1986 MANLY

[eagle66]

 

[eagle66]

 

[patorick2010]

Thank you for posting all these @eagle66.

 

[eagle66]

Thank you for posting all these @eagle66.

You're welcome

 

[Sea Eagle 4 Life]

How about Blocker's clenched fist as he is about to "tackle" Crusher.
Those were the days!

 

[Once Was Brissie Kid]

Fox Sports had 15 minutes highlights of Manly vs Penrith from 1986 on during the week. So enjoyable to see Phil Blake & Cliffy Lyons in the same team. Both of Manly's tries came from them. The only season they both played at Manly.

Much shorter clip on Youtube.

 

[The '47ers]

Fox Sports had 15 minutes highlights of Manly vs Penrith from 1986 on during the week. So enjoyable to see Phil Blake & Cliffy Lyons in the same team. Both of Manly's tries came from them. The only season they both played at Manly.

Much shorter clip on Youtube.

Cliffy went down softly, (jeez Cliffy he was a damn winger! 🤭😂)must've still had a bit of North Sydney in him! Luckily ol mate knocked it out of him right then and there!

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

Bozo had Phil Blake on the wing for at least the first half of 1986. Such a waste imo, especially as Lyons was still at Leeds for a good chunk of the start of the Manly season and then he was at lock all year with Cox at #6 spot. I suppose given Arko had bought Cox as a #6 before Lyons signed they had to stick with him all season. Cox was at Manly in 87 but only on the bench for a handful of games. In 87 the halves were Hasler and M Meredith for the first month, with Cliffy on the bench. In 87 Cliffy got Manly #6 spot mid April, NSW Origin #6 spot mid July and won the Clive Churchill end of Sept.

Arko had moved onto the NSWRL/ARL job well before Mitchell Cox joined the band.🙂

 

[Once Was Brissie Kid]

1986 Manly had Phil Blake, Des Hasler and Cliffy Lyons. But with Mitchell Cox holding five-eighth most of the year, Blake was mostly on the wing or centres.

In Round 19 though with Cox out injured the team had Lyons at lock, Hasler at half and Blake at five-eighth. Manly beat Sharks 32-4.

This scrum base trio also continued in Rounds 20 to 23 but they were all loses, except a 11-11 draw vs Penrith.

At the end of the season Blake signed with Souths. His last home game at Brookie was vs Parra on the day the ground record 27,655 crowd was set and will never be broken.

I don't know what Blake was offered by Manly for 1987, if anything at all. Would Blake have played a part in the 1987 premiership? He was probably correct to leave. I can't see him settling for a 1987 Paul Shaw sort of role, which really only came about after head bin rule came in.

Blake like Lyons and Hasler was a great Manly player and looking back it is really nice to see them all in the same team.