Canteen Worker
First Grader
Apparently 4000 people met the players as they arrived at Manly Leagues club last night. The radio described scenes as wild. The news reported that Wolf Man crowd surfed right across the inside.
I got there with my kids at midnight and things had quietened down quite a bit. Still a lot of happy supporters but the players were upstairs at a private function and security would not let anyone pass without a special ticket. We had a quiet drink and waited about an hour.
One of my girls got a tip that the players were coming out shortly and down the back stairs to the upstairs bar. Sure enough, they cleared the top bar off and we took front row seats at the bottom of those stairs.
Bell stuck his head down two or three times holding the cup and shortly afterwards people came from everywhere. The players all came down then in premiershp t-shirts and the next hour was mayhem with the crowd gathered around the top of the stairs and every person in the club gathered at the bottom. Someone turned up with a radio mike and the crowd chanted all sorts of things from the usual Manly chants, Eagle Rock, We are the Manly boys - we had a win today, nd 40 nil etc, Wolf Man and Choc had their shirts off in a minute and threw them into the crowd. After quite a bit of chat a number of the players started jumping into the crowd, notably Wolf Man, Choc, Perry, Kite and Snake. Jamie Lyon, when interviewed, at the end said, - 'Stuff Parramatta' which brought the house down. All the players were introduced, as was Des and Beaver said that it was the most amazing scene he had ever witnessed at Manly Leagues. My girls said it was the best part of the day. One was very lucky in that when 'Stranger' threw his shirt down a guy with us grabbed it and gave it to her!!! Brent Kite called out '40' and the crowd called out 'nil'.
It all went on till after two when the players drifted off. The security men and body guards were very uneasy the whole time as the crowd surfing, standing on tables and even on the drink machines by some of the players looked very dangerous and was a risk. However, it was a great night. Most of the players were in good shape and very coherent with one or two exceptions.
No sight of Matai (who was rumoured to be at hospital) and Glenn Hall was not sighted either for some reason.
A wonderful ending to an amazing day. I told my girls to enjoy it as this sort of thing does not happen very often.
I got there with my kids at midnight and things had quietened down quite a bit. Still a lot of happy supporters but the players were upstairs at a private function and security would not let anyone pass without a special ticket. We had a quiet drink and waited about an hour.
One of my girls got a tip that the players were coming out shortly and down the back stairs to the upstairs bar. Sure enough, they cleared the top bar off and we took front row seats at the bottom of those stairs.
Bell stuck his head down two or three times holding the cup and shortly afterwards people came from everywhere. The players all came down then in premiershp t-shirts and the next hour was mayhem with the crowd gathered around the top of the stairs and every person in the club gathered at the bottom. Someone turned up with a radio mike and the crowd chanted all sorts of things from the usual Manly chants, Eagle Rock, We are the Manly boys - we had a win today, nd 40 nil etc, Wolf Man and Choc had their shirts off in a minute and threw them into the crowd. After quite a bit of chat a number of the players started jumping into the crowd, notably Wolf Man, Choc, Perry, Kite and Snake. Jamie Lyon, when interviewed, at the end said, - 'Stuff Parramatta' which brought the house down. All the players were introduced, as was Des and Beaver said that it was the most amazing scene he had ever witnessed at Manly Leagues. My girls said it was the best part of the day. One was very lucky in that when 'Stranger' threw his shirt down a guy with us grabbed it and gave it to her!!! Brent Kite called out '40' and the crowd called out 'nil'.
It all went on till after two when the players drifted off. The security men and body guards were very uneasy the whole time as the crowd surfing, standing on tables and even on the drink machines by some of the players looked very dangerous and was a risk. However, it was a great night. Most of the players were in good shape and very coherent with one or two exceptions.
No sight of Matai (who was rumoured to be at hospital) and Glenn Hall was not sighted either for some reason.
A wonderful ending to an amazing day. I told my girls to enjoy it as this sort of thing does not happen very often.