What was the Sea Eagles best centre combination

[Freagle]

First one I can really remember was Cleal and Close, before they both moved to the forwards. Will always have a special place for me. But I do think Lyon/Matai is probably the best we have had.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Hill & Innes for mine, they could both tackle. Snoz was the best centre this club ever had, Kevin Iro was a personal favourite also, however brief his stay was.

 

[bob dylan]

How can you split these 3?

Lyon/Matai
Fulton/Branighan
Hill/Innes

Yeah this is my opinion. But then again O'Connor was probably a better player than 2 or 3 of these guys. Geez there is some real class there.

 

[jbb/james]

Phil daley and crusher cleal had excellent careers in the centres. Some games they even had time to wash there jerseys at half time

 

[1969]

Fulton was the best centre who ever played the game. Bozo was amazing, and Ray Branighan played for Australia 17 times. He scored 30 tries and kicked 52 goals for Manly. He won 2 grand finals with Souths, and 3 with Manly. There is no argument that Fulton and Branighan were the best Manly centres who laced up a boot.

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

At times Gartner was as good as two centres ! ~ barely needs a partner.
But thinking carefully about it
Lyon/Matai has been our classiest "pairing".
Fulton / Branigan was such a lopsided talent situ, and this was borne out on the field. In practice Branigan was almost a spent force by the time he came to MWSE. Have never rated him. Injuries, patchy, lazy at times. Sorry, just my opinion.
Frog eyes was a breath of fresh air.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Interesting assessment of Branighan, @EagleFromMay1967
It is unusual to hear criticism of him. He was still very young when he came over from Souths, but already a rep star and he continued to be chosen in rep teams for a number of years.
My recollections of him are that he was highly professional in all aspects of centre play, but yet I don't recall him ever tearing sides apart or making spectacular plays.
Definitely a top class player, but overtaken by Lyon, and probably equaled by Matai.
I put Fulton/Branighan top of the list, due to how dominant Fulton was.

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

Agree re Bozo, Branighan was coat tails. Found him frustrating.

 

[Harvies elbow]

Fulton / Branighan 2 time premiership combo, 4 finals series straight ( 5 if you include 76 ) both internationals, would probably statistically be hard to beat.
Branighan didn't play in the 76 gf but did make an appearance in the 78 replay.
But my personal favourite is the Killer / Skivvie duo.
Just loved them.

 

[mosto]

My memory only stretches back to early 80's. As said earlier Shearer wasn't O'Conner's fulltime centre partner, but he never really had one at Manly. As I recall, Darrell Williams and Dale Shearer were interchanged between centre and fullback fairly regularly, but I think Williams probably partnered Snoz more often. For the sake of the exercise, I'll bracket them together as they were both fine players and Snoz has to get a mention somewhere, beautiful player to watch.

I'll go with:

Lyon / Matai
Hill / Inness
O'Conner / (Williams/Shearer)

 

[Stevo]

Stephenson and Harris/Williamson.

Seriously though...

O'Connor-Shearer
Hill-Innes
Matai-Lyon
Ron Gibbs-O'Connor...

I can't bloody decide.

I thought Stephenson went fairly well in the back line considering he was a Front Rower.

43 games and 17 tries is not a bad strike rate for a kid whom made his debut at 20 and out of position.

 

[Bearfax]

Hill and Innes were a pair who seemed to complement each other as well as any I have seen. It was Hill who often created space for Innes and made him so effective. They were both very professional and didnt seem to have any weaknesses. I think others were individually better centres but as far as two complementing each other well, Hill and Innes were made to play together.

 

[mozgrame]

I thought Stephenson went fairly well in the back line considering he was a Front Rower.

43 games and 17 tries is not a bad strike rate for a kid whom made his debut at 20 and out of position.

The sharks used him as an interchange forward in 07/08. 12 games for 1 try. Says to me he was a better outside back, where his size (6ft1, 100kgs) and side step was better utilised.

It's funny when you think of Steppa, you imagine he'd be an old bloke now, but he's only 33. That hairline made him appear older I guess. One of his nicknames was "old fella".

He's going all right these days as the acquisitions manager - Investor Developer Program at Positive Real Estate in Burleigh Heads.

 

[Woodsie]

Agree re Bozo, Branighan was coat tails. Found him frustrating.

Branighan was potentially the best Fullback we ever had. He only signed with Manly because he couldn't get the fullback gig at Souths due to Eric Sims having a mortgage on the position due to his goal kicking.

He signed (with Batty nearing retirement) expecting the #1 jersey, but in the off season a young fella named Eadie rose to prominence. Eadie could realistically only play fullback so Branighan moved back to centre.

When Ray did play fullback if Eadie was injured he generally starred and got man of the match awards. He was a brilliant fullback who never got to play there ... could have been a contender.

 

[HoldenV8]

* Kevin Iro only ever played one good game for Manly. Was possibly a bigger waste of money than Nate Myles.

Considering that at the time Iro was supposed to be at the peak of his career while Myles is at the back end of his.....you may have a point.

What Iro found at Manly was what a lot of the outside backs who spent most of their careers playing in England found.....that their opponents here could actually tackle no matter how big and fast you were.

Now, as for Manly's best centre pairing....I would have to agree with Killer and Bozo. But the reality is that you could replace either or both with the likes of Branigan, Snoz, Rowdy, Frog Eyes, Darrell Williams, Skivy, Innes, Terry Hill, Steve Bell or even Beaver and you would still have a world class pairing. Manly have been blessed with some of the best players over the years.....no matter what position.

 

[Bearfax]

Branighan was potentially the best Fullback we ever had. He only signed with Manly because he couldn't get the fullback gig at Souths due to Eric Sims having a mortgage on the position due to his goal kicking.

He signed (with Batty nearing retirement) expecting the #1 jersey, but in the off season a young fella named Eadie rose to prominence. Eadie could realistically only play fullback so Branighan moved back to centre.

When Ray did play fullback if Eadie was injured he generally starred and got man of the match awards. He was a brilliant fullback who never got to play there ... could have been a contender.

I think Souths also had money problems at that time. Their late 60s early 70s side was one of the best ever, but then they lost Ray Branigan, O'Neill and Moses to Manly, Cleary, Coote and a little later Walters to Easts, Sattler went back to Brisbane, Pittard to Parramatta, and later McCarthy and Stevens went to the Dogs. It was a top side that would have won premierships even if they hadnt changed the rules to stop the Dragons winning everything. Thankfully we had Arthurson and a pocket full of cash at the time

 

[Woodsie]

I think Souths also had money problems at that time. Their late 60s early 70s side was one of the best ever, but then they lost Ray Branigan, O'Neill and Moses to Manly, Cleary, Coote and a little later Walters to Easts, Sattler went back to Brisbane, Pittard to Parramatta, and later McCarthy and Stevens went to the Dogs. It was a top side that would have won premierships even if they hadnt changed the rules to stop the Dragons winning everything. Thankfully we had Arthurson and a pocket full of cash at the time

They sure did have money problems, but it was not a secret why Ray chose Manly. He wanted and was all but promised the Fullback role. In fact after one game he played at fullback the #1 jersey went missing (this was in the days when the 1-13 jumpers were taken home and washed by someone's mom, the reserves and u/23 all wore the number jersey that they were graded in eg 23, 46, 19, etc.) When the jersey collector went around collecting the jumpers he asked Ray where it was, Ray said he didn't know. Not withstanding the fact that it was sticking half out of his bag at his feet nobody could find it.

 

[HoldenV8]

From what I've read, back in the early 70's Souths were in so much financial poo that they were in danger of actually folding.

I knew Branigan could play fullback but I never knew that he signed with us being all but promised the #1 jumper with Batty's immanent retirement. Of course, then along came Eadie and the rest is history.

I've also read that one of the reasons a lot of Souths stars of the day left the club was because they were asked to take substantial pay cuts in order to keep the club afloat. In some cases (and I believe Ray was one of them), they were asked to take only half of what their contract was worth.

 

[Woodsie]

From what I've read, back in the early 70's Souths were in so much financial poo that they were in danger of actually folding.

I knew Branigan could play fullback but I never knew that he signed with us being all but promised the #1 jumper with Batty's immanent retirement. Of course, then along came Eadie and the rest is history.

I've also read that one of the reasons a lot of Souths stars of the day left the club was because they were asked to take substantial pay cuts in order to keep the club afloat. In some cases (and I believe Ray was one of them), they were asked to take only half of what their contract was worth.

He was simply brilliant at fullback. But with Eric Sims potting them over from anywhere he was never going to get the gig at Souths. remember a try was only worth 3 points so a goal or penalty worth 2 points and a field goal worth 1 made a good kicker worth his wait in rocking horse ****.

It is also a reason why in todays game we have seen fewer club records broken for most points, we simply don't take the 2 on offer as we did in the past.

 

[SLR5000]

Fulton was the best centre who ever played the game. Bozo was amazing, and Ray Branighan played for Australia 17 times. He scored 30 tries and kicked 52 goals for Manly. He won 2 grand finals with Souths, and 3 with Manly. There is no argument that Fulton and Branighan were the best Manly centres who laced up a boot.

There is a big argument with me because killer & fulton cant be split & i wld take stevie boy over branigan every day of the week .. Many people underestimate matais attack but he he was fantastic ball runner & had he of finished the season may have scored 100 trys for manly... Fulton lyons oconnor matai branigan terry hill shearer gartner in that order .. If oconnor had of been their for another 5 years he was a champion .... Close & crusher were very good too