Northern Eagles

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I tried to get on board and support the team - after all, Beaver and Tooves were there.

It was frustrating that despite the Bears being the ones who went broke, couldn't pay their players and needed to share OUR licence, their representatives on the board were constantly whinging about things like people referring to the team ad "the eagles" and "the jumper looks too much like Manly". Seriously? There was a tiny bit of maroon on the shoulder!!

The team never had a chance of success with the internal divisions constantly being aired in the media (sound familiar) and fans from either side being encouraged to pick/maintain support for the different sides of the merger.

From my perspective, I was sitting in the heavy traffic on the way from Gosford back to the northern beaches knowing that there was no such traffic the other way when the team played at brookie. That seemed to boost the crowds up at Gosford in comparison, and by the second year it was like all the big drawing games were scheduled at Gosford to make out that it was being successful, even though more and more locals were believing the bears bull**** and turning against the team.

By the end of it I was so bitter at what had happened to Manly from where they were at the time of the Superleage war to what was left in 2002 it took a year or 2 to get that love for the game back. Not that I'm totally over it yet!
 
I was optimistic that the Northern Eagles just might mean Manly had an expanded junior area, and expanded supporter base. And that this might mean our financial future was secured. Manly were all but dead financially due to the horror that is Rupert Murdoch. But Rupert also desperately needed us alive at that stage to get Foxtel & Fox Sports conversions on the Northern Beaches.

It soon became clear that Norths supporters (with a few exceptions, like @Ryan) didn't have the smarts or emotional maturity to join the force that is Manly. And the club became poisoned with the divisive Norths losing culture. The entire period of the JV became a wish to simply avoid the wooden spoon and to await the JV death.
 
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I have no memories as i didn't watch any games.We should have defected across to super league as we would have been stand alone & be cashed up.It would eventually gone back to one competition anyway.
 
I'm still getting Counselling over the NE ennui. Still have a coffee mug.
I dare not imbibe from it,
lest it taint my infusion.
image.jpg
 
I have no memories as i didn't watch any games.We should have defected across to super league as we would have been stand alone & be cashed up.It would eventually gone back to one competition anyway.
Yes, defection to SL would have been better for Manly, financially, certainly in the short term.

And it would have ensured the game was forever after a mere division of News Ltd, with no financial future. The difference in broadcasting deals now that the scourge of News Ltd ownership has been eliminated is absolutely astounding.
 
I missed a bit, game 1 Gosford, behind the posts in the GA area.

Left hand side , fans dressed in Manly colours, right hand side fans dressed in Bears colours.

I witnessed at least 3 full on fights with the protagonists being escorted from the ground.

It was better viewing than the game!!

And that said it all, their fans hated us and vice versa, a marriage in no way made in heaven.
 
I have no memories as i didn't watch any games.We should have defected across to super league as we would have been stand alone & be cashed up.It would eventually gone back to one competition anyway.

In hindsight the war was uneccesary and you are right, had we joined super league we'd never had to waste 3 years, the end result was the same anyway.
 
Northern Eagles was the reason why I started to support Manly being an ex bears fan.

Still recall thinking we were going to have a super club when you think of the players each club had back then, and was interested in which players were going to be kept.

Memories from that era was the first game against Newcastle when we won, favourite player at that time Jason Taylor getting dropped lol, big news of the signing of Kimmorley to my first live Warriors game at Erricson-2001 when we were run down after being up by 20 points.lol

Still have my Northern Eagles jumper hanging in the closet amongst my Citibank bears jumper lol (of course I have my Manly jerseys aswell) which is a reminder why I support the mighty sea eagles.
 
Continued to be a season ticket holder , was one of 6 at the trial v parra when the electrical storm knocked out the lights.
It was that night we decided to start the supporter group"eagle rockers"
The merger has a hard pill to swallow , but the return to Brookie as Manly, being asked to march around the ground by the club, and the good friends that were made will not be forgotten.
 
I didn't go to a game for 3 years. No Manly means no team to follow for me. Feels like it's heading that way again. It will be the Penntral Coast Sea Eagles before we know it.
 
One of my best mates was a bears fan and we had an intense (if lopsided) rivalry prior to the merger.

After we became Manly again he went all in and became a dedicated Manly fan, but there was always something about him following Manly that didn't quite seem right after he hated them for so many years.

We went to the GF in 2007 and the NSW Cup was Norths v Parra. In hindsight it may have been a bit unfair for my brother and I to laugh so hard when Norths lost it in the last minute but with Manly being back in the GF where we belonged the nostalgia just took hold and we thought it was hilarious.

Anyway I think that might have been the moment his heart was turned back against us. Had we won that night he may have been swayed by his first premiership as a fan and overlooked our cruel and unnecessary taunts but alas the cheating purple scum ruined the first of 2 GFs and my mate decided during the off season to go back to supporting whoever was playing Manly.

I dunno, maybe he was cursed - going for the "mighty" bears up to 1999 then the Northern Eagles from 2000-01 and Manly from 2002-2007.

In a way I feel partially responsible for lifting his curse and allowing Manly to win the greatest of GFs in 2008.

You're welcome everyone!
 
The dreaded Northern Eagles were the only link I had to my beloved Sea Eagles. I continued to watch, supporting Tooves, Beaver and co.
I bought one supporter item which was a $5 NE thermos from Kmart. I hated that thermos.
I remember watching one game on telly, late in the season, around the time of the announcement that Manly would be back. The NE's were winning at Brookie and the crowd was loudly chanting Manly, Manly. This was a great moment. My team was coming back.
 
I think quite a few of us 'supported' the NE more out of loyalty to the Manly part of that abomination than anything else. We'd had our team taken away from us and this was the next best thing I guess.

Thankfully sanity prevailed in the end and Manly came back.

I still question who "won" the Super League war though. Sure the SL lost the Adelaide Rams and Hunter Mariners (big deal really, though a team in Adelaide would have been ok), plus the Western Reds and the Crushers had a quick death, but not one of the teams that went to SL was ever forced to merge with another team, unlike a few from the ARL side. Balmain, Western Suburbs, St George and Illawarra all basically lost their identities really (though you could argue that St Merge is much more Dragons than Steelers). Plus we merged with Norths to make the Northern Eagles and although we were able to re-emerge as the Manly we know and love....Norths are now a NSW Cup team and a feeder club for Souffs.

Other than those I mentioned (Rams, Mariners and Reds), every single club who played in SL in 1997 still exists as the same club in the NRL. Brisbane, Canberra, NQ, Penrith, Canterbury, Cronulla and NZ (who were still Auckland back then) were all SL clubs. Melbourne never actually played in the SL, though they were owned by News Ltd., but unlike the SARL who stupidly signed with SL in 1995 (I should point out that this was actually against the wishes of the SARL clubs, but the league saw $ signs when Ribot came calling), the VRL had stayed ARL loyal, thus Melbourne was kept at the Rams expense.
 
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