WHY MANLY?

I often get asked Why Manly?  How did a working class lad from the western suburbs of Sydney become a lifelong fan of the most hate team in the league?  Why Manly?  Of all teams?

I was born in Parramatta in 1970, and grew up in Granville.  My parents supported the Parramatta Eels.  John Peard had a local sports shop.  In 1976, Parramatta played Manly in the Grand Final.  The Eels decided to have a parade through Church Street on the eve of the game.  My Mum took me there, and I got to see my heroes Ron Hilditch, John Kolc, and Ray Higgs.  It didn’t end well for the Eels.  They went down 13-10 to Manly.

As the youngest kid in the park games in the 1970s, I didn’t really get the chance to be Parra.  I had to be Easts, or St George, or Canterbury, or Wests.  Or Manly.  I adored Graham Eadie as a kid, and had a child’s fascination with overseas players such as Steve Norton, Gary Stephens, and Phil Lowe.

The very first football card I ever had was Col Parkes, the Manly prop forward.  Col didn’t play in the 1976 Grand Final, but there he was anyway.  I had a handful of cards in Year One.  I remember Bob McMillan, Jim Murphy, John Donnelly, David Grant, and the best card of all – Tom Raudonikis.

My father was the engineer at Auburn Council for years and years until his retirement in 1994.  Back in the 1970s, rugby league players had real jobs to supplement their income, and many of the Wests Magpies players worked in the parks and gardens department of the council.  They used to meet up at the Railway Hotel in Lidcombe on the weekends, and I was fortunate enough to meet several of them, thanks to my Dad.  John Donnelly, Tom Raudonikis, Peter Young, Wayne Smith…the guys on the footy cards were there right in front of me.  There was one player missing though….

John Dorahy was a butcher in the 1970s.  My memory tells me he had a shop in Berala, just south of Lidcombe.  In the 1970s, shops were open on a Saturday until midday, so John Dorahy must have missed many of the drinking sessions at the Railway Hotel.

John Dorahy played for Australia in 1978 against New Zealand, but missed selection in the end of year Kangaroo Tour squad to England and France.  A goal kicking fullback, he was known for his grace under pressure, which earned him the nickname Joe Cool.

As an eight year old kid, I got the opportunity to visit John at the shop at the end of the 1979 season.  It slipped out that Dorahy was joining Manly in 1980, along with Wests’ teammates Les Boyd and Ray Brown.  In what was a devastating decision for my parents, the eight year old kid from Granville decided that from 1980, he would be a fan of the Manly Sea Eagles.

And that was that.  The three Magpies players joined a team chock full of players I pretended to be in the backyard years earlier.  Graham Eadie, Terry Randall, Max Krilich, Alan Thompson.  I was Manly through and through from the opening round of 1980.

I was fortunate enough to meet Max Krilich in 2012, when he attended an event I hosted at Mission Australia.  Max came unannounced, and I was a little starstruck at first; but he was an absolute gentleman, and completely humble.  Not bad for a guy that captained the first Kangaroos squad that went through Great Britain and France undefeated in 1982.

So that’s why Manly.  John Dorahy stuck around for two seasons before returning home to Wollongong when the Illawarra Steelers joined the league in 1982. Ray Brown toured with the Kangaroos in 1982, as did Les Boyd, who continued his career in England, before returning to his roots in the Riverina.  By the end of 1983, Graham Eadie, Terry Randall, and Max Krilich had all retired; but there was a new crop of Sea Eagles ready to take their place….

Read more about Manly here and here.