Forty Years of Hate Based On a Lie

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.

Nuttybott

Reserve Grader
I have just finished reading a book called Glory Days; The Story of South Sydney's Golden Era by Alan Whiticker, which features a number of interviews with Rabbitohs' stars of the club's last great era between 1967-71.

One of the most interesting of these interviews is with Ray Branighan, who played in several of those Souths Premiership-winning teams before heading to Manly and further glory in 1972. Of particular interest to Manly fans is Branighan's revelation that the past 40 years of hate, scorn and vitriol directed towards our club from all sections of the Rugby League community was, in fact, founded on a false assumption.

It turns out that Manly's "poaching" of Branighan, along with fellow Rabbitohs John O'Neill and Bob Moses, was nothing of the kind. Ray reveals that Moses requested a transfer because he couldn't hold down a regular place in Souths' first-grade team, whereas it was Branighan who made the first move to Ken Arthurson about moving to Manly.

During the 1970 World Cup in England, Arko had been very impressed with Branighan's form and attitude, and had kindly told Branighan that if he had any problems or ever needed help with anything, he only had to phone. The following year, after Souths' 1971 Premiership success, Branighan remembered Arko's offer, and phoned him in a state of desperation, as Souths were being extremely difficult and uncooperative regarding the renewal of Ray's contract. The club expected Branighan to accept any contract they chose to offer, even for less money. In Branighan's own words: "in those days, if you played for Souths they thought they owned you". Ray explains that he and his young family were struggling to make ends meet on what Souths were paying, whereas Arko was prepared to make a definite and more substantial offer, IF Branighan wished to move. Which he did for the 1972 season.

As Ray further explains in the book, it turned out that John O'Neill was experiencing similar difficulties over his contract with Souths, so Branighan advised him to ring Arko and have a talk about the possibility of moving to Manly.

And that is how the three Souths stars ended up coming over to the Northern Beaches. In each case, it was done on their own initiative, and in the cases of O'Neill and Branighan was caused entirely by Souths' own intransigence and their arrogant, proprietorial attitude towards their playing staff. And yet THIS is the seed of the "evil, wicked Silvertails poaching the battlers clubs' stars" myth; a myth which has endured for over 40 years now, and has led to an unrelenting, unwarranted torrent of abuse, hostility and hatred directed towards our club which, as it turns out, did nothing wrong... :mad:
 
Arko, and the Manly family at large, having been saying this ad nauseum time and time again.

In fact I just mentioned roy masters and his silvertails b/s in another thread minutes ago!

So I commend you for doing such a long post. We need to keep the truth alive!

A bit like over here, my full time campaign telling people Aussies don't drink fosters!
 
The vermin are legends in their own lunch time.

Have a look at how many local juniors are in their grand final winning team? 3 or 4 maybe?

Their best players heavens above are imports, wow imports.

They have used their financial muscle to buy quality imports to win a premiership, well thats what every club does now.

Hold on to your hats folks, were are gonna be saturated from the bile coming from vermin land for the next season.
 
globaleagle said:
Arko, and the Manly family at large, having been saying this ad nauseum time and time again...

Yes, but over the years this has tended to be dismissed as Arko spin-doctoring. Now we have confirmation straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Manly never "poached" the core of another team.

And yet people still believe what they want to believe. Never mind that the current Manly line-up contains only one player (Jamie Lyon) who was an established "star" at the time we bought him. Never mind that EVERY club similarly "poaches" players from other clubs, none more so than the Rabbitohs, currently the darlings of the NRL and the media, grown fat off Uncle Rusty's mega-millions. Apparently, such "poaching" is only wrong, immoral and unjustifiable when Manly do it. For everyone else it is OK, part of the game, business is business, etc... :mad:
 
One of the reasons I love going for Manly is because everyone hates us. What's special about going for Souths? Nothing. They are everyones darlings; how boring. At least when we win a competition, we can stick a big middle finger in the air at the bulk of the RL community, and know that it pains them somewhere deep down inside. What other club has that luxury? Rugby League is about fan warfare, and hate is a powerful tool in our favour!
 
My dear old dad, who in my eyes is a Manly legend as he has a been a one-eyed fan since the onset, has always told me that Manly have never been the richest club. He says that prior to and during the Silvertails days, St.George had far more money than Manly. Explains 11 titles in a row.
This history gives some insight into the successfully contrived hatred.
Prior to the seventies teams like St George and bunnies didn't have much competition and then Manly started to have success. The change was not popular and still isn't.


Go Manly! May you forever cause distress to the 'popular' teams.;)
 
Glad to see the truth come out. Ian Roberts tells the same story in his biography. Souths were not responsive on his contract renewal and upgrade, and Manly were more than happy to accommodate him. Souths couldn't get out of their own way to make an offer, and even froze him out.

Another thing that stands out is that it is a good thing to have your coaches and officials helping rep sides. It opens dialogue with players.

Ken irvine approached manly too about a switch. We didn't poach him. He wanted a chance at a premiership.
 
niccipops said:
My dear old dad, who in my eyes is a Manly legend as he has a been a one-eyed fan since the onset, has always told me that Manly have never been the richest club. He says that prior to and during the Silvertails days, St.George had far more money than Manly. Explains 11 titles in a row.
This history gives some insight into the successfully contrived hatred.
Prior to the seventies teams like St George and bunnies didn't have much competition and then Manly started to have success. The change was not popular and still isn't.


Go Manly! May you forever cause distress to the 'popular' teams.;)

Very good points Nicci.
 
Same crap as the early eighties poaching of Wests players. Never mind the huge money that Singo threw at Tommy Raudonikis, Grahame O'Grady,Sigsworth,Gould at Newtown. Never mentioned only Manly getting Brown, Boyd , Dorahy, Ribot.
 
mickqld said:
Same crap as the early eighties poaching of Wests players. Never mind the huge money that Singo threw at Tommy Raudonikis, Grahame O'Grady,Sigsworth,Gould at Newtown. Never mentioned only Manly getting Brown, Boyd , Dorahy, Ribot.
That's right, Mick. And don't forget that Manly "poach players" and "buy premierships" whereas anyone else doing exactly the same thing is just "improving their team roster"...
 
Shoe1 said:
Ken irvine approached manly too about a switch. We didn't poach him. He wanted a chance at a premiership.

And, of course, he got one in his first season at Manly. In fact, 1972-73 ended up being the only Premierships he ever DID win! :)
 
Great thread!!!

I've been digging around this myth for years and you've hit the nail on the head with the words from the Souths players, especially noting the perception that the Rabbitohs all but expected players to be happy with whatever was offered.

If Souths had of got with the times in the post-District rule era, they could have kept who they wanted, to remain successful into the 70s. But they stood over their own squad and didn't expect those players to subsequently give them the finger.

Importantly in this myth, is the number 'poached'. Even with the loose perception, ask a Souths fan how many players Manly stole from them in the 70s. The myth says anywhere between half their team, to almost a full run-on side, yet they'll struggle to name more than 4 from the decade.

Embarrassingly, eminent commentators of the code such as Ray Warren, feed into this lie with false claims, contrary to fact.

In the end, it is part of the theatre.
 
Oh come on people, don't you know by now that no player from outside the juniors has ever really wanted to play for Manly, they only do it because we have paid them the big bucks. And to add to that, everyone who plays for Manly apparently wants out of the place quicker than Snake running after a chip kick.

Where are the calls of poaching labelled at Parramatta for wanting Choc? Or at the Warriors for making an offer to Skivy? That is being pushed by the media as the players wanting out, no fault of the clubs making the offers. But at the same time could you imagine the outcry if Manly started chasing players like Jarryd Hayne or Greg Inglis?

The one thing about this article that amazes me is RB saying that Souffs management wasn't paying the players what they were worth and expected them to take what we now call 'unders'. This being the case I have to question how the Vermin almost went broke 2 or 3 years after Branighan and O'Neill left Redfern. They seemed to have no idea about how to run a football club. It took them over 40 years to recover (and hopefully another 40 or so before they win anything else).
 
Nuttybott said:
I have just finished reading a book called Glory Days; The Story of South Sydney's Golden Era by Alan Whiticker, which features a number of interviews with Rabbitohs' stars of the club's last great era between 1967-71.

One of the most interesting of these interviews is with Ray Branighan, who played in several of those Souths Premiership-winning teams before heading to Manly and further glory in 1972. Of particular interest to Manly fans is Branighan's revelation that the past 40 years of hate, scorn and vitriol directed towards our club from all sections of the Rugby League community was, in fact, founded on a false assumption.

It turns out that Manly's "poaching" of Branighan, along with fellow Rabbitohs John O'Neill and Bob Moses, was nothing of the kind. Ray reveals that Moses requested a transfer because he couldn't hold down a regular place in Souths' first-grade team, whereas it was Branighan who made the first move to Ken Arthurson about moving to Manly.

During the 1970 World Cup in England, Arko had been very impressed with Branighan's form and attitude, and had kindly told Branighan that if he had any problems or ever needed help with anything, he only had to phone. The following year, after Souths' 1971 Premiership success, Branighan remembered Arko's offer, and phoned him in a state of desperation, as Souths were being extremely difficult and uncooperative regarding the renewal of Ray's contract. The club expected Branighan to accept any contract they chose to offer, even for less money. In Branighan's own words: "in those days, if you played for Souths they thought they owned you". Ray explains that he and his young family were struggling to make ends meet on what Souths were paying, whereas Arko was prepared to make a definite and more substantial offer, IF Branighan wished to move. Which he did for the 1972 season.

As Ray further explains in the book, it turned out that John O'Neill was experiencing similar difficulties over his contract with Souths, so Branighan advised him to ring Arko and have a talk about the possibility of moving to Manly.

And that is how the three Souths stars ended up coming over to the Northern Beaches. In each case, it was done on their own initiative, and in the cases of O'Neill and Branighan was caused entirely by Souths' own intransigence and their arrogant, proprietorial attitude towards their playing staff. And yet THIS is the seed of the "evil, wicked Silvertails poaching the battlers clubs' stars" myth; a myth which has endured for over 40 years now, and has led to an unrelenting, unwarranted torrent of abuse, hostility and hatred directed towards our club which, as it turns out, did nothing wrong... :mad:

I have a friend who knows Ray Branigan. Ray lives in bunny territory but
is a Manly supporter.
 
faithful said:
I have a friend who knows Ray Branigan. Ray lives in bunny territory but
is a Manly supporter.

As are most of the players who have ever played for us...even ones who later left for other clubs.

Ray obviously has good taste. Interestingly, in the book he states that he immediately noticed the much better culture surrounding Manly than what he had experienced at Souths. The club looked after its players, who were a "terrific bunch of blokes"...
 

Members online

No members online now.
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
Back
Top Bottom