northern beaches, the Manly powers-that-be are clearly conscious that this more likeable Manly team has not made much impact elsewhere. Hence, there have been an increasing number of attempts to make Manly more hateable. These usually involve some sort of variant on ‘everyone’s against us’ or ‘Brett Stewart is still being treated unfairly’, but these are gaining less traction each time they are trotted out now, especially with Manly’s 2011 resurgence, partly built on the emergence of up-and-coming talent (very difficult to hate).

With that said however, it was quite satisfying to watch the Wests Tigers defeat Manly on Friday night. They stayed in the game despite a strong Manly performance then put on three tries in 10 minutes to take a lead they would not relinquish. The other Friday night game saw Brisbane easily dispatch Cronulla.

On Saturday, the Roosters and Bulldogs exchanged the lead (and attempts to throw the game away) on several occasions. Amazingly, the Roosters took the match-winning lead after two Jason Ryles mistakes instead benefited the home team via incorrect refereeing decisions. The other game saw the Cowbores defeat Penrith, who couldn’t keep up after losing Lewis and Jennings to injury.

On Sunday, the Warriors accounted for Canberra, who couldn’t back up from their grand final win. Next up, Newcastle ended an 11-game streak of scoring less than 20 points spectacularly by exploding for the NRL’s first 50-point effort in 2011, despite a tight first half against the Gold Coast. Finally, the Dragons got off to their third incredibly fast start in three weeks but, for the second straight week, gave up this lead as the hot-and-cold Souths finished with the amazing comeback win.

Finally on Monday night, it looked like Melbourne’s run of wins had come to an end against a deserving Parramatta line-up. But then Melbourne tried for 10 minutes and Parramatta’s 18-point lead had disappeared. Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy was very happy, but now has to wonder how he’ll manufacture their usual end-of-season soft patch before the finals. For Parramatta, they deserve far better than second last on the ladder, but they might struggle to discard this position before the end of the season.

See you next week.