75th Anniversary Greatest Team - Fan Vote

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Chip and Chase

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The club are running a poll to determine the best team in our 75 year history. Thought it was worth a thread of it's own to track the progress. I suspect it'll be heavily weighted to modern players by the pure nature of the voting mechanics, but will be interesting anyway.


Sea Eagles Members and fans... We need your help in determining the greatest ever team line-up as voted by the fan in our 75 seasons in the NRL.


Over the next few weeks we will polling on the greatest ever 1-17, from fullback and wingers to the forwards and bench.


Just a reminder of the team that was selected last time the club did one of these

60 Year Dream Team 1947-2006

1. Graham Eadie​

2. Ken Irvine​

3. Ray Branighan​

4. Bob Fulton​

5. Michael O’Connor​

6. Wally O’Connell​

7. Geoff Toovey​

8. Roy Bull​

9. Max Krilich​

10. John O’Neill​

11. Terry Randall​

12. Steve Menzies​

13. Malcolm Reilly​

14. Des Hasler​

15. Ben Kennedy​

16. Cliff Lyons​

17. Paul Vautin​

Coach: Frank Stanton​


First up is fullback (arguably the most difficult of all the votes as we've had/have 3 guns to wear the number 1)

Anyway vote away - click link below

Vote: Greatest ever Sea Eagles Fullback
 
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Going to be some massive changes to that team just for this reason.

Which I find most unfair.
It's only opinions which will naturally change over time. I've been supporting the Sea Eagles since 1965 and there are 6 players in the 60 Year Dream Team I wouldn't rank in our best ever 17.

The final team in this 75th Anniversary Team poll might be similar to the one selected in the poll run by @Woodsie during the last off season.
 
For comparison, this is the Silvertails Team of the Past 50 Years selected when @Woodsie ran a poll earlier this year - players couldn't be selected out of position.
  1. Graham Eadie
  2. Ken Irvine
  3. Jamie Lyon
  4. Bob Fulton
  5. Kerry Boustead
  6. Cliff Lyons
  7. Geoff Toovey
  8. Mark Carroll
  9. Max Krilich
  10. Ian Roberts
  11. Steve Menzies
  12. Terry Randall
  13. Malcolm Reilly
  14. Desmond Hasler
  15. Anthony Watmough
  16. Kevin Ward
  17. John O'Neill
Coach Frank Stanton
Manager Ken Arthurson
 
This one is tough. For me its a two horse race because as good as he was this year, I don't think that Turbo is up there yet.

I have honestly never seen a better fullback than Snake. At his peak he had it all. He had all the skills, defensively he was arguably the best fullback in the NRL during his time, and as we all know he had that blistering pace and the ability to get through gaps no one else seemed to be able to.

However, for his time, Wombat had it all too. He was built like a front rower, but could run like a centre. Plus he could kick, and that was probably the one part of Snake's game that lacked. While Snake's game was based on skill and speed, Wombat was all about power. Snake would run around players ... Wombat ran over the top of them.

Tough choice ... but I voted for Wombat. He won more premierships, played in more winning NSW sides, and was the test fullback for a good 6-7 years during the 70s.

If only we could have Snake on the wing.....
 
For my part, if I could change the rules and have a Manly team just in my lifetime, or that I saw play (I started supporting in 1982, watching from about 1988 when the NSWRL started to be shown on television more in Adelaide) ... this is how we would line up.

Coach - Bob Fulton
Brett Stewart, Michael Robertson, Jamie Lyon, Michael O'Connor, Dale Shearer, Cliff Lyons, Daly Cherry-Evans, Brent Kite, Geoff Toovey (c), Mark Carroll, Steve Menzies, Anthony Watmough, Paul Vautin (vc). Res - Des Hasler, Ian Roberts, Glenn Stewart, Nik Kosef.
 
Coach: Frank Stanton.
Graham Eadie
Ken Irvine
Jamie Lyon
Bob Fulton
Michael O'Connor
Cliff Lyons
Geoff Toovey
Mal Reilly
Terry Randall
Steve Menzies
Brent Kite
Max Krillich
John O'Neill

Bench
Des Hasler
Ian Roberts
Brett Stewart
Paul Vautin
 
Problem with giving the fans the full vote on team is that you get a modernist view of the team. Fans vote should only count as a percentage of the way the team is selected.

From team listed at the top Tom Mooney wasn’t in 2006 team either, Ken Irvine was. Mooney was in 1990 team with Hanigan as other winger, not sure how Irvine missed out from 1990 team.
 
Problem with giving the fans the full vote on team is that you get a modernist view of the team. Fans vote should only count as a percentage of the way the team is selected.

From team listed at the top Tom Mooney wasn’t in 2006 team either, Ken Irvine was. Mooney was in 1990 team with Hanigan as other winger, not sure how Irvine missed out from 1990 team.

Personally I think that only 5 spots in the team are a given regardless of what era that player was from.

Centre - Bozo
Five-Eighth - Cliffy
Halfback - Tooves
Second Row - Beaver
Second Row - Igor
 
Personally I think that only 5 spots in the team are a given regardless of what era that player was from.

Centre - Bozo
Five-Eighth - Cliffy
Halfback - Tooves
Second Row - Beaver
Second Row - Igor
Let’s not forget the Millenials voters out there , looking at that lot have only ever heard of or seen , Menzies play.

The rest are at risk IMO

Which makes it a stupid competition where 100% of the vote is from the fans.

As the years go by it’ll only be players from the last decade or two that are chosen.
 
I would make it six & add Malcolm Reilly :)

You'd like to think so, but as has been pointed out about past players, most fans today never saw Mal Reilly play. In fact, a lot more remember him as the Newcastle coach from 1997. For those who came after the 70s, about the only times most would see Reilly play is when watching the 72 and 73 Grand Finals on video or DVD. When it comes to lock forward most of the fans vote is likely to go to either Fatty, Nik Kosef or Gifty. Even Jake is going to get a lot of lock votes.

Personally, I think the fans vote should count to about 50% of the vote with the rest done by a panel of experts such as Arko, Fatty, Des etc with maybe one or two of the longer serving journalists on the selection panel.
 
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By the voting it looks like Brett Stewart will pick up the fullback position , and the only reason for that is that is that saw the great Wombat play are a dying breed.

Going to be some massive changes to that team just for this reason.

Which I find most unfair.
I find these surveys difficult. Just like best 10 tries, best MW match, best MW GF etc. For me, we should pick the best MW team each season.
 

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