Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

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Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

Full name	Manly-Warringah Rugby League Club
Nickname(s)	Sea Eagles
Founded	1947
Ground	Brookvale Oval Brookvale, Sydney
Capacity	23,000
CEO	Grant Mayer
Coach	Des Hasler
League	National Rugby League
2006	National Rugby League, 5th

The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles are a team in the National Rugby League (NRL), the premier rugby league football competition in Australia.

Based in Brookvale on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, the Sea Eagles were admitted in 1947 to the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) competition, predecessor of the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the current NRL competition. The club has recently (2005) moved its headquarters to the NSW Institute of Sport, based at Narrabeen.

The club had to wait until 1972 to taste premiership glory, with a 19-14 win over the Roosters but followed it up with three more titles that decade. Since then, the Sea Eagles have been intermittently competitive, winning in 1987 and 1996.

1 Club information
2 Club history
3 2007 Squad
4 Coaches
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Club information

Club Name: Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles (1947- ) Note: Manly-Warringah did not participate as the Sea Eagles in the NRL between 2000 and 2002.

Founded: 1947 (re-entered premiership: 2003) Note: Manly-Warringah did not participate in the premiership between 2000 and 2002, initially forming a joint venture with the North Sydney Bears to play as the Northern Eagles. The joint venture arrangement was officially dissolved in August 2001, but the Manly-Warringah club continued to play as the Northern Eagles until the end of the 2002 season.

Home stadium: Brookvale Oval (1947-1999, 2003-present)

Head coach: Des Hasler (2004-present)

NRL Team Captain: Matt Orford

Uniform colors: Maroon and White

Premiership Titles: 6 - 1972, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1987, 1996

Premiership Runners-up: 9 - 1951, 1957, 1959, 1968, 1970, 1982, 1983, 1995, 1997

Minor Premiership Titles: 9 - 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1983, 1987, 1995, 1996, 1997

[edit] Club history

Manly-Warringah has been perceived as the "Silvertails" of the league since their original entry into the New South Wales Rugby League back in 1947. The silvertails moniker is based on the club's historical wealth and the general economic affluence of the residents of its home territory, the northern beaches of Sydney.

The Sea Eagles have had great success during their history, especially during the 1970s when they won four grand finals. However they had to wait 25 years for a title.

[edit] Bridesmaids

Manly made their first Grand final only four years after entering the premiership but were thrashed by the Rabbitohs 42-14, a then record score. Manly's captain-coach Wally O'Connell missed the game through injury. Twice more they were thrashed in Grand Finals in 1957 and 1959 against the mighty St George Dragons who were in the middle of their 11 title run.

In 1968, Manly finished second during the regular season, a point behind South Sydney, and beat the Rabbitohs 23-15 in the major semi to be the first club to qualify for the Grand Final that year. However they lost a tight game 13-9. Bobby Fulton and Frank Stanton, future heroes of the club in the 1970s, was in the losing side that year.

[edit] Glory years

1971 saw Manly as minor premiers but bowed out of the semis with successive losses to Souths and St George. In 1972, however, they claimed their maiden premiership, beating Easts 19-14. They backed up a year later defeating Cronulla-Sutherland 10-7 in a bruising encounter. The team boasted internationals such as Graham Eadie, Bob Fulton and Max Krilich.

In 1976, Manly defeated Parramatta 13-10 and Cronulla 16-0 in a replay after a drawn Grand final.

[edit] Later years

1987 saw Manly defeat a spirited young Canberra Raiders side who showed signs of their future glory.

Their last grand final success came in 1996 before falling into financial difficulty due to the Super League war. Despite finishing within the criteria established by the NRL for entry into the 2000 competition, Manly-Warringah agreed to form a joint venture with the North Sydney Bears to play as the Northern Eagles. The joint venture arrangement was officially dissolved in August 2001 and in 2003 they re-entered the league as the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. However, the club had returned to Brookvale Oval full time from mid-2002 onwards and for the latter part of the 2002 season were the Northern Eagles in name only. In season 2005, the Sea Eagles qualified for their first play-off appearance since 1998 by finishing eighth in the premiership. This run was continued in 2006 with a strong 5th placed finish, and looks set to continue next year with the signing of Jamie Lyon.

[edit] Privatisation

In 2004, northern beaches property developer and club major sponsor Max Delmege completed a deal with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles which saw him purchase a majority stake in the newly formed "Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles Limited". The Sea Eagles corporation now holds the NRL licence for the team and generally operates the running the of the team in the Telstra Premiership. The remaining shares in the Sea Eagles entity are owned by several supporters of the club (including board member Scott Penn) and the Manly-Warringah Rugby League Football Club Limited. The "Football Club" as this entity is now known, has around 2,000 members. Membership in the Football Club was previously heavily resticted and was difficult to gain except for those closely connected to the Club. Since 2004 membership has been open to the public.

The third entity in the Sea Eagles organisation is the Manly Warringah Rugby League Club which operates the "Manly Warringah Leagues Club" based in Brookvale.

The club also has a few unofficial supporter groups, the newest being www.fortbrookie.com. The rest can be found below.