Its common knowledge that the Eels are strong right through the grades so this past weekend was quite a milestone.
H Matthews
For those that don't know, our Harold Matthews team (u16) came 6th and played Parra (3rd) in the semi on Saturday. It was 20 all at full time and the boys got up 24-20 in extra time - excellent result. Its their second tight win over the Eels in a month.
Interesting note: Paul Gallen (Sharks) was being interviewed on 2GB on Sat when the HM result came through. His younger brother Peter is actually in the Manly HM team! He was pretty happy when he heard the result.
Flegg
Went down to watch the end of the Flegg game against Parra at Brookie on Sat arvo. When we got their the boys were up 24-6 but Parra came back. Manly led 28-24 in the last minute when Parra got a dodgy ruck penalty and had a set of six on our line. The scored off a cross field kick as the bell went to tie it up. Fortunately the conversion missed and the Flegg team got a deserved draw.
Premier League
As noted elsewhere, Manly won the PL on the bell despite having Witt in the bin for 10 during the 2nd half. This really started the day well yesterday as the comeback happened right in front of the Bay 15-17 area. Parra went ahead 30-22 with 6 to go on the back of a penalty. Witt did a great short kick off and JP Cherry came flying on to the bat back. He ran into heaps of space and I think he passed to Stepho to score out wide. Witt converted to make it 30-28 with a couple to go. Manly got down the other end and a perfect cross field chip found Stepho to score out wide to win it. The Manly crowd went off an after the game the PL team came over and got the biggest cheer they'll probably ever get.
NOTE: Parra were undefeated going in and have been regularly thrashing our PL team in recent years (except we beat them in a semi one year).
First Grade
What more to say. I haven't enjoyed a crowd atmosphere like that since the '96 grand final. Having such a thick pack of Eagles supporters of all shapes & sizes etc in Bays 15-17 was unreal. It's hard to see much down the other end but for a 19,200 crowd the atmosphere was huge.
Note: earlier in the day I heard the relationship between Manly and Parra fans described as a grudging respect. I hate the Eels but the interaction between the fans yesterday was really good. They knew that they had been beaten by a good team.
We're back, now we need to get back to the TOP!
H Matthews
For those that don't know, our Harold Matthews team (u16) came 6th and played Parra (3rd) in the semi on Saturday. It was 20 all at full time and the boys got up 24-20 in extra time - excellent result. Its their second tight win over the Eels in a month.
Interesting note: Paul Gallen (Sharks) was being interviewed on 2GB on Sat when the HM result came through. His younger brother Peter is actually in the Manly HM team! He was pretty happy when he heard the result.
Flegg
Went down to watch the end of the Flegg game against Parra at Brookie on Sat arvo. When we got their the boys were up 24-6 but Parra came back. Manly led 28-24 in the last minute when Parra got a dodgy ruck penalty and had a set of six on our line. The scored off a cross field kick as the bell went to tie it up. Fortunately the conversion missed and the Flegg team got a deserved draw.
Premier League
As noted elsewhere, Manly won the PL on the bell despite having Witt in the bin for 10 during the 2nd half. This really started the day well yesterday as the comeback happened right in front of the Bay 15-17 area. Parra went ahead 30-22 with 6 to go on the back of a penalty. Witt did a great short kick off and JP Cherry came flying on to the bat back. He ran into heaps of space and I think he passed to Stepho to score out wide. Witt converted to make it 30-28 with a couple to go. Manly got down the other end and a perfect cross field chip found Stepho to score out wide to win it. The Manly crowd went off an after the game the PL team came over and got the biggest cheer they'll probably ever get.
NOTE: Parra were undefeated going in and have been regularly thrashing our PL team in recent years (except we beat them in a semi one year).
First Grade
What more to say. I haven't enjoyed a crowd atmosphere like that since the '96 grand final. Having such a thick pack of Eagles supporters of all shapes & sizes etc in Bays 15-17 was unreal. It's hard to see much down the other end but for a 19,200 crowd the atmosphere was huge.
Note: earlier in the day I heard the relationship between Manly and Parra fans described as a grudging respect. I hate the Eels but the interaction between the fans yesterday was really good. They knew that they had been beaten by a good team.
We're back, now we need to get back to the TOP!