1976 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season

The 1976 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season was the 30th in the club's history since their entry into the then New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership in 1947.

1976 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season
NSWRFL champions
NSWRFL Rank1st
1976 recordWins: 18; Draws: 0; Losses: 7
Points scoredFor: 544; Against: 300
Team information
Secretary Ken Arthurson
Coach Frank Stanton
Captain
StadiumBrookvale Oval
Top scorers
Tries Bob Fulton (21)
Goals Graham Eadie (103)
Points Graham Eadie (233)
< 1975 1977 >

The 1976 Sea Eagles were coached by 1963–64 Kangaroo tourist Frank Stanton. Captaining the side was brilliant centre Bob Fulton. The club competed in the New South Wales Rugby Football League's 1976 Premiership season and played its home games at the 27,000 capacity Brookvale Oval.[1]

Ladder
Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Manly-Warringah 221606499252+24732
2 Parramatta 221426347238+10930
3 St. George 221408328298+3028
4 Eastern Suburbs 221318399250+14927
5 Canterbury-Bankstown 221237361337+2427
6 Balmain 221219318287+3125
7 Western Suburbs 221129379313+6624
8 Cronulla-Sutherland 229112378393-1519
9 Penrith 228113352333+1917
10 South Sydney 228014297421-12416
11 North Sydney 226115272526-25413
12 Newtown Jets 223019264546-2826

Regular season

Finals

Major Semi-Final

Preliminary Final

Grand Final
Saturday 18 September
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 13 – 10 Parramatta Eels
Tries:
Phil Lowe

Goals:
Graham Eadie (5/6)		 [26] Tries:
Geoff Gerard
Jim Porter
Goals:
John Peard (2/3)
Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Attendance: 57,343
Referee: Gary Cook
Man of the Match: Graham Eadie
Manly-Warringah
Parramatta
FB1Graham Eadie
LW2Tom Mooney
CE3Russel Gartner
CE4Bob Fulton (c)
RW5Rod Jackson
FE6Alan Thompson
HB7Gary Stephens
LK8Ian Martin
SR9Phil Lowe
SR10Steve Norton
PR11Terry Randall
HK12Max Krilich
PR13John Harvey
Substitutions:
IC14Gary Thoroughgood
IC17Mark Willoughby
Coach:
Frank Stanton
FB1Mark Levy
LW2Jim Porter
CE3Ed Sulkowicz
CE4John Moran
RW5Neville Glover
FE6John Peard
HB7John Kolc
LK8Ray Price
SR9Geoff Gerard
SR10Ray Higgs (c)
PR11Denis Fitzgerald
HK12Ron Hilditch
PR13Graham Olling
Substitutions:
IC14John Baker
IC15Graeme Atkins
Coach:
Terry Fearnley

In 1976, after 30 years of competition, Parramatta reached their first grand final since their admission into the NSWRFL premiership in 1947. Their opponents were Manly-Warringah who had also joined the premiership in 1947, but were playing in their 8th Grand Final, having previously won in 1972 and 1973 with captain Bob Fulton, fullback Graham Eadie, prop forward Terry Randall and lock Ian Martin having played in those two premiership teams.

Eels winger Jim Porter scored first after his opposite Tom Mooney spilled a John Peard bomb in his own in goal to give Parramatta to a 5-0 lead. A penalty goal to Graham Eadie closed the score to 5-2 before Alan Thompson sidestepped through the Parramatta defence to send Phil Lowe in for Manly's first and only try in the Paddington Hill corner. Scores were locked 7-7 at half time.

Geoff Gerard scored a try in the Members corner, though Mark Levy missed the difficult conversion giving the Eels a 10-7 lead early in the second half. Two penalty goals for Eadie then gave Manly back the lead 11-10.

Parramatta missed a critical opportunity to win the game and their first ever premiership with ten minutes of the match remaining: 15 metres out from a wide-open try line,[27] Eels winger Neville Glover dropped the pass from John Moran which would have given the Eels the match-winning try in the Paddington Hill corner.[28][29][30]

Another penalty gave Manly a 13-10 lead. In the frantic dying minutes Parramatta threw everything they had at the Manly defence including the infamous "flying wedge" of dubious legality which had Ron Hilditch at the apex of a phalanx of players driving him towards the line. The wedge was stopped by the Manly defence less than a foot short of the try line. Hilditch would later say that his head came down on the try line with the ball trapped underneath him.

The Manly defence held and the Sea Eagles secured their third premiership in five seasons, while the Eels would have to wait five more years for their first.

It was Bob Fulton's 213th and final match for Manly after a brilliant ten-year career with the club and the grand final victory was largely credited to his experience and brilliance.[31] He was full of emotion as he accepted the J J Giltinan Shield and was able to end his playing career at Manly on the highest note. He would later return to the club as a successful coach in the 1980s but first he would finish his playing years and then commence coaching at the Eastern Suburbs Roosters (Fulton would join Easts in 1977, unable to resist a big money offer from the club that was backed by one of Australia's richest men and a big supporter of the future rugby league Immortal, Kerry Packer).

Manly's win was a triumph for the powerful triumvirate of Fulton, coach Frank Stanton and Secretary Ken Arthurson who would all go on to higher honours in the game. For Stanton, it was his first success in a coaching career which was to bring two premierships and two Ashes-winning Kangaroo tours. Arthurson had brought to the club players of a calibre to enable five Grand Final appearances in the 1970s for four victories. He would go on to become the Chairman of the New South Wales Rugby League and later the Australian Rugby League.

Player statistics

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

PlayerGames (sub)TriesGoalsFGPoints
Ian Baker
Ray Branighan3417
Peter Byrne
Graham Eadie9103233
Laurie Freier
Bob Fulton (c)214172
Russel Gartner515
Johnny Gibbs412
John Harvey13
Terry Hill13
Rod Jackson824
Max Krilich39
Phil Lowe721
Ian Martin515
Tom Mooney1854
Steve Norton13
Col Parkes26
Terry Randall515
Gary Stephens26
Alan Thompson618
Gary Thoroughgood26
Mick Waller3315
Mark Willoughby
Brian Wilson
TOTAL1051141544

Representative Players

State

City vs Country
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References
  1. NSWRFL 1976 - Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
  2. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.1 - Cronulla-Sutherland vs Manly
  3. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.2 - Manly vs Western Suburbs
  4. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.3 - Canterbury-Bankstown vs Manly
  5. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.4 - Manly vs St George
  6. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.5 - Parramatta vs Manly
  7. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.6 - Manly vs North Sydney
  8. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.7 - Eastern Suburbs vs Manly
  9. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.8 - Manly vs Penrith
  10. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.9 - Newtown vs Manly
  11. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.10 - South Sydney vs Manly
  12. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.11 - Manly vs Balmain
  13. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.12 - Manly vs Eastern Suburbs
  14. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.13 - Manly vs Cronulla-Sutherland
  15. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.14 - Western Suburbs vs Manly
  16. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.15 - Manly vs Canterbury-Bankstown
  17. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.16 - St George vs Manly
  18. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.17 - Manly vs Parramatta
  19. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.18 - North Sydney vs Manly
  20. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.19 - Penrith vs Manly
  21. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.20 - Manly vs Newtown
  22. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.21 - South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Manly
  23. 1976 NSWRFL Rd.22 - Manly vs Balmain
  24. 1976 NSWRFL Major Semi-final - Manly vs Parramatta
  25. 1976 NSWRFL Preliminary final - Manly vs Canterbury-Bankstown
  26. 1976 NSWRFL Grand Final - Manly-Warringah vs Parramatta
  27. Top 10 finals blunders, The Daily Telegraph (2010 News Limited)
  28. O'Neill, Matthew (2007-09-14). "Eels vs Bulldogs Classic - Triple Mortimer Magic". rleague.com. Rleague.com PTY LTD. Archived from the original on 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  29. Ryan, Stephen (2001-09-28). "Not a Neville Nobody". Manning River Times. Australia: Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  30. Rothfield, Phil (2010-08-23). "Buzz names his top 10 NRL chokers". The Daily Telegraph. Australia: News Limited. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  31. "Form over five years". The Sun-Herald. 19 March 1978. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
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