1972 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season

The 1972 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season was the 26th in the club's history since their entry into the then New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership in 1947. After 5 previous Grand Final losses, the Sea Eagles broke through for their first premiership win.[1]

1972 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season
NSWRFL champions
NSWRFL Rank1st
1972 recordWins: 20; Draws: 1; Losses: 3
Points scoredFor: 511; Against: 277
Team information
Secretary Ken Arthurson
Coach Ron Willey
Assistant coach Frank Stanton (Reserve Grade)
Captain
StadiumBrookvale Oval
Top scorers
Tries Bob Fulton (19)
Goals Max Brown (29)
Points Bob Fulton (73)
< 1971 1973 >

The 1972 Sea Eagles were coached by former Australian international and Manly fullback Ron Willey. Captaining the side was long serving hooker Fred Jones. The club competed in the New South Wales Rugby Football League's 1972 Premiership season and played its home games at the 20,000 capacity Brookvale Oval.

Ladder
Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Manly-Warringah 221813460255+20537
2 Eastern Suburbs 221714514297+21735
3 St. George 221624398221+17734
4 South Sydney 221408456331+12528
5 Newtown 221129402371+3124
6 Canterbury-Bankstown 2212010382373+924
7 Western Suburbs 228113367398-3117
8 Cronulla-Sutherland 228014332378-4616
9 North Sydney 227114320405-8515
10 Balmain 226115333455-12213
11 Penrith 225116278490-21211
12 Parramatta 224216317585-26810

Regular season

Finals

Major Semi-Final

Grand Final
Saturday 16 September
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 19 – 14 Eastern Suburbs Roosters
Tries:
Fred Jones
Ray Branighan
Goals:
Ray Branighan (6/8)
Field Goals:
Bob Fulton (1)		 [25] Tries:
John Ballesty
Bill Mullins
Goals:
Allan McKean (4/6)
Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Attendance: 54,357
Referee: Keith Page
Man of the Match: Dennis Ward
Manly-Warringah
Eastern Suburbs
FB1Graham Eadie
LW2Ken Irvine
CE3Ray Branighan
CE4Bob Fulton
RW5Max Brown
FE6Ian Martin
HB7Dennis Ward
LK8Mal Reilly
SR9Terry Randall
SR10Allan Thomson
PR11John O'Neill
HK12Fred Jones (c)
PR13Bill Hamilton
Substitutions:
IC14
IC15
Coach:
Ron Willey
FB1Allan McKean
LW2Jim Porter
CE3Harry Cameron
CE4Mark Harris
RW5Bill Mullins
FE6John Ballesty
HB7Kevin Junee
LK8Ron Coote (c)
SR9John Quayle
SR10Greg Bandiera
PR11Arthur Beetson
HK12Peter Moscatt
PR13John Armstrong
Substitutions:
IC14Laurie Freier
IC15
Coach:
Don Furner

After twenty-five years in the competition and five Grand Final losses, Manly finally broke through to win the club's first NSWRFL premiership.[26]

In a controversial match, the Sea-Eagles downed the Eastern Suburbs Roosters 19 to 14, thus shedding their 'bridesmaids' tag. The Roosters were highly critical of referee Keith Page after the match, claiming both of Manly's tries shouldn't have been awarded. To add to their rage, Easts crossed for 2 tries that were disallowed.

A dour first half saw the teams go to the break at 4-all, before a try by hooker Fred Jones put Manly ahead. Jones appeared to drop the ball as he attempted to ground it, but was awarded the try nonetheless. For his part Jones contends that he did place the ball with downward pressure. Midway through the second half, controversy flared again when Manly centre Ray Branighan appeared to stop over the Eastern Suburbs try line after accepting what looked like a forward pass from prop Bill Hamilton. However, referee Page allowed it and the Manly fans began celebrating, knowing that at 19-4 their first premiership victory was assured. Although Easts fought back with two late tries to John Ballesty and Bill Mullins and brought the score to 19-14, time ran out for the Roosters and Manly had won their first ever premiership in first grade.

In the end, it was Manly's part-time goal kicker Ray Branighan who proved the difference, kicking 6 goals from 8 attempts.

Player statistics

Note: Games and (sub) show total games played, e.g. 1 (1) is 2 games played.

PlayerGames (sub)TriesGoalsFGPoints
John Barber
Keith Blackett
Ray Branighan42460
Max Brown42970
John Bucknall
Bob Cameron
Bill Clare721
Graham Eadie41542
Bob Fulton196473
Bill Hamilton26
Les Hanigan39
Ken Irvine131161
Fred Jones (c)412
Alan Maddalena412
Ian Martin412
Derek Moritz51851
Bob Moses13
John O'Neill
Peter Peters
Norm Pounder26
Terry Randall39
Mal Reilly412
Allan Thomson39
Gary Thoroughgood39
Gary Train
Dennis Ward10232
Graham Williams
Mark Willoughby12
TOTAL991046511

Representative Players

International
Main article: 1972 Rugby League World Cup

State

References
  1. NSWRFL 1972 - Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
  2. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.1 - Manly vs Penrith
  3. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.2 - St George vs Manly
  4. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.3 - Manly vs Newtown
  5. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.4 - Manly vs South Sydney
  6. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.5 - Manly vs Western Suburbs
  7. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.6 - Parramatta vs Manly
  8. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.7 - Easts vs Manly
  9. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.8 - Manly vs Canterbury-Bankstown
  10. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.9 - Balmain vs Manly
  11. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.10 - Manly vs Cronulla-Sutherland
  12. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.11 - North Sydney vs Manly
  13. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.12 - Penrith vs Manly
  14. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.13 - Manly vs St. George
  15. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.14 - Newtown vs Manly
  16. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.15 - South Sydney vs Manly
  17. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.16 - Western Suburbs vs Manly
  18. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.17 - Manly vs Parramatta
  19. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.18 - Manly vs Easts
  20. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.19 - Canterbury-Bankstown vs Manly
  21. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.20 - Manly vs Balmain
  22. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.21 - Cronulla-Sutherland vs Manly
  23. 1972 NSWRFL Rd.22 - Manly vs North Sydney
  24. 1972 NSWRFL Major Semi-final - Manly vs Easts
  25. 1972 NSWRFL Grand Final - Manly-Warringah vs Eastern Suburbs
  26. Clarkson, Alan (17 September 1972). "Manly - deserved winners". The Sun-Herald. Australia. p. 72. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
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