Australia
National Rugby League (NRL) is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL competition (sometimes referred to as the Telstra Premiership for sponsorship purposes) is contested by 16 teams, 15 based in Australia and one based in New Zealand, and is the Southern Hemisphere's elite rugby league championship.
Sea Eagles vs Rabbitohs
Match scheduled:
Date: 19-06-2010
Time: 09:30 until 11:30
Round #15 - NRL Telstra Premiership 2010
Watch live rugby TV
The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. They compete in the National Rugby League's Telstra Premiership, the premier rugby league competition of Australasia. The club first appeared in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League season and currently plays home matches out of its ground Brookvale Oval whilst being based at the New South Wales Academy of Sport in Narrabeen.
Since winning their first premiership in 1972, the club has won a total of seven First Grade titles along with a number of other competitions. Manly won their most recent premiership on 5 October 2008, when they defeated Melbourne Storm by a record breaking 40–0.[1] They then travelled to England to become the first NRL team since 2003 to win the World Club Challenge by defeating the reigning Super League premiers, Leeds Rhinos 28–20, cementing their position as the world's top rugby league club.
Steve Menzies holds the record for most first-grade games for Manly and the Northern Eagles with 349, Cliff Lyons played 309 first-grade games for Manly. The record for most points scored is held by Graham Eadie with 1917 points and Matthew Ridge has the highest total in one season, scoring 257 in 1995. Steve Menzies holds the top try scoring record with 151. He is also the highest scoring forward in the history of the game.
The Sea Eagles have never won the wooden spoon in their 60 seasons, the longest drought of any existing club. However the Balmain Tigers (now merged into the Wests Tigers) had a wooden spoon drought from 1911 to 1974 (63 years).
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[edit] History
A public meeting on 20 November 1946 saw the formation of the Manly-Warringah District Rugby League Football Club, to play in the New South Wales Rugby League senior competition. Also voted for, was the adoption of maroon and white colours and the establishment of Brookvale Oval as the home ground.
The Manly-Warringah Junior Rugby Football League (MWJRFL) was founded in February 1932 with six clubs established for the local competition. This allowed for the Manly club to enter a team into the President’s Cup, which was a district competition run by the NSWRL for club juniors. After winning the President’s Cup in 1946, the MWJRFL successfully applied for entry into the senior competition.
Manly played their first official game in the NSWRFL senior competition on 12 April 1947 against Western Suburbs club, at Brookvale Oval. Their first win was against Parramatta and the club finished their first season in second last place.
Their first Grand Final appearance was in the 1951 season, which they lost to South Sydney. Manly-Warringah played in five Grand Finals before winning their first in 1972.
After the Super League War of the mid 1990’s, Manly agreed to a joint venture with the North Sydney Bears for the 2000 season, as the Northern Eagles. The joint venture collapsed in 2001 and Manly retained the Northern Eagles licence until returning to the competition as Manly for the 2003 season.
A meeting of the Football Club in 3 June 2004 saw the club members vote for the privatisation of the Football Club.
In 2007, Manly played in their 15th grand final against Melbourne after defeating North Queensland at the Sydney Football Stadium 28 – 6. Manly were beaten 34 – 8 by the Storm on September the 30th at Telstra Stadium, the game being notable for the sickening[citation needed] but legal tackle of Manly fullback Brett Stewart by the Storm's Michael Crocker. Melbourne was later stripped of the 2007 title for salary cap breaches. Manly will not gain the trophy as a result of this, despite calls by the fans and the Manly MP, nor will Parramatta (who lost the 2009 decider).
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