Highest of the highs apart from GF day

[Ian Martin tragic]

I don't know if anybody does this as a matter of course, but I'd like to know people's top memories of this special season. I share the general optimism about next year, but like someone said, winning the comp is no cakewalk and a lot of incalculables can crop up, so best to savour the victories:

Moments when you thought 'Yes, we can win this thing this year', key turning points/big plays in big games, favourite games, little off-field things, whatever. The best ones.

I remember the forum was euphoric after the Titans away game. For mine (like someone else mentioned in another post) crushing the Sharks in that first half at shark park floated my boat bigtime.

 

[willstyles]

The two wins over Parra. I'm aware Parra were an absolute disaster this year, but both wins took enormous courage. Round six we played most of the second half with 1 bloke on the bench, Boxy played 20 minutes with a f*cked knee...limping into hit-ups. It was honestly one of the most inspiring wins I've seen from a Manly team.

And the second win (at Brookie) was just as impressive. Ox ruled out before the game and then Killer went down after 15 minutes, leaving Jeff Robson to run the show. In the end we wiped them off the park, with Matai and Snake having blinders.

After both games I thought "f*ck...this team can win in some pretty rough situations". It's a good feeling.

I don't remember being all that pleased after the Titans away game. That was a game we should've won by 40 (they were missing Bailey, Prince and maybe even Laffranchi? And Minichiello was injured mid-game(, but it was really close until the last 10 minutes when Snake unloaded. We scored some mighty impressive tries in that game, but it wasn't a game that I thought "yeah! premiership winning material!".

The other game I thought showed that we could win the comp...was the Storm at Brookie. We were the better team that night, beaten by two bits of magic from Billy Slater and a farcical no-try ruling against Brett Stewart. But it proved to me we had better forwards, and could match them across the park - just needed the bounce of the ball to go our way for once and we'd have them covered. The ball bounced our way plenty of times on grand final day....

 

[DSM5]

Ian Martin was such a great player.  I agree IMtragic, I was down there at that scabby place they call Shark Park and when I saw the under 20s throw away their game I thought, hell, here we go again.  Then the big guys ran out and with power and intelligence blew the gummies off the park.  The Manly tragics sang and yelled their lungs out.  It was just awesome.  Then and there I knew we'd take out the big one.  I had money on 15 plus and Kite to win mom in the GF.  Paid poorly unfortunately.  The second pointer to our GF success was at the Storm game at Brookie.  Their first try was from two forward passes, we were robbed of one and we played poorly that night.  I knew then that given a fair shake of rulings, and playing to our potential, we'd slay them. 

 

[Canteen Worker]

Parra stadium in the wet in Round 1 was a big one for me. We had terrible injuries, dominated them and then they got in front. The way we finished with guts and control said that we had what it takes.

The win at Shark Park was equally impressive. Funnily enough I thought the loss against Melbourne at Brookie was a good thing. We were pretty ordinary, Orford had a shocker, we had Lyon and King out and yet we ran them very close. It left me thinking that we could beat them.

The Semi Final form was superb and each of the games were wonderful occasions.

 

[Rex]

The loss against the Storm at Brookie was the highlight of the regular season for me. We didn't field our top team (from memory Lyon and King out).  Yet our forwards totally dominated the full-strength Storm.  I'm sure that dented their forwards' confidence.  And our team's confidence would have skyrocketed with the performance.  The score didn't reflect the pattern of the game, with luck and refereeing decisions favouring Melbourne, and our attacking options just not clicking - a clearly injured Ox (who IMO shouldn't have played but for Lyon being out) misdirected many kicks with him being seen as Manly's only 5th tackle option. The media went off in their praise of the Storm, and wrote off Manly.  But in big games, dominant forward packs rule. I felt a calm confidence after that game that Manly, well and truly, had Storm's measure.

 

[ManlyBacker]

The Storm game at Brookie was good but not getting over the line with 15 minutes of pressure was worrying. The Souths game at ANZ was a low-point and I started to doubt that we could do it. I only got seriously confident about winning this year when Lyon came back from injury. He was very good against the Saints and absolutely brilliant against the Warriors. It took the pressue off Ox and we dominated through kicking. That was the only point that I really felt we weren't going to be beaten. GF day and I had all the bickies riding on us.

 

[DSM5]

I think you're right about Lyon being on the park.  he inspires confidence with his defense.  With him out there we couldn't lose.

 

[willstyles]

The Souths game at ANZ was a low-point and I started to doubt that we could do it.

I wasn't too worried about that game surprisingly. It was a weird game where nothing seemed to be working. The entire time it felt like we would be able to come back, but we just didn't seem switched on enough to do it. If anything it was the sort of game that we needed to have (Des Hasler/Paul Keating) to kick us into gear. For me, our most dissapointing loss was against Saints at Brookie. How we lost that game I'll never know. Either that or the Knights up at Newcastle (if only because it was the Knights), but that was slightly more forgivable because it was only round two and we were still getting our game in order.

 

[Corso_Pete]

Funny how so many share the opinion that the loss to the Storm at Brookvale was a "highlight", yet it was. Despite the disappointment of the loss it was the first time this year that I actually dared to dream of winning the GF.

That game showed that even with the Storm getting the benefit of the 50/50 calls we showed that not only could we match it with them but beat them.

 

[willstyles]

The weirdest thing about that game is that while Manly fans look at it that way (as in, they showed they had the game to win the comp, and more importantly beat the Storm!), opposition fans still view it differently. At the time, and to be honest it is a lingering feeling from various fans of other clubs, everyone else saw that game and said"yeah, that was the game where Manly threw everything at the Storm, at their home ground, and still couldn't come away with a win - how demoralising was that game for Manly fans!".

But we knew better.

 

[Garts]

That is the only loss I have walked away somewhat happy.  That was the game that I thought we will get them next time!!!

 

[Cameron]

shirescum at shark park
it was the first game where i felt we fully clicked, we had shown some good signs before that game but it all fell in to place from the first minute. From then on i thought we could win it.

the storm game was a funny one we were all over them we just didnt have an option kicker and poor ox just kept gettin preasured. I was confident that with a fit lyon at 6 we could get passed melbourne.

 

[Ian Martin tragic]

Thanks for all of those.
I didn't get to see the first Parra game so good to hear about that one; the tough wins are certainly significant; also rans have very few of them. (2nd win v. parra, yes it was good but they were so pissweak....)

I got the storm round 2 game result by internet before seeing the replay, but when I did I was not disappointed, just a bit irritated at the lack of execution. The forward display was so dominant I agree it probably was something in the storm's heads. Some of the projectile gang tackling up the middle is my runner up highlight after turning the sharks into speedbumps in what is usually a very hard game for us.

And yes when Lyon came back it was the last piece of the puzzle; the solid defence was always there but it took him to this year to really do the gamebreaking thing and he did that in the Warriors game.

 

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Not to do with the on the park performance, but more to do with personal satisfaction, turning up to cricket training after we had dropped the Warriors 52-6 in Round 3, that was very memorable

Outside of that all the ones mentioned above i suppose, although 1 not mentioned that i enjoyed was the 42 points we put on the Roosters in about 65mins and it was in the wet as well, some of the tries were outstanding

 

[Zep]

the storm game, the only game i got to see live this season.

 

[Dan]

THis is one of the best threads I have seen on this site in a long time.

For me it was probably the Storm game as well, after that game, I was speaking to a mate and said, if we come up against them again we will beat them. I also said that if Lyon was in that game we would have won, for one, we had a scrum move that we are 99% successful with, however Beaver wasn't quick enough to get the ball out wide and we came just short, with Lyon there, we would have gone in and won that.

I also think back fondly to the Parra games, and especially Bryant limping on one leg at the defense and still taking hitups! For me that showed the Manly spirit of old!

 

[The Wheel]

Agree Dan, some great reading.

For me I wasn't totally confident until we smashed the warriors in the final, the losses against Souths made me nervous while the Storm being our bogie team and their miracle get out of goal against the Broncos had me thinking that they would be too tricky for us on the big day.

But then their below par performance against the toothless Sharks and our massive victory had me thinking we were unbeatable.

As for season highlights the wins against Parra were great (as I loathe them immensley) but the first win which was vital for us was for me the non finals highlight.

 

[Arko-admirer]

Because most of my family live there and support them and because of the early send-off, the win against the Raiders in Canberra.

With the telecast delayed in Sydney I followed the match on a live score website while I pretended to watch whatever it is my wife was viewing on telly.

After Cuthbertson's send off I kept waiting for the 12 man side fade out. And a short burst of second half  scoring from the Faiders had me dreading the inevitable each time the screen refreshed.

But Manly climbed over the top of them with tries (and unfortunately I rely on my notoriously bad memory) to Matai (two gigantic steps) and  a typically opportunistic Menzies strike.

I had much fun on my next time in Canberra speculating that perhaps it would be fairer next time if Manly only fielded 11 or 10.

But so many good wins this year. Besides the others mentioned I anxiously enjoyed the official putting to death of supposed St George "bogey team" during the first semi and though I was overseas at the time the win away against the Broncos, where from the highlights and match reports it seemed we clicked pretty well.

From memory over the past two seasons its clean sweeps against Brisbane, Parra and Canberra three teams that especially I can never watch us beating enough.

 

[easystreet]

My father is a Tigers member and he managed to get me a ticket to the game at Homebush,so sitting amongst the Tigers members when we ran riot in the second half,was certainly a highlight of my season.

 

[Fluffy]

Not a game so much but Brent Kites tackles on Tate in goals against the worriers said it all to me.

Watching the replays and season highlights over the last few weeks you could see the little things that Kite, Perry, King and Boxhead were doing, stuff they probably should not have been but hte desperation in them getting to the loose balls, coming accross to cover the inside runner etc showed where we were at as a team.