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
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).
In a repeat of the 2007 grand final, Manly again played Melbourne in the 2008 decider. The story was very different for the Sea Eagles this time around as they decimated the Storm 40–0 to win their seventh premiership in front of 80,388 at ANZ Stadium. Manly Prop Brent Kite was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal after a powerhouse display which included a class try in the 58th minute. This is the largest winning margin in a grand final in NRL history.
The 2009 season boded poorly as a result of two incidents on the day of Manly's season launch. Second-rower Anthony Watmough was assaulted by a sponsor after allegedly making innapropiriate comments to his daughter [2]. Brett Stewart later that night, allegedly sexually assaulted a 17-year old girl outside his apartment block, an incident which led to the dammning Four Corners investigation, "Code of Silence". Stewart's case is current
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ly before the courts.
Manly paid a $100,000 fine for failing to adequately punish Stewart for his offence. Stewart faced a brief trial at the time, and a further, more comprehensive trial began in March 2010. As a result, Manly lost their first four games of the season before a 23–10 win against the Tigers. The Sea Eagles managed to recover and snared fifth place at the end of the
