My observation, in semi-short form (just an essay, not War and Peace)
Last night was basically like when Penrith went to Melbourne in Rd.18. Melbourne started well, and then Penrith somewhat easily got themselves back into the game before powering on to a strong win.
Penrith are good. Scary good. Scary in that even without the likes of Cleary, Luai, Yeo, Martin ... they still could have won last night.
We can win next week ... but I fear that unless Penrith have a really bad Thursday night, we'll be hard pressed to get within cooee, even at Brookie.
You know, its sad to think that Ivan was a Manly junior and that if things had gone different, Nathan Cleary might have been a Sea Eagle. Ivan's last game for us was 5 September 1993, exactly 29 years and 11 months ago from today. Unfortunately it was a 10–36 Qualifying Final loss to Brisbane at the old SFS.
For the younger ones here who might not know ... Ivan Cleary was a goal kicking fullback out of Beacon Hill who was in our Reserve Grade from 1991–92. But because we had goal kicking superboot and Kiwi test fullback Matthew Ridge, Cleary's path playing first grade fullback at Manly was all but blocked, so he signed with Norths from 1994. He did play a few games in 1992, and spent half a season in first grade playing his chosen position when Ridge got injured in 1993 and was our top point scorer that year, but he knew it was likely back to Reserve Grade when 1994 rolled around with a fully fit Ridge ready to go. Ironically, after signing Cleary, Norths then signed goal kicking half Jason Taylor from Wests. Then Cleary got an injury in the pre-season and by the time he came back, Matt Seers was the debut fullback sensation and instead of being the goal kicking fullback he originally left Manly to be ... Ivan ended up as a rarely used 2nd choice kicker playing mostly in the Bears centres for 2 years before Gould signed him to play for Easts, sorry, Sydney City where both fullback and goal kicking was his finally.
So yeah, the Cleary's could have been at Manly instead of Penrith. Such is life.