Be like the Beaver...

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Freagle

Bencher
Just something for a quiet moment here...but I got to thinking last night about the "genuinely nice guys" of Rugby League... like, the absolute polar opposites of your Josh Reynolds, Mick Ennis types. TBH I was watching Jack Reed play, and he always strikes me as a very fair type of player...I've seen him smile and pat an opposition player on the back many times during a game, even when someone smashes him in a tackle.

Then you have the great Beaver of course, who was universally loved and respected both on and off the field, even when he was dropping the shoulder in and laying an opposition forward on the deck.

Ben Smith from the Eels - I remember an early Stevie Matai tackle going wrong and absolutely smashing him right in the nose...whereas most players would start rolling around waiting for a penalty, Smith got straight up and tried to play the ball, despite blood pissing out of what was clearly a badly-broken nose...(much respect - think Skivvi got four weeks for that one...).

Anyone else out there?
 
Well there's Thurston with the handing back the kicking tee and the thing with the headgear, which the media won't shut up about.
 
Strive-Beaver%20poster.jpg
 
Ruben Wiki was one opposition player that I always admired for his sportsmanship and the way he played tough but fair.
 
We know many Manly players who played hard but fair (in fact Hasler is a prime example) but as for opposition players that we have little choice but to respect ...
Petro Civonoceva
and from the old days - Mick Cronin
 
One opposition player I've always felt for is Manu Vatuvei. I've wished him well his whole career just on the fact that he is a great guy. Sadly, the Warriors are not a club you should be playing for if you want to win comps.
 
Hard to go past Brent Kite!!

That's the thing about the 2008 team. It was full of players who were respectable and likable and they went on to post the biggest winning margin ever in a GF. The only players in the team who I think opposition fans would consider grubs were Matai, Perry, Choc, Gift and maybe King.
 

You look at that video and the try scoring list at the end and you realise that if Snake can pass Slater this year or next (personally I think Slater is done), Manly are going to have the top 3 try scorers in premiership history. Yes I know Mongo scored most of his with Norths, but he won 2 premierships playing at Manly, something he wasn't about to do at the Bears

And the fact that only one of them (Irvine) was a winger shows just how much the game has changed over the years. Beaver was a second rower who could play centre, and Snake is a fullback. In Irvine's heyday in the 60's fullbacks rarely scored tries, let alone forwards.

Did you know that in 13 seasons at NS, Irvine only played in 3 finals games and lost all 3. The Minor Semi to Balmain in 1964 and the Major Semi to St George and the Prelim Final to Souffs, both in 1965, and he didn't score a try in any of them. In 3 seasons with Manly he played in 6 finals games, won 4 and only scored one try in the Prelim Final loss to St George in 1971.
 
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