# 1996 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season

The 1996 Manly Warringah Sea Eagles season was the 50th in the club's history since their entry into the then New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership in 1947.
The 1996 Sea Eagles were coached by triple Manly premiership player and 1987 Premiership winning coach Bob Fulton. Captaining the side was local junior, halfback Geoff Toovey. The club competed in the Australian Rugby League's 1996 Premiership season and played its home games at the 27,000 capacity Brookvale Oval.

## Ladder

| | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts |
| 1 | Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles | 22 | 18 | 0 | 4 | 549 | 191 | +358 | 36 |
| 2 | Brisbane Broncos | 21 | 17 | 0 | 4 | 607 | 263 | +344 | 34 |
| 3 | North Sydney Bears | 22 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 598 | 325 | +273 | 32 |
| 4 | Sydney City Roosters | 22 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 521 | 321 | +200 | 31 |
| 5 | Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks | 21 | 14 | 2 | 5 | 399 | 268 | +131 | 30 |
| 6 | Canberra Raiders | 21 | 13 | 1 | 7 | 538 | 384 | +154 | 27 |
| 7 | St. George Dragons | 21 | 12 | 1 | 8 | 443 | 360 | +83 | 27 |
| 8 | Western Suburbs Magpies | 22 | 12 | 1 | 9 | 394 | 434 | −40 | 25 |
| 9 | Newcastle Knights | 21 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 416 | 388 | +28 | 23 |
| 10 | Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs | 21 | 11 | 0 | 10 | 375 | 378 | −3 | 22 |
| 11 | Auckland Warriors | 21 | 10 | 0 | 11 | 412 | 427 | −15 | 22 |
| 12 | Sydney Tigers | 22 | 11 | 0 | 11 | 319 | 459 | −140 | 22 |
| 13 | Parramatta Eels | 21 | 9 | 1 | 11 | 404 | 415 | −11 | 21 |
| 14 | Illawarra Steelers | 22 | 8 | 0 | 14 | 403 | 444 | −41 | 16 |
| 15 | Penrith Panthers | 21 | 7 | 1 | 13 | 363 | 464 | −101 | 15 |
| 16 | Western Reds | 21 | 6 | 1 | 14 | 313 | 420 | −107 | 13 |
| 17 | North Queensland Cowboys | 21 | 6 | 0 | 15 | 288 | 643 | −355 | 12 |
| 18 | Gold Coast Chargers | 22 | 5 | 1 | 16 | 359 | 521 | −162 | 11 |
| 19 | South Sydney Rabbitohs | 22 | 5 | 1 | 16 | 314 | 634 | −320 | 11 |
| 20 | South Queensland Crushers | 21 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 220 | 496 | −276 | 8 |

## Finals
### Qualifying Final
### Grand Final

* Sunday 29 September
| Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles | 20 – 8 | St. George Dragons |
| Tries: Craig Innes Danny Moore Goals: Matthew Ridge (3/3) Craig Innes (1/1) | | Tries: Nick Zisti Goals: Wayne Bartrim (2/2) |
* Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 40,985 Referee: David Manson Player of the Match: Geoff Toovey
| Manly-Warringah | St George |
| FB | 1 | Matthew Ridge |
| RW | 2 | Danny Moore |
| LC | 3 | Craig Innes |
| RC | 4 | Terry Hill |
| LW | 5 | John Hopoate |
| FE | 13 | Nik Kosef |
| HB | 7 | Geoff Toovey (c) |
| PR | 17 | David Gillespie |
| HK | 9 | Jim Serdaris |
| PR | 10 | Mark Carroll |
| SR | 11 | Steve Menzies |
| SR | 12 | Daniel Gartner |
| LK | 8 | Owen Cunningham |
| Substitutions: ||
| IC | 6 | Cliff Lyons |
| IC | 14 | Neil Tierney |
| IC | 16 | Des Hasler |
| IC | 19 | Craig Hancock |
| Coach: ||
| Bob Fulton ||
| FB | 1 | Dean Raper |
| RW | 2 | Nick Zisti |
| RC | 3 | Mark Coyne (c) |
| LC | 4 | Mark Bell |
| LW | 5 | Adrian Brunker |
| FE | 6 | Anthony Mundine |
| HB | 7 | Noel Goldthorpe |
| PR | 8 | Troy Stone |
| HK | 9 | Jeff Hardy |
| PR | 10 | Luke Felsch |
| SR | 11 | Scott Gourley |
| SR | 12 | Kevin Campion |
| LK | 13 | Wayne Bartrim |
| Substitutions: ||
| IC | 14 | Nathan Brown |
| IC | 15 | Lance Thompson |
| IC | 16 | David Barnhill |
| IC | 17 | Colin Ward |
| Coach: ||
| David Waite ||
1st half In the 5th minute, Manly centre Craig Innes won the chase and scored after a grubber kick by his skipper Geoff Toovey. Matthew Ridge converted from the sideline for 6–0. The Dragons played on after being awarded a penalty in front of the posts in the 8th minute but failed to score. At the 15-minute mark Saints' halfback Noel Goldthorpe conceded a penalty right in front of their goalpost after committing a head high tackle on Manly's Daniel Gartner. Ridge took the kick, extending the lead to 8–0. St. George sent in forward replacements Lance Thompson and David Barnhill for Scott Gourley and Kevin Campion (head cut). For Manly, Tierney came off the interchange bench to replace Gillespie. Up until the 19th minute mark when Manly veteran five-eighth Cliff Lyons took the field, their coach Bob Fulton was using six running forwards with Toovey as dummy half.
After turning down a relatively easy penalty goal chance not long after Manly's opening try, the Dragons' first points came in the 37th minute when Wayne Bartrim kicked a penalty awarded when Manly forward Cunningham stripped the ball. From the ensuing kick-off just before half-time came the game's controversial moment and a hotly disputed try. Ridge made a spectacular short kick-off and regathered, catching the Dragons unaware. St George hooker Nathan Brown appeared to tackle Ridge albeit one-handedly and by the collar. Ridge got up and ran when Brown was expecting him to stop and play the ball. Referee David Manson ruled that Brown did not complete the tackle. Ridge was eventually tackled just a few metres from the line. From dummy-half Nik Kosef then passed the ball to Steve Menzies who stormed his way through Saints' defense of Thompson, Raper, Goldthorpe and Bartrim to score next to the posts, giving Ridge an easy conversion kick. The controversial ruling by referee Manson gave Manly a 14–2 half time lead and broke Saints' resolve. In the process of scoring Menzies injured his groin/hamstring and although he returned for the second half, he was unable to run and was eventually replaced by coach Fulton.
2nd half In the 53rd minute Manly's Danny Moore scored a try from a Terry Hill pass after Hill drew Saints defenders, Adrian Brunker and Nick Zisti. With Ridge off the field after being concussed in a tackle, Innes converted from 5m off the sideline for the Sea-Eagles to take a 20–2 lead. Five minutes later Dragons' winger Zisti scored a try from a Bartrim cut-out pass. Bartrim then converted from the sideline for a final scoreline of 20–8. The final twenty minutes were scoreless with two field goal attempts from Ridge charged down by Dragons' defenders.
In the days leading up to the game, Bob Fulton had named Manly's starting forward pack to be: Owen Cunningham, Jim Serdaris, Mark Carroll, Steve Menzies, Daniel Gartner and Nik Kosef. However, as had been usual over Manly's previous 4-5 games, before kick-off Fulton pulled a switch. He moved Cliff Lyons to the bench and started Kosef at 5/8. David Gillespie (wearing No.17) came off the bench to start at prop with Cunningham moved back to his usual position of lock. This actually meant that Owen Cunningham became the last Grand Final winning lock forward (as of 2024) to wear the old lock number of 8.

## Player statistics

Note: Games and (sub) show total games played, e.g. 1 (1) is 2 games played.
| Player | Games (sub) | Tries | Goals | FG | Points |
| Mark Carroll | 23 | 3 | | | 12 |
| Owen Cunningham | 24 | 2 | | | 8 |
| Matt Dunford | (2) | | | | |
| Jack Elsegood | 13 (4) | 6 | 5/8 | | 34 |
| Scott Fulton | (5) | | | | |
| Daniel Gartner | 19 (4) | 6 | | | 24 |
| David Gillespie | 17 (8) | | | | |
| Mathew Guberina | 2 (1) | | | | |
| Craig Hancock | (3) | | | | |
| Des Hasler | 10 (12) | 2 | 1/2 | | 10 |
| Solomon Haumono | 1 (13) | 1 | | | 4 |
| Terry Hill | 22 | 7 | | | 28 |
| John Hopoate | 18 (5) | 11 | | | 44 |
| Craig Innes | 25 | 13 | 6/7 | | 64 |
| Martin-John Kelly | (1) | | | | |
| Nik Kosef | 18 (6) | 3 | | | 12 |
| Cliff Lyons | 20 (5) | 4 | | | 16 |
| Steve Menzies | 24 | 20 | | | 80 |
| Danny Moore | 25 | 13 | | | 52 |
| Shannon Nevin | 5 (4) | 3 | 17/26 | | 46 |
| Matthew Ridge (vc) | 17 | 7 | 68/84 | 1 | 165 |
| Jim Serdaris | 18 (1) | | | | |
| Neil Tierney | 1 (19) | | | | |
| Geoff Toovey (c) | 23 | 3 | | | 12 |
| TOTAL | | 104 | 96/148 | 1 | 609 |

## Representative Players
### International

* Australia – Mark Carroll, Daniel Gartner, Terry Hill, Nik Kosef, Steve Menzies, Geoff Toovey
* New Zealand – Matthew Ridge (c)

### State

* New South Wales – Steve Menzies, Geoff Toovey
* Queensland – Owen Cunningham

### City vs Country

* City Origin – Mark Carroll, Terry Hill, Steve Menzies, Geoff Toovey