Born in the area so every kid at primary school went for them. My parents went for them my mates went for them. Everyone went for them.
As the insular peninsula you didn’t here much about other teams in the early 80s. It was Manly and that’s it.
Interesting story, my son was born in 2009 and went to his first game Manly vs Cronulla as a 6 month old. We towelled them up but he cried every time we scored as the crowd yelled and cheered.
For the next 5 years he only saw Manly win at Brookvale as we only attended when day matches were on and the odd night game of it was early. It certainly was fortress Brookvale back then.
When the day finally came, and we lost, he said he “might go for Penrith” because they won and I think he thought you just go for who wins.
He’s older now and understands that we lose more than we win. He follows them fiercely but now doesn’t actually watch the game at Brookvale anymore. Instead he and his mates just run round the ground getting into mischief, eating junk food and being teens. He loves Brookvale oval but now it has a different meaning to him.
My daughter 10, still sits with me and watches though. She cheers the loudest as she not allowed to scream at home, school any where really, but at the game she screams her little lungs out.
Love live Manly