T'was sad to see Gibbs suffering from that spate of injuries which virtually ended his short but stunning career. I recall them letting Martin go because of how good Gibbs was, despite Martin's outstanding efforts, but then Gibbs was virtually finished by then and Manly lost out both ways. He lasted until 1981 but was a shadow of the player he was in 1978 and before and spent a lot of time on the side-line through injury. For a time he even surpassed Steve Mortimer, in skill and explosive attack, and I had high regard for Mortimer's talents.
But I was awed by the never say die attitude of that grand final team that looked exhausted even before they took the field and still won easily. What a team
Eadie (toured)
Mooney
Gartner
Knight
Booth
Thompson (toured)
Martin (toured)
Randall
Walker (toured)
Harvey
Krillich (toured)
Thompson (toured)
Seven Manly players ( including Gibbs who missed the grand final) toured that year in the Frank Stanton coached Kangaroos, which also included Fulton (then playing for Easts) and Boustead, Boyd and Schubert, who later played for Manly. Cant recall but I think a couple of other Manly players werent considered through injury such as Randall and Harvey
