Manly's survival

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Again, you are talking to the converted. All those on here love RL. But, generally speaking, a large percentage of residents on the Northern Beaches and the North Shore have a lot more interests than RL devotees like us. The demographic is (and I'm generalising here) far more worldly and wealthier than, say, the residents of Sydney's west where RL is viewed as their sport because it is regarded as 'working class'.
Younger residents of the Northern Beaches are more inclined to go surfing or play RU than RL. It's why RU clubs such as Manly and Warringah are generally strong, particularly when compared to Parramatta and Penrith. It dilutes the junior strength of the Sea Eagles.
Look at Easts. They have been the strongest club results-wise for the last few years yet they draw very small crowds.
Comparing Manly with Easts is much more relevant than comparing Manly with Parramatta.
Let us not be too complacent with real people power . That is strong club membership support
Even the Rosters who territory wise are 10 times smaller than us have bigger membership support than us
 
Let us not be too complacent with real people power . That is strong club membership support
Even the Rosters who territory wise are 10 times smaller than us have bigger membership support than us
Territory is irrelevant. Population is important. The City of Sydney and the Eastern Suburbs have a greatest population than the Northern Beaches.
I also maintain that we get larger crowds at Brookie supporting the Sea Eagles than there are Easts supporters at the SFS for an average First Grade match.
 
Territory is irrelevant. Population is important. The City of Sydney and the Eastern Suburbs have a greatest population than the Northern Beaches.
I also maintain that we get larger crowds at Brookie supporting the Sea Eagles than there are Easts supporters at the SFS for an average First Grade match.
Population yes i understand this
What I do not understand is , what is the point of having the population when you have the least people supporting a club ?
 
If we were to relocate it would absolutely be devastating ... However you couldn't say it would be a shock.

Manly has the least members of any Sydney club.
Manly has a shocking home ground attendance record.
Our stadium is on desperate need of makeover.
The team has not been a force for over 5yrs now.
Throw in all the cap drama, coach changeover, front and back office issues etc and I could see why we should be a focus for relocation.

That's said, I think with Des and Gorman, we are headed in the right direction. I just hope with success, we can actually increase our member count and crowd attendance.

The underperforming clubs have always remained if their fan base is loyal, committed and in big numbers.

Manly does not have a big enough fan base to sustain another 5yrs of bottom 8 performances.
Surely on-field performance, along with financial viability, is the only criteria to judge if a club is worthy of staying in the NRL.
What concern is it of the NRL that a club has a low membership base? That's the concern of the owners. If they are prepared to finance a club, and that club has never come last, then it is a successful club.
On the other hand, if a club regularly comes last then the NRL should put them out of their misery.
 
In a perfect world clubs should merge ,but as we know this doesn’t work .
You might say the West Tigers are going ok but they aren’t off the field there is constant bickering between the 2
But back to my point
Merge : Rooster - Rabbits
Sharks - Dragons
Eels - Panthers
West Tigers - Bulldogs
Then introduce the new teams Perth , Brisbane #2
Manly stand alone cause of there geo graphic that then includes the central coast
But we don’t live in a perfect world so will never happen
 
Surely the roosters can just play their B team out of somewhere else, the next 17 players would be over the cap at most other teams anyway.

at least that way they might find a legitimate junior occasionally.
 
I have always been an advocate that relocation wouldn’t work as the new region /team would want to identify with its team and not buy into an old relocated franchise.

But heard an interesting discussion on ABC grandstand and I’m not so sure now.

Those against relocation and/ or mergers tend to talk about the years just post super league years where let’s face it the game was an absolute mess after the truce and the demise of the crushers, rams, reds, etc and the Souths legal battles.Decisions were made on the run with no real thought.

In fact we’ve really only had partial relocations and split home grounds with the Northern Eagles fiasco , West Tigers and St Merge etc.

I think the AFL may give us some insight into this.
The Swans have thrived and had great success, The Lions won 3 GFs in a row and although not a powerhouse like Sydney could be regarded as a success. Both these clubs were relocated. Swans from South Melbourne, Lions from Fitzroy.

On the other hand the brand new franchises GWS and Suns have been an absolute disaster financially ( despite GWS decent efforts on the field). The AFL has ploughed more than a 150 mill into these teams.I know it is slightly different in that they were thrust into non AFL country but the Swans have shown there is an appetite for AFL in Sydney and there was a big AFL following on the Gold Coast prior to the Suns arriving.

One of the benefits of relocation is that there is a small but solid fan base in Brisbane at least for Sydney sides ( plenty hate the broncos) to kick the team off and the admin of the relocated side would have been doing it for years as opposed to a new outfit.

I think it could work if the playing strip remains the same and the emblem. Northern Sharks , Northern Sea Eagles etc playing in traditional jerseys. You would need something like “ Northern” in the name to satisfy and attract new fans from the region.One of the things that NSW people probably don’t realise ( and I’m sure some Northern ST posters will agree) is the hatred for all things Bronco by a lot of punters up here. There are thousands wanting to grab on to something new.

I definitely don’t want that and the Brookie hill remains one of Gods great joints but if it meant that it was the ONLY way we could survive I’d support it.
 
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Have been reading this elsewhere , the “ bald one” suggests one or two Sydney sides might be relocated instead of expansion.

Clearly,

1) Perth for the obvious extra live game reason.

2) Brisbane for the obvious Donkey total domination up here.

It will be sad for the fans of any clubs that get chosen for this, many will be lost to the game and I think if they do it it shouldn’t be a relocation it should just be end of days for two clubs and happy days for two brand new franchises which can start afresh with zero baggage.

As to how you choose the two I don’t know but to me ( taking my bias away) each quadrant needs to be covered, so the teams to be removed should come from crowded quadrants where multiple teams exist.

The two that spring to mind for me are Sharks / Tigers.

Conversely I just can’t see that they simply add more teams we know , they know, everyone knows that there’s just too many teams in the crowded Sydney market.

Do you think they will put a 2nd team in Brisbane mate, seems an "obvious" thing to do, but I seriously believe a 2nd team will just get bullied out of town again. I reckon it will be a failure and this might be more trouble than the NRL will want to deal with.
 
Surely if a privately-owned RL club was excluded from the NRL then the owners could sue the NRL for damages etc.
You just can't shut down a viable business. Surely?
They won't exclude another club as long as they are substantially viable to continue, and only our current owners know the answer to that.
What is heartening though is that there are other parties who have an interest in ownership, if available.
 
Do you think they will put a 2nd team in Brisbane mate, seems an "obvious" thing to do, but I seriously believe a 2nd team will just get bullied out of town again. I reckon it will be a failure and this might be more trouble than the NRL will want to deal with.
yes, they would love another team in Brisbane, it would suit television, as well as a buffer to prevent Brisbane consuming all around it.
Let's not forget, not everyone like the Broncos up there.
The Crushers were getting very good crowds in their first season up there, until the advent of the Super League War, and then after that the ARL/QRL didn't put too much effort into them and then they were a casualty of the peace agreement.
 
Let us not be too complacent with real people power . That is strong club membership support
Even the Rosters who territory wise are 10 times smaller than us have bigger membership support than us
The Roosters have been riding on a crest of success for six years now and good players tend to gravitate to successful clubs, even on slightly reduced contracts, whereas if we were to get a marquis player now, we would probably have to pay overs to get, it's the rugby league cycle, as they say, nothing succeeds like success.
 
Really !,No way is Budgewoi North of Gwandalan...But def North of Swansea is imbred Knights zone..
You’re right. I was thinking Gorokan. I don’t get out much because, deep down, I’ll always be a Newtown girl!
 
Thoughts?
It's an indictment on the people that have run our club from 1970 to now to be in what I consider such a weak position. The most successful club since 1970 (premierships,finals) and I would argue has less fans now than then. What have we done since 1970? we should be a powerhouse club of the league, yet we have terrible member numbers a ground that is a dump and no political power in the nrl on top of not much money. Frankly we have ourselves to blame the people involved in our club have never been forward thinking and I fear for our future.

I have been going to Brookvale since 1982 and see the crowd get older and older, even when we dominate the comp we struggle to pull a crowd and I really wonder who would care if we were dumped (except for us on this forum) Most locals couldn't give a **** or they would be members and go to games in bigger numbers. Other clubs are in a similar situation but other clubs havn't been the powerhouse we have been since 1970 also I don't care about other clubs I care about us.

I know this opinion won't be popular but 5 years down the track I struggle to see us at Brookvale.
 
Considering last week the story was Penn rejecting 18m plus offers for shares in the club, ide say financially we arnt going anywhere unless the penns grand plan is to say "f@$k you money, and f@$k you fans"
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again.....

The NRL would be crazy to try and relocate Manly. Ours is basically the ONLY club representing northern Sydney. We're their only club north of the harbour until you get to Newcastle. Lose that and it opens the door for union, soccer and Aussie rules to move in because you know that if Manly does get forced to move, no other NRL team will take its place, not even North Sydney.

Super League had the right idea when they wanted Sydney represented by north, south, east and west, they just went about it all wrong. As much as the SL war alienated fans, they were smart enough to know not to relocate clubs. Instead they made new ones with the Hunter Mariners and Adelaide Rams. I can understand that the Mariners were folded because Newcastle really wasn't big enough for both them and the Knights. But losing the Rams was dumb IMO and its taken almost 20 years just to regain some of that lost ground.

IMO, new clubs have more of a chance of capturing new fans than a relocated one does. E.g. a new Perth or Adelaide team would be more accepted in those cities than a relocated Manly or Cronulla would.

It doesn't make sense to lose fans in one area just to try and get new fans in another. You keep the ones you already have and then try to add more.
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again.....

The NRL would be crazy to try and relocate Manly. Ours is basically the ONLY club representing northern Sydney. We're their only club north of the harbour until you get to Newcastle. Lose that and it opens the door for union, soccer and Aussie rules to move in because you know that if Manly does get forced to move, no other NRL team will take its place, not even North Sydney.

Super League had the right idea when they wanted Sydney represented by north, south, east and west, they just went about it all wrong. As much as the SL war alienated fans, they were smart enough to know not to relocate clubs. Instead they made new ones with the Hunter Mariners and Adelaide Rams. I can understand that the Mariners were folded because Newcastle really wasn't big enough for both them and the Knights. But losing the Rams was dumb IMO and its taken almost 20 years just to regain some of that lost ground.

IMO, new clubs have more of a chance of capturing new fans than a relocated one does. E.g. a new Perth or Adelaide team would be more accepted in those cities than a relocated Manly or Cronulla would.

It doesn't make sense to lose fans in one area just to try and get new fans in another. You keep the ones you already have and then try to add more.
Stop making sense! Did you forget you were on Silvertails
 

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