1996 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season

The 1996 Manly Warringah Sea Eagles season was the 50th in the club's history since their entry into the then New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership in 1947.

1996 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season
ARL champions
ARL Rank1st
1996 recordWins: 21; Losses: 4
Points scoredFor: 609; Against: 213
Team information
Coach Bob Fulton
Captains
StadiumBrookvale Oval
Top scorers
Tries Steve Menzies (20)
Goals Matthew Ridge (68)
Points Matthew Ridge (165)
< 1995 1997 >

The 1996 Sea Eagles were coached by triple Manly premiership player and 1987 Premiership winning coach Bob Fulton. Captaining the side was local junior, halfback Geoff Toovey. The club competed in the Australian Rugby League's 1996 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 Sea Eagles 221804549191+35836
2 Brisbane Broncos 211704607263+34434
3 North Sydney Bears 221525598325+27332
4 Sydney City Roosters 221516521321+20031
5 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 211425399268+13130
6 Canberra Raiders 211317538384+15427
7 St. George Dragons 211218443360+8327
8 Western Suburbs Magpies 221219394434−4025
9 Newcastle Knights 2110110416388+2823
10 Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 2111010375378−322
11 Auckland Warriors 2110011412427−1522
12 Sydney Tigers 2211011319459−14022
13 Parramatta Eels 219111404415−1121
14 Illawarra Steelers 228014403444−4116
15 Penrith Panthers 217113363464−10115
16 Western Reds 216114313420−10713
17 North Queensland Cowboys 216015288643−35512
18 Gold Coast Chargers 225116359521−16211
19 South Sydney Rabbitohs 225116314634−32011
20 South Queensland Crushers 213018220496−2768

Regular season

Finals

Qualifying Final

Preliminary Final

Grand Final
Sunday 29 September
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 20 – 8 St. George Dragons
Tries:
Craig Innes
Danny Moore
Goals:
Matthew Ridge (3/3)
Craig Innes (1/1)		 [26] Tries:
Nick Zisti

Goals:
Wayne Bartrim (2/2)
Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
Attendance: 40,985
Referee: David Manson
Man of the Match: Geoff Toovey
Manly-Warringah
St George
FB1Matthew Ridge
RW2Danny Moore
LC3Craig Innes
RC4Terry Hill
LW5John Hopoate
FE13Nik Kosef
HB7Geoff Toovey (c)
PR17David Gillespie
HK9Jim Serdaris
PR10Mark Carroll
SR11Steve Menzies
SR12Daniel Gartner
LK8Owen Cunningham
Substitutions:
IC6Cliff Lyons
IC14Neil Tierney
IC16Des Hasler
IC19Craig Hancock
Coach:
Bob Fulton
FB1Dean Raper
RW2Nick Zisti
RC3Mark Coyne (c)
LC4Mark Bell
LW5Adrian Brunker
FE6Anthony Mundine
HB7Noel Goldthorpe
PR8Troy Stone
HK9Jeff Hardy
PR10Luke Felsch
SR11Scott Gourley
SR12Kevin Campion
LK13Wayne Bartrim
Substitutions:
IC14Nathan Brown
IC15Lance Thompson
IC16David Barnhill
IC17Colin Ward
Coach:
David Waite

1st half
In the 5th minute, Manly centre Craig Innes won the chase and scored after a grubber kick by his skipper Geoff Toovey.[27] Matthew Ridge converted from the sideline for 6–0. The Dragons played on after being awarded a penalty in front of the posts in the 8th minute but failed to score. At the 15-minute mark Saints' halfback Noel Goldthorpe conceded a penalty right in front of their goalpost after committing a head high tackle on Manly's Daniel Gartner. Ridge took the kick, extending the lead to 8–0. St. George sent in forward replacements Lance Thompson and David Barnhill for Scott Gourley and Kevin Campion (head cut). For Manly, Tierney came off the interchange bench to replace Gillespie. Up until the 19th minute mark when Manly veteran five-eighth Cliff Lyons took the field, their coach Bob Fulton was using six running forwards with Toovey as dummy half.

After turning down a relatively easy penalty goal chance not long after Manly's opening try, the Dragons' first points came in the 37th minute when Wayne Bartrim kicked a penalty awarded when Manly forward Cunningham stripped the ball. From the ensuing kick-off just before half-time came the game's controversial moment and a hotly disputed try. Ridge made a spectacular short kick-off and regathered, catching the Dragons unaware. St George hooker Nathan Brown appeared to tackle Ridge albeit one-handedly and by the collar. Ridge got up and ran when Brown was expecting him to stop and play the ball. Referee David Manson ruled that Brown did not complete the tackle. Ridge was eventually tackled just a few metres from the line. From dummy-half Nik Kosef then passed the ball to Steve Menzies who stormed his way through Saints' defense of Thompson, Raper, Goldthorpe and Bartrim to score next to the posts, giving Ridge an easy conversion kick. The controversial ruling by referee Manson gave Manly a 14–2 half time lead and broke Saints' resolve. In the process of scoring Menzies injured his groin/hamstring and although he returned for the second half, he was unable to run and was eventually replaced by coach Fulton.

2nd half
In the 53rd minute Manly's Danny Moore scored a try from a Terry Hill pass after Hill drew Saints defenders, Adrian Brunker and Nick Zisti. With Ridge off the field after being concussed in a tackle, Innes converted from 5m off the sideline for the Sea-Eagles to take a 20–2 lead. Five minutes later Dragons' winger Zisti scored a try from a Bartrim cut-out pass. Bartrim then converted from the sideline for a final scoreline of 20–8.[28] The final twenty minutes were scoreless with two field goal attempts from Ridge charged down by Dragons' defenders.

Player statistics

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

PlayerGames (sub)TriesGoalsFGPoints
Mark Carroll23312
Owen Cunningham2428
Matt Dunford(2)
Jack Elsegood13 (4)6534
Scott Fulton(5)
Daniel Gartner19 (4)624
David Gillespie17 (8)
Mathew Guberina2 (1)
Craig Hancock(3)
Des Hasler10 (12)21/210
Solomon Haumono1 (13)14
Terry Hill22728
John Hopoate18 (5)1144
Craig Innes25136/764
Martin-John Kelly(1)
Nik Kosef18 (6)312
Cliff Lyons20 (5)416
Steve Menzies242080
Danny Moore251352
Shannon Nevin5 (4)317/2646
Matthew Ridge (vc)17768/841165
Jim Serdaris18 (1)
Neil Tierney1 (19)
Geoff Toovey (c)23312
TOTAL10496/1481609

Representative Players

International

State
Main article: 1996 State of Origin series

City vs Country
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References
  1. ARL 1996 - Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
  2. 1996 ARL Rd.1 - Manly vs South Sydney
  3. 1996 ARL Rd.2 - Manly vs Gold Coast
  4. 1996 ARL Rd.3 - North Sydney vs Manly
  5. 1996 ARL Rd.4 - Gold Coast vs Manly
  6. 1996 ARL Rd.5 - Manly vs Auckland
  7. 1996 ARL Rd.6 - South Queensland vs Manly
  8. 1996 ARL Rd.7 - Manly vs North Queensland
  9. 1996 ARL Rd.8 - St George vs Manly
  10. 1996 ARL Rd.9 - Manly vs Canterbury-Bankstown
  11. 1996 ARL Rd.10 - Manly vs Canberra
  12. 1996 ARL Rd.11 - Brisbane vs Manly
  13. 1996 ARL Rd.12 - Manly vs North Sydney
  14. 1996 ARL Rd.13 - Western Reds vs Manly
  15. 1996 ARL Rd.14 - Illawarra vs Manly
  16. 1996 ARL Rd.15 - Manly vs Parramatta
  17. 1996 ARL Rd.16 - Manly vs Sydney City
  18. 1996 ARL Rd.17 - Manly vs Newcastle
  19. 1996 ARL Rd.18 - Cronulla-Sutherland vs Manly
  20. 1996 ARL Rd.19 - Manly vs Sydney Tigers
  21. 1996 ARL Rd.20 - Penrith vs Manly
  22. 1996 ARL Rd.21 - Manly vs Western Suburbs
  23. 1996 ARL Rd.22 - South Sydney vs Manly
  24. 1996 ARL Qualifying Final - Manly-Warringah vs Sydney City
  25. 1996 ARL Preliminary Final - Manly-Warringah vs Cronulla-Sutherland
  26. 1996 ARL Grand Final - Manly-Warringah vs St. George
  27. Jessup, Peter (30 June 2001). "Final line-break for Innes". nzherald.co.nz. APN Holdings NZ Limited. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  28. "NRL Finals in the 1990s". sportal.com.au. Archived from the original on 6 December 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
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