1978 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season

1978 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season
1978 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season
NSWRFL champions
NSWRFL Rank	3rd
1976 record	Wins: 18; draws: 2; losses: 8
Points scored	For: 510; against: 346
Team information
Secretary	Ken Arthurson
Coach	Frank Stanton
Captains	Max Krilich; Terry Randall (vice-captain);
Stadium	Brookvale Oval
Top scorers
Tries	Tom Mooney (11)
Goals	John Gray (61)
Points	John Gray (134)

The 1978 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season was the 32nd in the club's history since their entry into the then New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership in 1947.

The 1978 Sea Eagles were coached by 1963–64 Kangaroo tourist Frank Stanton. Captaining the side was long serving hooker Max Krilich. The club competed in the New South Wales Rugby Football League's 1978 Premiership season and played its home games at the 27,000 capacity Brookvale Oval.^[1]

Ladder[edit]

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Western Suburbs	22	16	1	5	426	288	+138	33
2	Cronulla-Sutherland	22	15	0	7	418	261	+157	30
3	Manly-Warringah	22	15	0	7	427	287	+140	30
4	Parramatta	22	14	0	8	525	306	+219	28
5	Canterbury-Bankstown	22	13	2	7	307	273	+34	28
6	Eastern Suburbs	22	13	0	9	377	280	+57	26
7	South Sydney	22	12	1	9	298	300	-2	25
8	St. George	22	10	1	11	367	354	+13	21
9	Balmain	22	9	1	12	337	344	-7	19
10	Penrith	22	4	2	16	206	463	-257	10
11	North Sydney	22	4	1	17	325	439	-114	9
12	Newtown Jets	22	2	1	19	199	577	-378	5

Regular season[edit]

Sunday 26 March	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	19 – 5	St. George Dragons	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Johnny Gibbs, Max Krilich, Tom Mooney Goals: Graham Eadie (5/9)	^[2]	Tries: Steve Butler Goals: Ted Goodwin (1)	Attendance: 23,168 Referee: Gary Cook

Saturday 1 April	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	17 – 10	Penrith Panthers	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Russel Gartner, Johnny Gibbs, Stephen Knight Goals: Graham Eadie (4/5)	^[3]	Tries: Paul Merlo Goals: Ken Wilson (2/3)	Attendance: 4,084 Referee: Jack Danzey

Sunday 9 April	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	44 – 17	Newtown Bluebags	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Russel Gartner (2), Alan Thompson (2), Ray Branighan, Johnny Gibbs, John Gray, Ray Higgs, Terry Randall, Bruce Walker Goals: Graham Eadie (7)	^[4]	Tries: John Ribot, Steve Bowden Goals: Phil Sigsworth (3) John Ribot (1)	Attendance: 8,085 Referee: Don Macdonald

Sunday 16 April	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	16 – 13	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Belmore Sports Ground, Sydney
	Tries: Pat English, Steve Gearin Goals: Steve Gearin (5/5)	^[5]	Tries: Johnny Gibbs, John Gray, Stephen Knight Goals: Graham Eadie (2)	Attendance: 13,373 Referee: Jack Danzey

Sunday 23 April	Parramatta Eels	15 – 27	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
	Tries: Neville Glover, Phil Mann, Graham Murray Goals: Michael Cronin (3/5)	^[6]	Tries: Simon Booth, Graham Eadie, Tom Mooney, Ian Thomson, Bruce Walker Goals: Graham Eadie (5/7) John Gray (1)	Attendance: 44,507 Referee: Denis Braybrook

Sunday 30 April	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	29 – 13	Balmain Tigers	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Johnny Gibbs, Stephen Knight, Tom Mooney, Alan Thompson, Bruce Walker Goals: John Gray (7)	^[7]	Tries: , Rex Murphy Goals: (1/3) Mark Tonks (1/1)	Attendance: 17,225 Referee: Gary Cook

Sunday 7 May	Western Suburbs Magpies	13 – 7	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Lidcombe Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Bruce Gibbs Goals: John Dorahy (5)	^[8]	Tries: Stephen Knight, Ian Thomson Goals: Graham Eadie (2)	Attendance: 10,931 Referee: Denis Braybrook

Sunday 14 May	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	5 – 30	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Ray Branighan Goals: Graham Eadie (1/4)	^[9]	Tries: Trevor Barnes, John Berne, Terry Fahey, Eric Ferguson, Bob McMillan, John Peek Goals: Eric Ferguson (6)	Attendance: 11,103 Referee: Don Macdonald

Sunday 21 May	North Sydney Bears	10 – 11	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	North Sydney Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Don McKinnon, Tony Quirk Goals: Peter Schofield (2/5)	^[10]	Tries: Tony Ashworth Goals: John Gray (4)	Attendance: 6,823 Referee: Kevin Roberts

Sunday 28 May	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	8 – 27	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Endeavour Field, Sydney
	Tries: Dave Chamberlin, Gary Stares Goals: Barry Andrews (1)	^[11]	Tries: Simon Booth, Terry Randall, Ian Thomson Goals: John Gray (6)	Attendance: 14,665 Referee: Gary Cook

Sunday 4 June	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	15 – 12	Eastern Suburbs Roosters	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Russel Gartner, Ian Thomson Goals: John Gray (4) Field Goals: Steve Martin (1)	^[12]	Tries: Royce Ayliffe, Bob Fulton Goals: Ken Stevens (3)	Attendance: 19,657 Referee: Gary Cook

Sunday 11 June	St. George Dragons	22 – 13	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Kogarah Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Mitch Brennan, Steve Butler, Ted Goodwin, John Jansen Goals: Ted Goodwin (5)	^[13]	Tries: Graham Eadie, Johnny Gibbs, John Gray Goals: Graham Eadie (1) John Gray (1)	Attendance: 16,800 Referee: Jack Danzey

Saturday 17 June	Penrith Panthers	9 – 32	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Penrith Park, Sydney
	Tries: Greg Moore Goals: Phil Gould (3)	^[14]	Tries: Tom Mooney (2), Graham Eadie, Stephen Knight, Max Krilich, Steve Martin Goals: John Gray (6) Graham Eadie (1)	Attendance: 6,916 Referee: Kevin Roberts

Sunday 25 June	Newtown Bluebags	17 – 10	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Henson Park, Sydney
	Tries: Mick Kermode, Phil Sigsworth Goals: Mick Kermode (2)	^[15]	Tries: Ray Branighan, Lindsay Drake, Tom Mooney Goals: John Gray (4)	Attendance: John Gocher Referee: 3,167

Sunday 2 July	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	9 – 12	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Tom Mooney Goals: John Gray (3)	^[16]	Tries: Mark Hughes, Bill Noonan Goals: Steve Gearin (3)	Attendance: 7,818 Referee: Don Macdonald

Sunday 9 July	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	19 – 20	Parramatta Eels	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Russel Gartner, Johnny Gibbs, Ian Thomson Goals: Graham Eadie (5)	^[17]	Tries: Ray Price (2), Michael Cronin, Neville Glover Goals: Michael Cronin (4)	Attendance: 20,030 Referee: Gary Cook

Sunday 11 July	Balmain Tigers	19 – 7	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Leichhardt Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Larry Corowa, Noel Maybury Goals: Allan McMahon (6) Field Goals: Les Mara (1)	^[18]	Tries: Chris Montgomery Goals: John Gray (2)	Attendance: 7,869 Referee: Kevin Roberts

Sunday 23 July	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	16 – 10	Western Suburbs Magpies	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Steve Martin, Wayne Springall Goals: Graham Eadie (3) John Gray (2)	^[19]	Tries: Eric Cain, Ron Giteau Goals: Peter Rowles (2)	Attendance: 14,171 Referee: Greg Hartley

Saturday 30 July	South Sydney Rabbitohs	10 – 14	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Redfern Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Kenneth Stewart, Peter Tunks Goals: Eric Ferguson (2)	^[20]	Tries: Ian Martin, Steve Martin Goals: John Gray (4)	Attendance: 17,148 Referee: Greg Hartley

Sunday 6 August	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	40 – 12	North Sydney Bears	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Steve Martin (3), Tom Mooney (2), Bruce Walker (2), Simon Booth, Johnny Gibbs, Max Krilich Goals: John Gray (5)	^[21]	Tries: John Adam, Glen Boatswain Goals: Peter Schofield (3)	Attendance: 11,058 Referee: Kevin Roberts

Sunday 13 August	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	26 – 4	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	Brookvale Oval, Sydney
	Tries: Graham Eadie, Johnny Gibbs, Tom Mooney, Ian Thomson Goals: John Gray (7)	^[22]	Tries: Goals: Barry Andrews (2)	Attendance: 12,135 Referee: Jack Danzey

Sunday 20 August	Eastern Suburbs Roosters	11 – 30	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Sydney Sports Ground, Sydney
	Tries: Bill Mullins, Bob O'Reilly Goals: Kevin Stevens (2/4)	^[23]	Tries: Simon Booth, Graham Eadie, John Gray, Stephen Knight Goals: John Gray (3) Field Goals: Graham Eadie (1) Johnny Gibbs (1)	Attendance: 22,049 Referee: Greg Hartley

Finals[edit]

Major Prelim Semi-Final[edit]

Saturday 26 August	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	17 – 12	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
	Tries: Eric Archer, Mick Mullane, Steve Rogers Goals: Steve Rogers (4)	^[24]	Tries: Simon Booth, Russel Gartner, Ian Martin Goals: Graham Eadie (1) Field Goals: Johnny Gibbs (1)	Attendance: 17,718 Referee: Jack Danzey

Minor Semi-Final[edit]

Sunday 3 September	Parramatta Eels	13 – 13	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
	Tries: Michael Cronin, Geoff Gerard, Graham Murray Goals: Michael Cronin (2/5)	^[25]	Tries: Simon Booth, Russel Gartner, Bruce Walker Goals: John Gray (2/2)	Attendance: 30,850 Referee: Greg Hartley

Minor Semi-Final Replay[edit]

Wednesday 6 September	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	17 – 11	Parramatta Eels	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
	Tries: Russel Gartner, John Harvey, Steve Martin Goals: Graham Eadie (4)	^[26]	Tries: Geoff Gerard, Glenn West, Neville Glover Goals: Michael Cronin (1/3)	Attendance: 42,678 Referee: Greg Hartley

Preliminary Final[edit]

Saturday 9 September	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	14 – 7	Western Suburbs Magpies	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
	Tries: Alan Thompson (2) Goals: Graham Eadie (4)	^[27]	Tries: Ron Giteau Goals: Peter Rowles (2)	Attendance: 27,345 Referee: Greg Hartley

Grand Final[edit]

Saturday 16 September

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	11 – 11	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
Tries: Tom Mooney Goals: Graham Eadie (4/6)	^[28]	Tries: Steve Edmonds Goals: Steve Rogers (4/4)

Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Attendance: 51,510
Referee: Greg Hartley

Manly-Warringah

Cronulla-Sutherland


FB	1	Graham Eadie
LW	2	Tom Mooney
CE	3	Russel Gartner
CE	4	Stephen Knight
RW	5	Simon Booth
FE	6	Alan Thompson
HB	7	Steve Martin
LK	8	Ian Martin
SR	9	Terry Randall
SR	10	Bruce Walker
PR	11	John Harvey
HK	12	Max Krilich (c)
PR	13	Ian Thomson
Substitutions:
IC	14
IC	15
Coach:
Frank Stanton


FB	1	Mick Mullane
LW	2	Rick Bourke
CE	3	Steve Rogers (c)
CE	4	Dave Chamberlin
RW	5	Steve Edmonds
FE	6	Barry Andrews
HB	7	Steve Hansard
LK	8	John Glossop
SR	9	Eric Archer
SR	10	Steve Kneen
PR	11	Gary Stares
HK	12	John McMartin
PR	13	Paul Khan
Substitutions:
IC	14	Rowland Beckett
IC	15
Coach:
Norm Provan

In the Grand Final, Cronulla went to a 9-4 lead in the second half before Manly came back to hit the front 11-9. A Steve Rogers penalty squared it at 11-all but he then missed a desperate late field-goal attempt and at full-time the scores remained locked. For the second consecutive season the weary Grand Finalists were required to play a mid-week rematch three days later (the NSWRFL were forced to play the replay on the Tuesday and not the following weekend due to the upcoming 1978 Kangaroo tour, with the Australian team due to leave that weekend for their tour. The drawn GF also forced the Australian Rugby League to hold off on naming the touring squad until after the GF replay with as many as 12 players from Manly and Cronulla in contention to be selected).

Grand Final Replay[edit]

Tuesday 19 September

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	16 – 0	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
Tries: Russel Gartner (2) Graham Eadie Goals: Graham Eadie (3/8) Field Goals: Graham Eadie (1)	^[29]	Tries: Goals:

Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Attendance: 33,552
Referee: Greg Hartley
Player of the Match: Graham Eadie

Manly-Warringah

Cronulla-Sutherland


FB	1	Graham Eadie
LW	2	Tom Mooney
CE	3	Russel Gartner
CE	4	Stephen Knight
RW	5	Simon Booth
FE	6	Alan Thompson
HB	7	Steve Martin
LK	8	Ian Martin
SR	9	Terry Randall
SR	10	Bruce Walker
PR	11	John Harvey
HK	12	Max Krilich (c)
PR	13	Ian Thomson
Substitutions:
IC	14	Ray Branighan
IC	15	Wayne Springall
Coach:
Frank Stanton


FB	1	Rick Bourke
LW	2	Chris Gardner
CE	3	Steve Rogers (c)
CE	4	Dave Chamberlin
RW	5	Steve Edmonds
FE	6	Martin Raftery
HB	7	Steve Hansard
LK	8	John Glossop
SR	9	Eric Archer
SR	10	Steve Kneen
PR	11	Peter Ryan
HK	12	Rowland Beckett
PR	13	Paul Khan
Substitutions:
IC	14
IC	15
Coach:
Norm Provan

The Tuesday rematch in front of 33,552 was Manly's sixth game in twenty-four days. It was the second Grand Final in a row to end up going into a mid-week replay with the 1977 Grand Final between St George and Parramatta also needing a re-match to decide the Premiers after the original game had been a 9-all draw.

In the first half Cronulla had no answer to Graham Eadie's blind-side bursts. His display completely routed the hapless Sharks and Manly went to the break holding a 15-0 lead thanks to a try by Eadie in the scoreboard corner, one he set up for centre Russel Gartner in the same corner, and another 65 metre effort by Gartner after a sweeping backline movement saw him run into open space and easily outpace the Sharks defence to score in front of the Sheridan Stand.

The only points in the second half came from a field goal by Eadie.

In the replay, as throughout their extraordinary finals campaign, Manly were inspired by the leadership of captain Max Krilich and coach Frank Stanton, their iron-man Terry Randall who had required numerous pain killing injections before every game of the finals just to be able take the field in what Frank Stanton called sheer mind over matter, their cool five eighth Alan Thompson and classy fullback and Man of the Match Graham Eadie.

As of the 2016 NRL Grand Final, no player since Eadie has scored the combination of a try, a goal and a field-goal in a Grand Final.

The refereeing of Greg "Hollywood" Hartley in the replay and throughout the 1978 Finals series attracted criticism from coaches Roy Masters (Western Suburbs), Jack Gibson (South Sydney) and Terry Fearnley (Parramatta), all of whom appealed to the NSWRFL to prohibit Hartley from refereeing their clubs' matches the following season.^[30]

Player statistics[edit]

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

Player	Tries	Goals	FG	Points
David Adams
Tony Ashworth
Simon Booth	8			24
Ray Branighan	3			9
Greg Gross
Lindsay Drake	1			3
Graham Eadie	6	52	2	124
Russel Gartner	10			30
Johnny Gibbs	9		2	29
John Gray	4	61		134
John Harvey	1			3
Mick Healey
Ray Higgs	1			3
Stephen Knight	5			15
Max Krilich (c)	3			9
Ian Martin	2			6
Steve Martin	7		1	22
Chris Montgomery	1			3
Tom Mooney	11			33
Ed Planten
Terry Randall (vc)	2			6
Wayne Springall	1			3
Alan Thompson	5			15
Ian Thomson	6			18
Gary Thoroughgood
Bruce Walker	6			18
TOTAL	93	113	5	510

Representative Players[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

[1] NSWRFL 1978 - Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

[2] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.1 - Manly vs St George

[3] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.2 - Manly vs Penrith

[4] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.3 - Manly vs Newtown

[5] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.4 - Canterbury-Bankstown vs Manly

[6] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.5 - Parramatta vs Manly

[7] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.6 - Manly vs Balmain

[8] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.7 - Western Suburbs vs Manly

[9] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.8 - Manly vs South Sydney

[10] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.9 - North Sydney vs Manly

[11] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.10 - Cronulla-Sutherland vs Manly

[12] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.11 - Manly vs Eastern Suburbs

[13] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.12 - St George vs Manly

[14] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.13 - Penrith vs Manly

[15] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.14 - Newtown vs Manly

[16] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.15 - Manly vs Canterbury-Bankstown

[17] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.16 - Manly vs Parramatta

[18] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.17 - Balmain vs Manly

[19] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.18 - Manly vs Western Suburbs

[20] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.19 - South Sydney vs Manly

[21] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.20 - Manly vs North Sydney

[22] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.21 - South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Manly

[23] 1978 NSWRFL Rd.22 - Eastern Suburbs vs Manly

[24] 1976 NSWRFL Major Prelim Semi-final - Cronulla-Sutherland vs Manly

[25] 1978 NSWRFL Minor Semi-final - Parramatta vs Manly

[26] 1978 NSWRFL Minor Semi-final replay - Manly vs Parramatta

[27] 1978 NSWRFL Preliminary final - Manly vs Western Suburbs

[28] 1978 NSWRFL Grand Final - Manly-Warringah vs Cronulla-Sutherland

[29] 1978 NSWRFL Grand Final replay - Manly-Warringah vs Cronulla-Sutherland

[30] 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.

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v t e Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
Est. 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales
The Club	History (Northern Eagles) Records Players Coaches
Culture	Rivalry with Melbourne Storm (Battle of Brookvale) Manly Seabirds
Home ground	Brookvale Oval
Important figures	Roy Bull Ken Arthurson Rex Mossop Frank Stanton Fred Jones Bob Fulton Ron Willey Mal Reilly Graham Eadie Max Krilich Terry Randall Paul Vautin Des Hasler Cliff Lyons Geoff Toovey Steve Menzies Stewart brothers Jamie Lyon Daly Cherry-Evans Trbojevic brothers
League	NSWRL ARL NRL
Titles	Premierships (8) 1972 1973 1976 1978 1987 1996 2008 2011 World Club Challenges (1) 2009
Seasons (70)	1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Other competitions	Current S. G. Ball Cup Harold Matthews Cup New South Wales Cup NRL Nines Past National Youth Competition Amco Cup Jersey Flegg Cup World Sevens
Affiliations	Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles Manly-Warringah/North Sydney District Rugby League