Manly Sea Eagles

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

Part 1 / Part 2

The origins of the "rugby" game in the Manly area (on the northern side of Sydney Harbour) can be traced back to as early as the 1870s. Manly Rugby Union was initially denied a place in the first Sydney district competition at the start of the 20th century - it being suggested that the area join resources with North Sydney. Manly chose to go alone and eventually was admitted in 1906 to the Sydney competition.

But before the end of their second season, the movement to set-up rugby league in Sydney had gained serious momentum and Manly, as with all the other Sydney district rugby clubs, endured internal agonies as the new "League" was considered.

Influential people within the Manly community, including many who were players and officials involved in the Manly rugby union club, met with the founders of the NSWRL with a view to including a Manly team in the 1908 rugby league competition.

However, the fact that Manly had only just been admitted to the Sydney RU competition, weighed heavily on those involved - would the club be expelled if negotiations continued, and what if the League failed within a season or two? The district was not prepared to risk its relatively new district rugby club and flirtations with rugby league ceased. To be fair though, the area north of the Manly town village was nothing more than farms where it wasn't still scrub - hardly a population base to support a team.

Expansion of the population up "the peninsula" didn't really take hold until the 1920s. The Sydney rugby union competition was run on residential qualification requirements and the Manly club did not possess sufficient player strength to win a premiership title until 1922. Until that time the club was unable to even run any junior competitions in the fledgling district. If there were any young men who wanted to play rugby league from the Manly area they would have to venture to North Sydney to do it - few (if any at all) did.

Amidst the effect of the Great Depression, Rugby League finally came to Manly and the peninsula in 1932 when a Manly and Warringah Junior League was established under the senior district club - North Sydney. The initial A Grade teams were North Curl Curl, Harbord, Manly Juniors (maroon with white V), Brookvale (maroon and gold) and Narrabeen. Use of grounds of reasonable standard was difficult, especially as Manly Council denied the use of Manly Oval. The Council though had no issue with the Manly rugby union club's use of the ground. Meanwhile, Warringah Council with its very limited resources was bending over backwards to assist the new sport and provided the Junior League with an enclosed ground - Brookvale Showground.

The formation of the Manly-Warringah Junior League afforded the area with its first representative team in the NSWRL's Presidents Cup state knockout competition for U'18 players.

Manly's (Manly-Warringah) first match was ironically against North Sydney. It was played as a curtain-raiser to the June 6 Ashes Test match between Australia and Jim Sullivan's touring English Lions.

The crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground presented an intimidating experience for the young men from the peninsula as they prepared in the dressing the room - the SCG crowd was well over 70,000. But, being the "new boys" the crowd got behind Manly as the game got under way, but the experienced Norths team ran out winners 32-6.

The Junior League struggled for player numbers and income, particularly during WW2 when they lost use of their only enclosed (paying) ground when Brookvale Oval was seconded for military operations. The use of Manly Oval by rugby league was still not permitted by the Council. The fledgling Junior clubs relied upon grants from the NSWRL and North Sydney just to see out the 1942 season.

However, the area was starting to provide quality resources to North's stocks with 21 Manly-reared juniors graded in 1943 including Frank Collins, Teddy Rudd, Max Whitehead, Keith Kirkwood, Gus Kellock and union convert Kelly McMahon. Towards the end of WW2 junior numbers and clubs was on a steep rise and the push for District status gained momentum.

Any request to the NSWRL though could only proceed through the North Sydney club - who had no obligation to pass the matter on. However, Norths did not ever really stand in front of Manly's objectives, despite knowing the impact it would have its own success.

Manly had made its first attempt for inclusion in the First Grade competition as far back as April 1937. The hope was that with the impending demise of the Sydney University club, Manly could simply step up into their place. The NSWRL though were not satisfied as to the district's ability to sustain a team and opted to reduce its competition back to a symmetrical eight teams and thus eliminate the bye.

In 1944 Manly again sought entry but were rejected due to the present uncertainty of the war and that Manly Oval wasn't of acceptable standard (let alone the Manly Council's stance). Manly, however, were advised that after the war the matter would be revisited.

The increasing number of Manly juniors in the North Sydney grades was well understood, but the real acknowledgement of Manly's arrival at an acceptable playing standard would only come if they won the Presidents Cup - something they had been unable to do.

Come 1946 though and Manly finally delivered the final proof of their ability - they won the Presidents Cup. The team, which included Freshwater player Roy Bull, won three sudden-death matches to take the title. They beat Western Districts 5-2, then knocked-out Easts 15-11 and faced up to North Sydney in the Final. The game was played as a curtain-raiser to an Ashes Test - this time it was before 65,000 fans who were eagerly awaiting the first post-war Test match which was between Australia and Gus Risman's Lions.

Manly held out North Sydney in a close fought game by 12-8 and the feeling on the peninsula was that they could no longer be denied. On November 4 1946 Manly again sent a deputation to the NSWRL.

Attending with them were officials from North Sydney who were supporting Manly's request. Norths selflessly put forward Manly's bid, even though its inclusion would see them lose a large number of players from all grades with the immediate application of the residential rule. But Norths took the view that the distance many players, officials and supporters were forced to travel to be part of the Bears meant that the expansion of rugby league was suffering.

They believed that Manly's inclusion would provide a far better platform for League to gain a hold over Union in the area. However, while Parramatta Council was assisting with the bid for district club status in its area by allowing open use and developing Cumberland Oval, the Manly Council was still staunchly in the Union camp. Despite increased media and community pressure towards the Council to allow use of Manly Oval, it did not change its stance and Manly's bid proceeded with Brookvale Oval as its home ground.

The NSWRL accepted Manly's application and, along with Parramatta, they were granted admission to the 1947 competition.

North Sydney though suffered more than they anticipated. After having played in the 1943 Grand Final they hit the wall after the exodus of Manly players for 1947.

The Bears lost half of their games in 1947, before spending the next four seasons at the bottom of the ladder.

The exodus of Norths players included Ray Black, Johnny Bliss, Mackie Campbell, Ern Cannon, John Clough, A.J. Collins, Harry Grew, Jim Hall, Len Johnson, Reo Jones, Gus Kellock, A. Kerle, Keith Kirkwood, Harry Luker, Reg Mullens, Kelly McMahon, Basil Seymour, Jim Walsh, Max Whitehead and Gordon Willoughby.

The Manly Sea Eagles began its maiden premiership season completely bereft of funds. As a new club it had to start from scratch relying on donations and the players which qualified by the residential rule. There was no money to buy any players from the bush, and if there had been money, there would have been no time for any Sydney players to qualify (twelve months residence being required to move clubs). Income had to come from spectators attending Brookvale Oval, which was well away from the Manly township.

Manly immediately adopted the maroon and white colours they had used for their Presidents Cup team since its inception. They chose for an emblem the sea eagle - the native bird of prey of the Sydney coastline. The use of emblems on jerseys and as a marketing tool was way in the future, and a number of media writers simply referred to Manly as the "sea gulls". However, while they never raised an objection to being called sea gulls (emphasising how much of a non-issue emblems/marketing names were at the time) the club maintains that it has always officially been the Sea Eagles since their first day.

Manly's first premiership game was against Wests at Brookvale Oval on Saturday April 12, 1947. Max Whitehead, who had first played for Norths in 1942 and was a member of their 1943 Grand Final team, was Manly's first captain. Whitehead was a big barrel-chested second rower who was used by Bonds as the model for their iconic "Chesty Bond" character.

Despite scoring three tries to one, the Magpies beat Manly 15-13 as Wests' Bill Keato kicked six goals on the back of a multitude of scrum penalties awarded by referee Aub Oxford.

By the end of May the club had failed to notch a win from its first six matches. By the time fellow new-starters Parramatta arrived at Brookvale Oval for the round seven game, Manly fans were wondering if they would ever register a win. But it did come as Manly delivered five unconverted tries to dispose of the Eels by 15-7.

The season highlight without any doubt though was the 33-0 smacking of the high-flying Newtown Bluebags at Brookvale Oval. Somehow Manly's coach, the great Ray Stehr, had hatched a plan to bring Newtown down even though they were as a team and individually miles in front of the class of the Sea Eagles. Stehr had Manly continually kicking the ball back to Newtown, even when they won the ball against the feed from scrums, just so his players could keep hitting the Bluebags players.

He also employed a tactic of kicking the ball over the defensive line and behind where the Newtown wingers were, just to keep wearing the team down. The tactic worked as Manly's 18 stone centre Eric Bathgate continually hit into and mauled Newtown's backs, especially their star centre Len Smith. Manly eventually ran over the tired Newtown side by an incredible 33-0.

Though Manly only won four games in 1947, it was one more than Parramatta and that was enough to avoid the wooden spoon.

The following two seasons produced few highlights for the club apart from the selection of local junior Roy Bull in the Australian team for a Test against New Zealand. His selection had wider implications as he was able to convince fellow Test players Kevin Schubert and Wally O'Connell (who had both been playing in Wollongong) to make the move to Manly for the 1950 season.

Manly saw these two players as providing much needed on-field direction (in the shape of five-eighth O'Connell) and value (from the ball-winning skills of hooker Schubert). They also saw O'Connell as a captain-coach who could lead the young Manly players on the field.

However Eastern Suburbs, who had said goodbye to O'Connell before the start of the 1949 season, claimed that his move to Manly was a breach of the residential rule.

The NSWRL upheld Easts appeal despite O'Connell protesting he had done everything properly. O'Connell felt so betrayed by his old club that he refused to go back to Easts and decided to sit out the 1950 season, taking on with Manly the role of non-playing coach.

O'Connell said that even though he felt the Manly officials he had been negotiating with were inexperienced, at least they had been honourable in their dealings - he felt he could not let the young club down.

The result was O'Connell, who had played in the nine previous Australian teams lost his Test spot for the coveted series against Great Britain. His sacrifice immediately turned O'Connell into Manly's first hero.

O'Connell did well with the Manly team and mid-season they were bound for the semi-finals. However, as the pressure grew towards the back end of the season, the absence of O'Connell's on-field presence came to the fore and the inexperienced team fell away. However it did bode well for the 1951 season when O'Connell would be able to take the field.

In 1951 the peninsula rode the back of an inspiring season from O'Connell and his team that included Gordon Willoughby, Kevin Schubert, Roy Bull, Ron Rowles, George Hunter and Ken Arthurson. After a very impressive regular season the Sea Eagles pushed past Wests 37-9 and then St. George 18-8 in back-to-back semi-final wins. After only four seasons Manly were in the Grand Final - it was dizzy days for the club.

Unfortunately the win over St. George came with a price as O'Connell fractured his wrist. He toyed with the idea of playing in the Grand Final but would have required a pain-killing needle to do it - he chose to stand down in favour of "thirteen fit players". But the fatal flaw of the 1950 season returned again as the Sea Eagles lacked direction across the field and floundered in the face of a St. George onslaught - losing 42-14 in a disappointing end to what had been a magnificent season.

Manly History Part 2 >