The premiers that never were: 1995 Manly Sea Eagles

As part of a series on some of the best teams never to win a premiership we take a look at the 1995 Manly side that won its first 15 games in a row but came unstuck on the biggest day of the season at the hands of a Terry Lamb-inspired Canterbury...

One of the great attractions of sport is that there’s no such thing as a sure thing, even when that ‘sure thing’ enters a grand final on the back of one of the most dominant seasons ever put together.

The Manly Sea Eagles team of 1995 still lays claim to the best start to a season in premiership history but it’s the finish that haunts them almost three decades later.

Coached by the incomparable Bob Fulton and boasting no fewer than 12 internationals in the starting 13 that took to the SFS to face the Bulldogs in the decider, Manly had every reason to be confident a sixth premiership was on its way to Brookvale.

It was a confidence born out of a stunning 20-2 regular season that opened with a 42-18 walloping of the Rabbitohs in Round 1 and included wins over defending champs Canberra in Round 10 and the back-to-back premiers from 1992-93 Brisbane in Round 11.

Quite simply, the Manly juggernaut could not be stopped as they went 15-0 to open the season before Phil Gould and his Roosters stormed Fortress Brookvale in Round 16 to hand Manly their first defeat.

Two great rivals, two coaching geniuses, one heaving mass of humanity on a Sunday afternoon at a suburban ground… the ingredients were there for a fiery showdown but few could have predicted the drama that would unfold.

The form guide suggested the Roosters with a 7-8 record should have been no match for Cliff Lyons, Geoff Toovey, Steve Menzies and co but Gould had other ideas, masterminding 21-16 ambush to send Manly crashing to their first defeat.

With inexperienced referee David Jay blowing no fewer than 23 penalties and emotions boiling over, Gould took the unprecedented step of threatening to take his team from the field – even though his team was ahead.

The Roosters captain that day, Sean Garlick, couldn't believe what he was hearing as Gould beckoned for the team to walk from the field.

He later recalled in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in 2002 that he would have perhaps followed the coach's instructions if they weren't in front on the scoreboard.

"The call came out for me to lead the players off. We were in front! That was the amazing thing, we were in front and there was something like five minutes to go," he said.

Perhaps rattled by that defeat the Sea Eagles went down again in Round 18 to the Sharks but quickly regrouped, racking up 176 points between Round 19-22 in dominant wins over the Tigers, Panthers, Magpies and Rabbitohs.

Come the qualifying final and Manly would avenge that loss to the Sharks as tries to Craig Hancock, John Hopoate, Solomon Haumono and Menzies led to a 24-20 win to set up a preliminary final clash against Newcastle.

Calling on all the defensive prowess that had seen them restrict their opponents to an average 11 points per game in the regular season, Manly restricted the Knights to just one try as they rolled into the decider against Canterbury, who had downed St George, Brisbane and Canberra in three sudden-death encounters to advance to the big one.

As good as the Bulldogs had been, most expected the decider to be the coronation of Manly’s stellar season but with Terry Lamb at his scheming best and Jim Dymock turning in a Churchill Medal-winning display, the boys from Belmore got home 17-4.

Having piled on 31 points per game during the home and away rounds, the Sea Eagles failed to muster a single try, their points coming via the boot of Matthew Ridge with two penalty goals.

Making Canterbury’s triumph even remarkable was the fact the club had been divided all season after stars Jarrod McCracken, Dean Pay, Jason Smith and Dymock turned their backs on Super League deals to join the ARL.

Three of the quartet eventually forced their way back into the side but McCracken remained an outcast.

Two of Canterbury’s tries appeared to come off forward passes and the third on the seventh tackle but the club that made an art of winning titles in the 80s had added another to their collection and Manly could only ponder what might have been.