2008 team our greatest ever?

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The Wheel

https://membership.seaeagles.com.au/
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Do you agree with Arko, probably the statistics apart from not being minor premiers suggest this is a greatest ever side, even player by player match ups point towards this side as being as good as any other of our great teams but better??  Thoughts?



Storm busters 'best Sea Eagles of all'
By Dean Ritchie
October 07, 2008 MANLY godfather Ken Athurson has declared the Sea Eagles side that obliterated Melbourne in the NRL grand final on Sunday to be the greatest in the club's proud 61-year history.

Sea Eagles players celebrated long and hard on Monday after their history-making 40-0 triumph over the Storm.

To stay out of the public limelight, players hired a penthouse apartment in Manly where they had their food and alcohol delivered.

Club officials, meanwhile, planning a fan day at Brookvale from 3pm on Wednesday after players parade through Manly's famous The Corso.

Manly have now won seven premierships - 1972, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1987, 1995 and 2008 - but Arthurson knows which side is best.

"I always thought that 1972 side was because it was Manly's first premiership and your first love is something you always cling to," Arthurson said.

"But, in my view, there has never been a better side than the current one. No one has ever won a grand final 40-0 against such tremendous opposition.

"Melbourne have, I think, 15 players who have played Tests or Origin. No previous Manly side has done what this side did on Sunday night. (Manly coach) Des Hasler timed their run to perfection."
 
72 for mine, tough, smashed their faces, stood up to grubs and never took a backward step.  Broke the drought and set up the wins for the future.  Interesting we've had a premiership in every decade since.  Over four decades, that might be a record in itself.  I can see a golden period ahead.
 
I've only been able to see 96 and 08.

96 was a better team than 08 imo.....but 08 rose above the champs and knocked them the f*ck out
 
It is hard to compare eras and most of those brilliant sides played in multiple series. The platform is there for a golden era, though it will depend on where the players heads are and how we recover from the end of the Beaver era!
 
**** 1972 ****

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles:
Graham Eadie, Ken Irvine, Ray Branighan, Bob Fulton, Max Brown, Ian Martin, Dennis Ward, Malcolm Reilly, Terry Randall, Allan Thomson, John O'Neill, Freddie Jones (c), Bill Hamilton.
Coach: Ron Willey.

Result:
Manly Sea Eagles - 19 (Jones, Branighan tries; Branighan 6 goals; Fulton field goal) defeated  Eastern Suburbs Roosters - 14 (Ballesty, Mullins tries; McKean 4 goals). Referee: Keith Page

**** 1973 ****

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles:
Graham Eadie, Ken Irvine, Ray Branighan, Bob Fulton, Max Brown, Ian Martin, Johnny Mayes, Malcolm Reilly, Terry Randall, Peter Peters, John O'Neill, Freddie Jones (c), Bill Hamilton.
Replacement: John Bucknall for Malcolm Reilly, injured.
Coach: Ron Willey.

Result:
Manly Sea Eagles - 10 (Fulton 2 tries; Eadie 2 goals) defeated 
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks - 7 (Bourke try; Rogers 2 goals). Referee: Keith Page

**** 1976 ****

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles:
Graham Eadie, Tom Mooney, Russel Gartner, Bob Fulton (c), Rod Jackson, Alan Thompson, Gary Stephens, Ian Martin, Phil Lowe, Steve Norton, Terry Randall, Max Krilich, John Harvey.
Replacements: Gary Thoroughgood for Ian Martin; Mark Willoughby for Phil Lowe.
Coach: Frank Stanton.

Result:
Manly Sea Eagles - 13 (Lowe try; Eadie 5 goals) defeated 
Parramatta Eels - 10 (Porter, Gerard tries; Peard 2 goals). Referee: Gary Cook.

**** 1978 ****

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles:
Graham Eadie, Tom Mooney, Stephen Knight, Russel Gartner, Simon Booth, Alan Thompson, Steve Martin, Ian Martin, Terry Randall, Bruce Walker, John Harvey, Max Krilich (c), Ian Thomson.
Replacements: Ray Branighan for Simon Booth; Wayne Springall for Ian Martin.
Coach: Frank Stanton.

Result:
Manly Sea Eagles - 16 (Gartner 2, Eadie tries; Eadie 3 goals; field goal) defeated 
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks - 0.  Referee: Greg Hartley.

**** 1987 ****

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles:
Dale Shearer, David Ronson, Darrell Williams, Michael O'Connor, Stuart Davis, Cliff Lyons, Des Hasler, Paul Vautin (c), Noel Cleal, Ron Gibbs, Kevin Ward, Mal Cochrane, Phil Daley.
Replacements: Mark Pocock for Noel Cleal; Paul Shaw for head bin (twice for Ron Gibbs).
Coach: Bob Fulton.

Result:
Manly Sea Eagles - 18 (O'Connor, Lyons tries; O'Connor 5 goals) defeated 
Canberra Raiders - 8 (O'Sullivan try; Meninga, Belcher goals).  Referee: Mick Stone.
Clive Churchill Medal Winner: Cliff Lyons.

**** 1996 ****

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles:
Matthew Ridge, Danny Moore, Craig Innes, Terry Hill, John Hopoate, Nik Kosef, Geoff Toovey (c), David Gillespie, Jim Serdaris, Mark Carroll, Steve Menzies, Daniel Gartner, Owen Cunningham.
Interchange: Cliff Lyons, Neil Tierney, Craig Hancock, Des Hasler.
Coach: Bob Fulton.

Result:
Manly Sea Eagles - 20 (Innes, Menzies, Moore tries; Ridge 3, Innes goals) defeated 
St George Dragons - 8 (Zisti try; Bartrim 2 goals).  Referee: David Manson.
Clive Churchill Medal Winner: Geoff Toovey.




I have a soft spot for the '78 side, but I still reckon the '96 side was our best ever.
 
Man, that's a hard choice.

On what it means for the club, it has to be between '72 & '08. The first for Manly & the first for the new Manly.

On talent & ability within their own time, who can say? Each team has it's own merit.

I'm happy to say that this is the greatest achievement for the club within my era of following them. I can't see anything but '72 even coming close to meaning as much for the club, but as I wasn't alive back then, I can't compare.

Maybe '96 had more stars, maybe '87 was more of a revolution in the game. Only time will tell what effect this team has on the club in it's future & the game as a whole.

I hope that Manly & Canberra of '08 are fore-runners of a new era but we just don't know that yet. We all thought that, when the Tigers won in '05. Opposition teams just tried to beat them by not joining them. With any luck, teams will try to beat us at our own game rather than try to stifle it.

This may yet be the greatest Manly team, the ingrediants are there. We just need to see continued success at both club & rep level so when we look back in 10/20 years we say wow, how did we ever get that team out of the ruins that preceeded it?
 
I think 1978 was our best win but what this year means to the club it would have to be right up there with 1972.

You can't compare eras but I am happy to say there is been no better Manly team
 
Interesting to see the difference in the 96 bench to the 08 bench - in 96 we had a winger and two halves on the bench.  Nowadays backs on the bench are almost unheard of. 
 
This one is an absolute beauty and 96 was terrfic, but I would go with the one in '87. The thrashing of the Tiges who were the equal front-runners half way through the season and some of the obstacles faced along with Ward's effort coming from -10 degrees to 35 stand out for me. But Arko does have a point - the quality of opposition faced and the result speak volumes for this year's team.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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