1973 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season

The 1973 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season was the 27th in the club's history since their entry into the then New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership in 1947. Manly went into the 1973 season as the reigning premiers having won the 1972 Grand Final defeating Eastern Suburbs 19-14.[1]

1973 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season
NSWRFL champions
NSWRFL Rank1st
1973 recordWins: 19; Draws: 1; Losses: 4
Points scoredFor: 524; Against: 237
Team information
Secretary Ken Arthurson
Coach Ron Willey
Assistant coach Frank Stanton (Reserve Grade)
Captain
StadiumBrookvale Oval
Top scorers
Tries Bob Fulton (18)
Goals Graham Eadie (69)
Points Graham Eadie (150)
< 1972 1974 >

As they were in 1972, the 1973 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 1973 Premiership season and played its home games at the 20,000 capacity Brookvale Oval.[2]

Ladder
Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Manly-Warringah 221714500226+27435
2 Cronulla-Sutherland 221705389219+17034
3 St. George 221507372213+15930
4 Newtown 221408358224+13428
5 Canterbury 221219369269+10025
6 Eastern Suburbs 2212010415314+10124
7 South Sydney 2211110345367-2223
8 North Sydney 227114239350-10115
9 Western Suburbs 227015310414-10414
10 Balmain 227015254495-24114
11 Parramatta 226016275492-21712
12 Penrith 225017272525-25310

Regular season

Finals

Major Semi-Final

Grand Final
Saturday 15 September
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 10 – 7 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
Tries:
Bob Fulton (2)
Goals:
Graham Eadie (2/6)		 [26] Tries:
Rick Bourke
Goals:
Steve Rogers (2/5)
Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Attendance: 52,044
Referee: Keith Page
Man of the Match: Bob Fulton
Manly-Warringah
Cronulla-Sutherland
FB1Graham Eadie
LW2Ken Irvine
CE3Ray Branighan
CE4Bob Fulton
RW5Max Brown
FE6Ian Martin
HB7Johnny Mayes
LK8Mal Reilly
SR9Terry Randall
SR10Peter Peters
PR11John O'Neill
HK12Fred Jones (c)
PR13Bill Hamilton
Substitutions:
IC14John Bucknall
IC15
Coach:
Ron Willey
FB1Warren Fisher
LW2Ray Corcoran
CE3Steve Rogers
CE4Eric Archer
RW5Bob Wear
FE6Chris Wellman
HB7Tommy Bishop (c)
LK8Greg Pierce
SR9John Maguire
SR10Ken Maddison
PR11Grahame Bowen
HK12Ron Turner
PR13Cliff Watson
Substitutions:
IC14Rick Bourke
IC15
Coach:
Tommy Bishop

After Cronulla-Sutherland's 14-4 loss in the major semi-final, Manly-Warringah expected the Sharks would be fired up for the Grand Final. And they were. Ian Heads wrote in the Sunday Telegraph the next day that It was a Grand Final as tough and dirty as any bar-room brawl.[27] Alan Clarkson wrote in the Sun Herald The fare served up in the first half belonged in the Colosseum.[28] The first half was not how the game's administrators would have wished to show-case rugby league, every tackle was loaded with menace and meant to damage. But from the melee Bob Fulton emerged and showed his unrivalled skill. Heads and Clarkson wrote of his "towering genius" and "football brilliance" respectively.

Manly's English import Malcolm Reilly, himself never one to take a backward step, was the first victim of the carnage. In the opening minute, Cronulla hooker Ron "Rocky" Turner set his sights on Reilly as the Englishman got an early kick away to take advantage of a strong breeze blowing towards the Bradman Stand (Paddington End). Turner missed Reilly the first time around, but didn't miss him a few minutes later. The Manly lock was left in agony from a badly bruised hip and had to leave the field for pain-killing injections. Knowing he probably wouldn't last the first half he then returned to the field and created mayhem despite the injections he received failing to work properly. He set about doing as much physical damage to Cronulla players as he could, but bowed out in the 25th minute and was replaced by reserve forward John Bucknall, who had played in Manly's winning Reserve Grade Grand Final side earlier in the day. Bucknall didn't think he would be needed and actually had a full lunch and soft drink shortly before the first grade game began.

After a number of brawls in the first half, referee Keith Page eventually called in all 26 players twice for mass cautions, threatening that any more foul play would result in players being sent off. Despite his warnings the back-alley tactics continued from both teams, and Page didn't send anyone from the field.[29]

Then Fulton took over in the 29th and 58th minutes. 'Bozo' demonstrated power and pace in both tries. The first came from a brilliant Fred Jones flick pass [30] which saw Fulton split Eric Archer and Steve Rogers just twenty-five metres from the line. Fulton ran around to touch down near the posts and give Graham Eadie an easier shot at conversion which he duly slotted through the posts. Manly took a 5-0 scoreline to the half time break.

The second Fulton try came after Eadie took a pass from five-eighth Ian Martin, then looked for Fulton and set him up perfectly. Fulton raced for the Brewongle Stand corner and managed to put the ball down before being bundled into touch by Rogers and replacement fullback Rick Bourke. From out wide Eadie missed the conversion to make it 8-2 (Steve Rogers had kicked a penalty goal before Fulton scored his second try).

Cronulla had to wait a long time before they dented the Manly line. It was in the 70th minute that the crack appeared. Trailing 8-2, the Sharks struck when lock Greg Pierce positioned Rick Bourke for a try (Bourke was flattened by Manly winger Max Brown as he scored, resulting in a broken thumb for Brown). Rogers easily kicked the conversion to reduce the deficit to just one point. Eadie stretched the lead to three points from a penalty kick and then the Sharks rallied and bombarded Manly. Ultimately, the Manly defence of John Mayes, Terry Randall, Peter Peters, Eadie and Fulton were up to the task. It will, however, go down in Sharks folklore that a Tommy Bishop flick pass in the dying moments failed to go to hand with the Manly line wide open. It was a set move Cronulla had successfully played all year, but had adjusted for the Grand Final in anticipation of Manly's familiarity with the standard move. As expected, the Manly defence reacted to snuff out the set play, leaving a gap that Bishop's pass managed to pinpoint. But in the heat of the moment, Sharks second-rower Ken Maddison also played for the old move, ran the wrong line and the ball went to ground - and with it went the premiership.

Player statistics

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

PlayerGames (sub)TriesGoalsFGPoints
John Barber
Bill Bradstreet
Ray Branighan61854
Max Brown927
John Bucknall13
Bill Clare
Graham Eadie469150
Warren Evans13
Bob Fulton18357
Bill Hamilton26
Terry Hill
Ken Irvine1339
Rod Jackson412
Fred Jones (c)515
Max Krilich13
Ian Martin927
Johnny Mayes16149
Bob Moses13
John O'Neill13
Peter Peters71337
Norm Pounder
Terry Randall13
Mal Reilly4114
Alan Thompson39
Gary Thoroughgood26
Mark Willoughby
TOTAL1061014524

Representative Players

International
Main article: 1973 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France

State

City vs Country
gollark: If it's just ineffable neural networks like we've got now, then ææææ all is bee.
gollark: And with better integration with dedicated computing modules.
gollark: If we actually understand things like that well enough to create them from scratch, we may be able to construct them *without* annoying human problems.
gollark: Why?
gollark: It would have magic nanotechnology™ on board so it would magically™ self-repair.

References
  1. NSWRFL 1972 - Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
  2. NSWRFL 1973 - Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
  3. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.1 - Manly vs Canterbury-Bankstown
  4. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.2 - St George vs Manly
  5. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.3 - Manly vs Newtown
  6. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.4 - North Sydney vs Manly
  7. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.5 - Manly vs Eastern Suburbs
  8. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.6 - Parramatta vs Manly
  9. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.7 - Manly vs South Sydney
  10. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.8 - Manly vs Penrith
  11. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.9 - Western Suburbs vs Manly
  12. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.10 - Manly vs Cronulla-Sutherland
  13. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.11 - Balmain vs Manly
  14. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.12 - Canterbury-Bankstown vs Manly
  15. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.13 - Manly vs St. George
  16. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.14 - Newtown vs Manly
  17. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.15 - Manly vs North Sydney
  18. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.16 - Eastern Suburbs vs Manly
  19. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.17 - Manly vs Parramatta
  20. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.18 - South Sydney vs Manly
  21. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.19 - Penrith vs Manly
  22. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.20 - Manly vs Western Suburbs
  23. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.21 - Cronulla-Sutherland vs Manly
  24. 1973 NSWRFL Rd.22 - Manly vs Balmain
  25. 1973 NSWRFL Major Semi-final - Manly vs Cronulla-Sutherland
  26. 1973 NSWRFL Grand Final - Manly-Warringah vs Cronulla-Sutherland
  27. Sydney Sunday Telegraph 16 Sept 1973
  28. Sydney Sun Herald 16 Sept 1973
  29. Coady, Ben (2009-09-28). "Grand final dramas". WA Today. Australia: Fairfax Digital. Archived from the original on 2018-10-04. Retrieved 2010-01-15.
  30. Harker, Jon (25 September 1993). "I'll walk off, says Referee". The Sun-Herald. Australia: Fairfax Media. p. 72. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
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