1978 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season

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.

1978 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season
NSWRFL champions
NSWRFL Rank3rd
1976 recordWins: 18; Draws: 2; Losses: 8
Points scoredFor: 510; Against: 346
Team information
Secretary Ken Arthurson
Coach Frank Stanton
Captains
StadiumBrookvale Oval
Top scorers
Tries Tom Mooney (11)
Goals John Gray (61)
Points John Gray (134)
< 1977 1979 >

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
Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Western Suburbs 221615426288+13833
2 Cronulla-Sutherland 221507418261+15730
3 Manly-Warringah 221507427287+14030
4 Parramatta 221408525306+21928
5 Canterbury-Bankstown 221327307273+3428
6 Eastern Suburbs 221309377280+5726
7 South Sydney 221219298300-225
8 St. George 2210111367354+1321
9 Balmain 229112337344-719
10 Penrith 224216206463-25710
11 North Sydney 224117325439-1149
12 Newtown Jets 222119199577-3785

Regular season

Finals

Major Prelim Semi-Final

Minor Semi-Final

Minor Semi-Final Replay

Preliminary Final

Grand Final
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
FB1Graham Eadie
LW2Tom Mooney
CE3Russel Gartner
CE4Stephen Knight
RW5Simon Booth
FE6Alan Thompson
HB7Steve Martin
LK8Ian Martin
SR9Terry Randall
SR10Bruce Walker
PR11John Harvey
HK12Max Krilich (c)
PR13Ian Thomson
Substitutions:
IC14
IC15
Coach:
Frank Stanton
FB1Mick Mullane
LW2Rick Bourke
CE3Steve Rogers (c)
CE4Dave Chamberlin
RW5Steve Edmonds
FE6Barry Andrews
HB7Steve Hansard
LK8John Glossop
SR9Eric Archer
SR10Steve Kneen
PR11Gary Stares
HK12John McMartin
PR13Paul Khan
Substitutions:
IC14Rowland Beckett
IC15
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
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
Man of the Match: Graham Eadie
Manly-Warringah
Cronulla-Sutherland
FB1Graham Eadie
LW2Tom Mooney
CE3Russel Gartner
CE4Stephen Knight
RW5Simon Booth
FE6Alan Thompson
HB7Steve Martin
LK8Ian Martin
SR9Terry Randall
SR10Bruce Walker
PR11John Harvey
HK12Max Krilich (c)
PR13Ian Thomson
Substitutions:
IC14Ray Branighan
IC15Wayne Springall
Coach:
Frank Stanton
FB1Rick Bourke
LW2Chris Gardner
CE3Steve Rogers (c)
CE4Dave Chamberlin
RW5Steve Edmonds
FE6Martin Raftery
HB7Steve Hansard
LK8John Glossop
SR9Eric Archer
SR10Steve Kneen
PR11Peter Ryan
HK12Rowland Beckett
PR13Paul Khan
Substitutions:
IC14
IC15
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

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

PlayerGames (sub)TriesGoalsFGPoints
David Adams
Tony Ashworth
Simon Booth824
Ray Branighan39
Greg Gross
Lindsay Drake13
Graham Eadie6522124
Russel Gartner1030
Johnny Gibbs9229
John Gray461134
John Harvey13
Mick Healey
Ray Higgs13
Stephen Knight515
Max Krilich (c)39
Ian Martin26
Steve Martin7122
Chris Montgomery13
Tom Mooney1133
Ed Planten
Terry Randall (vc)26
Wayne Springall13
Alan Thompson515
Ian Thomson618
Gary Thoroughgood
Bruce Walker618
TOTAL931135510

Representative Players

International
Main article: 1978 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France

State

City vs Country

References
  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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