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Message: [QUOTE="Broncoman, post: 2711242, member: 7803"] [B]1996 ARL Grand Final, Manly Sea Eagles V St George Dragons, Sydney Football Stadium Sydney, 29th September 1996 [/B] Manly cap of their 50th season in the league with their 6 premiership victory defeating a gallant St George team healing the scars of the disappointment of the previous year's Grand Final. [B]Road to the Grand Final [/B]On the back of the best defensive record since the beginning of limited tackle football Manly dominated the 1996 season winning back to back minor premierships and conceding only 191 points and 34 tries in 25 matches. Wins in the finals against the resurgent Sydney City Roosters and Cronulla Sharks booked them a place in the Grand Final. St George on the other hand experienced a roller coaster of a season that would put any team of any era in hell. Destroyed by the Super League crisis which saw Gorden Tallis sit out the year and saw the walkout of many players at the club, the Dragons floundered to 13th after 14 rounds but a late charge saw them win 8 of their last 9 games to qualify for the finals in 7th spot. They continued they dream charge defeating Canberra, Sydney City and Norths to make their first grand final since 1993. [B]First half [/B] Manly came out firing and a penalty enabled coupled with a knock on from Dragon forward Campion gave them all the territory early. It paid off as Toovey's grubber kick to the left corner was dived on by Inness and Ridge's conversion from touch gave them an early lead. The Dragons gave themselves a chance soon after but Manly's hustling defence denied them. Manly were looking good in the first 20 minutes completing their sets, making ground with the ball and Ridge's kicking game was on point. A penalty from a high tackle in front of the posts extended the Manly lead to 8-0 just before the 20th minute. The Dragons got on the board just before the break learning from their previous mistake of not taking the 2 points then controversy boiled over. From the kick off Ridge went short and regathered the ball before being dived on by Brown, referee David Manson astoundingly allowed Ridge to play on giving him an extra 30 meters to run. On the next play Tierney and Kosef linked up and sent Steve Menzies over under the posts breaking the Dragons resolve thanks to one of the most controversial grand final moments. Manly went to halftime ahead 14-2 with boos erupting from the Dragon army. [B]2nd half [/B]Manly continued to pile on the pressure as the Dragons couldn't get their hands on the ball and hung in for 13 minutes. Ridge unsuccesfuly attempted field goals but to no avail. Manly at last put the score out to 20 after Bartrim's pass to nobody was taken by Gartner, in the ensuring set Sedaris and Hill sent Moore over to score in the corner and with Inness converting Manly looked to have the game sewed up. The Dragons refused to give in and forced repeat sets down the other end but were only able to score 1 try through winger Nick Zisti which gave them hope for the last 20 minutes but Manly held firm in the last quarter of the game playing it safe and rubbing the Dragons out of the game. The score remained unchanged in the last 20 minutes and the Sea Eagles had won their 7th premiership with a deserved 20-8 win. [B]Match summary [/B] Manly went into the game as heavy favourites and they didn't disappoint as they were just far to strong for the Dragons across the park and didn't look like losing at any time of the game. Not really a classic grand final but not the worst as there was some good attack and strong defence on offer but as a contest it wasn't that great as Manly proved to much of a challenge for the Dragons and were determined not to let another fairy tale happen at their expense. [B]Manly Sea Eagles 20[/B]: Tries by Craig Innes, Steve Menzies and Danny Moore, 3 goals by Matt Ridge and a goal by Innes [B]St George 8: [/B]Try by Nick Zisti and 2 goals by Wayne Bartrim [B]Notes[/B] - Pretty hard to believe this St George team made the Grand Final on paper only 6 of their 17 players in this grand final were still playing by the turn of the millennium and only 7 of their players remained from the team that lost grand finals to Brisbane in 1992 and 1993. Either way they did amazingly well to battle their way to the Grand Final and if they managed to pull this one off it would probably be remembered as one of the greatest premiership wins ever achieved. - [B]Did the Ridge-Brown clanger by Manson rob the Dragons [/B]My answer is no. It would've battered their confidence and it did extent Manly's lead to 12 right on the strike of halftime but I didn't lose the game for them. Manly went on with the job after the break and didn't give the Dragons a sniff of victory and lead by at least 8 points for the majority of the game. It was still a complete shocker and Manson was attacked long and hard for it afterwards. One of the reasons why I never trust referees. - Manly's record winning defense was on show, The Dragons forced plenty of goal line drop outs and had plenty of chances to get back into the game but Manly were up to it and didn't let them score until the margin was out to 18. - I've heard some people say Daniel Gartner is one of the best players not to play Origin (he was picked for Australia after this game) I can see their point. I've seen some games from him around this time and he always looks like breaking the line and is putting in a good workrate as well he made at least 2 linebreaks in this game and picked up the loose ball that lead to the Moore try. [B] Geoff Toovey won the Clive Churchill medal, should he have won it? [/B] Yes I felt he was a fair winner. Toovey laid on the first try of the game and he was a handful throughout. His defensive game was on point and he backed up his teammates very well and was the leader of the team. He was also everywhere and didn't drop of at any time of the game, he was a fair winner of the medal but I wouldn't have been against Gartner, Ridge, Sedaris or the Beaver getting it. [B]Manly Sea Eagles [/B] 1: Matthew Ridge 2: Danny Moore 3: Craig Innes 4: Terry Hill 5: John Hopoate 13: Nik Kosef 7: Geoff Toovey (Captain) 17: David Gillespie 9: Jim Serdaris 10: Mark Carroll 11: Steve Menzies 12: Daniel Gartner 8: Owen Cunningham 6: Cliff Lyons 14: Neil Tierney 16: Des Hasler 19: Craig Hancock Coach: Bob Fulton [B]St George Dragons [/B]1: Dean Raper 2: Nick Zisti 3: Mark Coyne 5: Adrian Brunker 4: Mark Bell 6: Anthony Mundine 7: Noel Goldthorpe 8: Troy Stone 9: Jeff Hardy 10: Luke Felsch 19: Kevin Campion 12: Scott Gourley 13: Wayne Bartim 11: David Barnhill 14: Lance Thompson 15: Colin Ward 16: Nathan Brown Coach: David Waite [media=youtube]Q4vEok19aHk[/media] [/QUOTE]

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