From the vault

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Matabele

Journey Man
I thought I'd post up Part One of the officials Silvertails history because I'm a large part of the way through the second. ;)

Just to set the stage ..........

AE – The definitive history:
Genesis


In the beginning there was one eyed eagle (OEE), and one eyed eagle was THE unofficial Manly web-site.

In the mists of time, approximately January 2004, a time when Manly were a spent force and at risk of their first ever wooden spoon, one eyed eagle was stumbled upon by a number of very unlikely characters, held by one common bond – a love for Manly.

Member number 2031 was a vociferous fellow – not that you’d know from his opening foray on the OEE message board. He began a thread entitled “Sam Harris Centre Stage” spruiking the merits of Sam Harris playing in Manly’s backline in 2004. He was soundly rubbished – and rightly so!

This would prove to be the first of many savage attacks on member 2031 who quickly gained notoriety as “Matabele”. The first “war” was one of the most savage and has gone down in the annals of history as practically the “Big Bang” for the creation of the Alternate Eagles.

Soon after Matabele’s arrival several other characters skulked on the scene. Led by the viciously acerbic las vegas, this band of brothers arrived to raise merry hell at Matabele’s expense.

Vegas fired up and was soon joined by the equally vicious Llama and Billy Goat. Over a fortnight these three pranksters launched attack after attack on the African primate Matabele whilst a bemused crowd looked on agog. For the first time the pristine ranks of OEE saw the full possibilities of snide attacks, sarcasm and wit with both sides giving as good as they received.

The ruse was finally up when OEE’s owner determined that the three Billy Goats gruff were posting from the same location and were therefore one and the same. He was wrong – the three were two, but the fires of battle had already cleared and had forged a friendship, with Matabele and vegas conversing about Manly’s fortunes by e-mail on a daily basis.

Llama was resurrected as “sue ridgepipe” the female nomenclature fooling many into believing a knowledgeable female had joined the ranks. Such was her inside knowledge that there were even some that thought this might indeed be Sarah O’Hare whiling her pregnant days away entertaining the masses. Another AE legend was forging their mark.

At around this time Matabele ventured over to the wastelands of the official Manly forum, then known as Mighty Eagles. During his journeys he ventured across a number of amazing characters, not the least being “Pepsi” and “The Wheel”. So similar was the thinking of the three that Matabele assumed that this must be vegas and sue in drag.

It was not the case. Soon Pepsi, Wheel and Matabele began to speak of themselves as “the back row” trio with each taking on the persona of the legendary Manly back row of the 1990s. Matabele took up Kosef because he had a dicky knee, Wheel was Gartner because he was quick between the ears and Pepsi was Beaver because he specialised in that sort of thing – especially if it happened to be young.

Soon the trio had joined forces at OEE and another character entered the fray. This character is what every group of loudmouth braggarts needs. The whipping boy. In this case it was “the viking” otherwise known as Haig Keysaryan. He of the long and strange name purported to be a journalist of some merit – this was something debated at length, and openly on the message boards, by the growing group of Manly malcontents.

Haig had the unique ability of “making soufflé and cream out of a faeces sandwich”. That is to say he always managed to put a positive spin upon Manly’s on-field performance, regardless of the fact that they were then in the midst of a seven game losing streak.

Poor old Haig began to resemble one of those fair ground games where sharks stick their head out of a hole to be bashed on the melon by snotty pre-teens. However, in this case Haig would find that whenever he ventured his head above the parapet it was roundly smashed by a horde of protagonists with hammers, with sue ridgepipe leading the fray.

The most notable example of these battles occurred when Vegas broke the news that Michael Monaghan had broken his hand and would be out of action for several week. Vegas had managed to scoop every other news organisation by nearly 24 hours yet, for his methodical pains, found out that his unfortunate destiny was to be flayed alive for “gossip”. A thread of more than 100 posts erupted as Vegas and cohorts went into the fray against some of the OEE old guard, championed by Haig.

The correction of Haig towards healthy realism took its toll with at least vegas, sue ridgepipe and Matabele banned for differing periods from OEE. Soon they were joined on the banned list by another fiery character then posting as s_u, soon to be known as Flipper and now known as Flip. S_u copped his banning, pleaded for mercy and came back, only to have the banning put back in place within days.

On ME there was a crowd favourite known as Byso who was well loved for his photographic efforts and who had let many a Rocker drift off to sleep at night after a heavy session in front of the screen with one of Byso’s lovingly taken cheerleader shots.

Byso arrived at OEE in the middle of one of the sue vs haig forays to be met by the typically blunt aside from Matabele – “get back into the conga line, we know who you are”. An auspicious start, no doubt!

Also into the wars came Zaphod, a sane and reasonable character who seemed intent to broker the peace and pour water on the fires of conflict. Zaphod became a regular Kofi Annan, mediating between parties and appealing to the joint humanity of the Manly fan.

Lurking around was Ryan J Winter, known for his abrasive arguments on ME and his previous love for the Bears. Larry Tate was also a welcome face in many a debate and another gentleman tagged himself “Canteen Worker” whilst the OEE forums lit up with criticism of Jye Mullane.

Ah yes, Jye Mullane. The eyes get misty just thinking of it. Unbeknown to the rank and file the poor man was playing through the pain barrier with tendonitis in at least one knee. With Michael Monaghan out injured he was the only half back option but he was hopelessly out of his depth.

His on-field capers caused much mirth amongst the faithful and a vicious lampooning erupted, Chief amongst these was the contention that he was destined for service in the Brookvale Oval hot dog stand or Canteen – come on down Canteen Worker!!!!!!

There were others floating around, too many to mention. Cheech stands out as does “weneedacement” and “heain’tnoterryrandall” (now known as Goldie). They added colour and wonderful debate though I can’t resist the opportunity to mention one of the village idiots that remained at OEE. Does anyone else remember Ridge and his spray to everyone who didn’t bathe daily in the waters of Manly beach? That was what it took to be a Manly supporter apparently. Spare me.

And so the stage was set….. Enter the Oracle.
 
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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