Ahh memmm'ries doobie doobie doobie dooo........
I won't attempt to rank Cliffy against others, but he was my all time favourite Manly player. Which I guess is certainly saying something. Particularly in his younger years he had rather decent strength in the run and speed over about 40 or 50. Always he had superb acceleration and step, always he had a superb dummy pass that could fool opponent after opponent. Always, if you were smart enough to run off his hip you could count on getting a bagful of tries - hello Beaver, another of my alltime faves - because his run and pass game was as good as any I've seen and he was exceptionally unselfish. Like Benji Marshall in his prime, he was an instinct player with an extraordinary instinct for points, you had to be familiar enough with him to have a feeling for what he might do next, but if you did have that familiarity and feeling then you were sure the hell going to get a try or two in your time.
Did I mention I've always thought he was a critical contributor to the development of the modern "targeted kick for try" game? Witness the entirely deliberate kick for Michael O'Connor that O'Connor called for and got in the 1987 GF.
Memoriesssss.........