Best Manly player who never...won the comp? I'll go Les Boyd, he was a beast who had it all, maybe a tad too much aggression!
Roy Bull, Kevin Scubert, Frank Stanton, Les Hanigan, Bob Batty, Alec Tennant, et al. Boyd Schmoyd. He was only ever at Manly for the folding stuff.
Stanton won a comp as coach! Can't comment on some of those but ... Hannigan, Batty, and Tenant are rightfully Manly icons, but were not better rugby league players than Les Boyd. Blake was incomparably brilliant but, while not exactly a one-trick pony ....he was a bit like that!
Not the best, but a very good player who just missed out was Chris Hicks. Very very underrated player who left after 07. Would loved him to have won a comp with us.
My fondest memories of the 04/05 seasons were seeing Snake score tries off impossible offloads from BK and seeing Hicks push his opposite number aside in the centres. At times, it seemed like Hicksy was able to break the line at will. Around that time, he held a unique record at the club of being able to do the most reps of a player's body weight in bench press. I think he was just shy of 100kg and was able to do something like 27 repetitions.
Not the best, but for an unluckiest thread Grand Final wise, Geoff Gerard would come close. Plays 2 losing GFs for Parra leaves end 1980 - joins Manly, Parra win 3 GFs in row 1981, 1982, 1983. Plays 2 losing GFs for Manly leaves end 1984 - Joins Penrith, Manly win 1987. Plays for Penrith, retires 1989, Penrith lose 1990, win 1991.
You may as well nominate Bill Bradstreet. Boyd never fulfilled his potential at Manly (nor in the game of rugby league), but he's the one I think of. Which is why I posed the question, I'm hoping there's a better Manly nomination. So far I'm not persuaded.
If your parameters are simply who was the most dynamic, talented whatever player, then sure. Les is right up there. However I think I am right in saying that he never gave back to the Manly club (after he finished playing) the way that many others did - people like Ken Arthurson, Gordon Willoughby, Ray Ritchie, Johnny Bliss, Ron Willey spring to mind. To me Boyd was a great Western Suburbs player, not a great Manly player.
