Manly Champion Players we shouldn't forget

[Chip and Chase]

Fabio Chris Ryan. One of our best hairstyles.

I also remember Jamie oljenik (sp ??) looked like he could have been a great player but never really got it together.

 

[PONTIAN SEA EAGLE]

Matai,brett,balin who are currently signed but are out injured.The reason being there bodies are so battered from what they've given to manly the last few years.I'll never forget these guys.

 

[Bearfax]

Wally O'Connell

Wally was the third high profile recruit brought to play for Manly in 1950, along with Rowles and Schubert. Unfortunately his attempts to play for Manly in 1950 was thwarted by Eastern Suburbs based on the old Residential Rule. He therefore chose to not play that year but returned in 1951 as Captain-Coach of the Sea Eagles and helped guide them that year to the grand final. A broken wrist stopped him playing in that match, which they lost. He Captain-Coached again in 1952 before retiring having played 34 matches for the club.

O'Connell was already a star five eighth when he came to Manly having played for the Easts club from 1942-48, which included involvement in Easts premiership win in 1945. He played 10 tests. He was identified as a nippy solid five eighth, particularly dangerous on the blind side and an excellent defender. He went on to coach Manly in 1966 and 1967 and is also remembered for promoting in 1966 a 17 year old kid from Wollongong to the first grade five eighth position called Bob Fulton. He had apparently a strong mentoring role in Fulton's early development.

Many at club level consider him the best Five Eighth to have played for Manly, if we consider Fulton as a centre. But he came to Manly at the twilight of his career and though apparently most effective in his five eighth role alongside Arthurson, I personally think the very under rated Cliff Lyons deserves that distinction given his effectiveness for Manly for over a decade including helping them to two premierships (1987 and 1996) as well as winning the Clive Churchill Award in the 87 Grand Final. But O'Connell certainly helped Manly develop and prepare for their surge in the 60s and probably helped guide Arthurson into becoming such a prominent figure in the clubs history. His brother Barry O'Connell also played for Easts and Manly

 

[manly al]

With some of the attention on former Manly wingers i am surprised that Les Hanigan has not been mentioned { not that i have noticed ]. as he seemed pretty high profile when i first started following Manly. Around this time there seemed to be a quite large array of sea eagle wingers such as Dereck Moritz , Howard Whitaker, Chocolate Clare, Danny Gough and Les Hanigan and i know that most of these have already been mentioned . Sooty Windshuttle and Col Drier were also good local wingers some years latter . Mike Eden really should be included as well and he was a pretty handy full back too . Anyway really good to have poster members like Bear Fax , Ian Martin Tragic, Real Deal , Terry Zarsoff and others with their historical club knowledge

 

[BOZO]

Max Brown No5 winger and dual premiership winner , Our first in 1972 & 1973 . Great pace and when the try was on so was Max .
A champion bloke off the field as well

 

[midsteyne]

Ron Murray,fullback

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

See my 'Hero list' if on PC, Dennis W was in my original set, but let's not forget
Derek Moritz, Les Haningan,
John McDonald (great "outside centre"), Norm Pounder
Rob Cameron, Goldie Walker, Lindsay Drake, Mike Eden, Danny Moore, Kerrie Boustead 🙂

 

[Harvies elbow]

Max Brown No5 winger and dual premiership winner , Our first in 1972 & 1973 . Great pace and when the try was on so was Max .
A champion bloke off the field as well
View attachment 5729

I think Max has put in a bit of 'extra curricular' into Rick bourke in this pic.

Have we mentioned the Blake brothers?

 

[manly al]

It was remiss of me not to include Max Brown and also of the same era Rod [ Rocket ] Jackson , also a premiership winning winger. The Blake brothers of course very notable players of their era with Phil just so sensational in his early stages with the Sea Eagles. Max Brown must have been a quite enterprising guy as i read once where he had a pilot"s licence at one stage during his Manly career .The fact with so many formidable players mentioned all ready, would just seem to illustrate why Manly has been such a competitive and largely successful club for many era's now and also must reflect very well on the calibre of many past administrators and of its dedicated and passionate supporters

 

[Bearfax]

It was remiss of me not to include Max Brown and also of the same era Rod [ Rocket ] Jackson , also a premiership winning winger. The Blake brothers of course very notable players of their era with Phil just so sensational in his early stages with the Sea Eagles. Max Brown must have been a quite enterprising guy as i read once where he had a pilot"s licence at one stage during his Manly career .The fact with so many formidable players mentioned all ready, would just seem to illustrate why Manly has been such a competitive and largely successful club for many era's now and also must reflect very well on the calibre of many past administrators and of its dedicated and passionate supporters

I actually met Rod Jackson at a small dinner party a few years back... worked with his partner. Owned a small business. Looks as fit as he was back then. Nice bloke. Also worked closely in the past with Eric Simms partner, that goal kicking Souths full back who used to give Manly hell. Also worked with the partner of Keith Page, that famed referee from the 60s and 70s. Gee I like to brag.

 

[Harvies elbow]

Steve Cray, Greg Cross and Wayne Honeywood.
Mostly Reggie's but kept the fires burning in 1sts when the names were out.
Much like Darryl Pierce and Mick Waller before them.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

See my 'Hero list' if on PC, Dennis W was in my original set, but let's not forget
Derek Moritz, Les Haningan,
John McDonald (great "outside centre"),

Cracker McDonald was brought down from Queensland back in the days when we were trying to break through for our first premiership and kept coming up against the Souths juggernaut. I recall some commentator or journo saying he could be the next Reg Gasnier. Probably wasn't quite that good in the end but made all the Test teams back then, either as centre or winger, and I vaguely recall he once scored 4 tries in one game for Manly during his couple of seasons with us. Tall and rangy with blistering speed, as a kid I was in awe of him.

 

[Shoe1]

I actually met Rod Jackson at a small dinner party a few years back... worked with his partner. Owned a small business. Looks as fit as he was back then. Nice bloke. Also worked closely in the past with Eric Simms partner, that goal kicking Souths full back who used to give Manly hell. Also worked with the partner of Keith Page, that famed referee from the 60s and 70s. Gee I like to brag.

Sheesh you know all their partners. Dark horse

 

[Shoe1]

I played a round of golf with some in-laws and an old bloke called Eddie up in the Hunter a couple of years back. When he heard I support manly he said that he used to play for manly.

He was Eddie Lumsden, better known as a dragons legend. He had to leave manly because of some residency bs. Nice man, very modest fella.

 

[Shoe1]

Further to the Lumsden and O'Connell residential rule issues, is this the first wave of the league hierarchy trying to screw manly?

Eddie came down from Kurri Kurri to manly and was barred from playing after 4 games.
The next year saints signed him and got him a job at the water board. Then he won 9 premierships, played for Australia etc.

Wonder how he was automatically deemed a st George resident? Sounds like a total rort. Anyone know how this worked?

 

[Harvies elbow]

Jorgen Rogers.
Or is he just forgotten?

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

Cracker McDonald was brought down from Queensland back in the days when we were trying to break through for our first premiership and kept coming up against the Souths juggernaut. I recall some commentator or journo saying he could be the next Reg Gasnier. Probably wasn't quite that good in the end but made all the Test teams back then, either as centre or winger, and I vaguely recall he once scored 4 tries in one game for Manly during his couple of seasons with us. Tall and rangy with blistering speed, as a kid I was in awe of him.

I was playing wing for Harbord Utd, or North Curl Curl (cant remember which) and he came to one of our weekend games, took over from our usual coach. Signed autographs, but didn't demonstrate stuff - said he was TOO SORE. 🙂 Praps our match was on Sunday Hell of nice guy.

 

[Bearfax]

Cracker McDonald was brought down from Queensland back in the days when we were trying to break through for our first premiership and kept coming up against the Souths juggernaut. I recall some commentator or journo saying he could be the next Reg Gasnier. Probably wasn't quite that good in the end but made all the Test teams back then, either as centre or winger, and I vaguely recall he once scored 4 tries in one game for Manly during his couple of seasons with us. Tall and rangy with blistering speed, as a kid I was in awe of him.

Remember him well. A shame we couldnt keep him.

 

[Go manly]

A guy called Johnny Mayes never gets many rapps but was another who helped build our trail of bloody hood half backs

 

[cc eagle]

What about all the poms, (being a pom myself) besides Mal Reilly, one of the best, big Phil Lowe, knocker Norton, Gary Stephens, Kevin Ward, their was also a centre, think he might have been Welsh but can't remember his name.