Steve Menzies might not believe it but there is little doubt he is the King of Brookvale Oval. Complete with his trademark black headgear for a crown, the 34-year-old has ruled Brookvale Oval for 16 years to become Manly’s most capped player and the competition’s highest tryscoring forward.

The Manly veteran played his final regular season game at his beloved ground tonight, helping the Sea Eagles to a 28-10 victory over the Gold Coast just half an hour after having the southern grandstand named in his and league Immortal Bob Fulton’s honour.

The 345-game champion had almost 15,000 fans come out to send off their favourite homegrown hero and the only thing missing was a classic ‘Beaver’ try.

“I was sniffing around for a try in the second half, even the ground announcer was saying get the ball to me,” said Menzies.

But Menzies will get another chance to score below his own grandstand in a fortnight when the Sea Eagles host a week one finals game at their suburban ground.

“How good is that? Beautiful,” he said when reminded tonight was not his very last Brooky game.

“It was my final (regular season) game and all these people come out to see you makes you feel pretty good.

“I don’t know about King, I’m not very good at ruling.”
The plaudits have been flowing all week for Menzies, a player who has defied the lack of loyalty in league to remain with the Sea Eagles his entire career.

He will head to England next year to boost his retirement fund with a season at Bradford, but nobody can ever question his commitment to Manly.

Titans coach John Cartwright had glowing praise for Menzies and held his own team on the paddock at least 10 minutes after the final siren so they could applaud him off the ground after his lap of honour.

“He has to go down as one of the all time greats,” said Cartwright.

“To play at such a consistent level he does … 15 years at the top level, you won’t see a lot of players do that in the future.”

© AAP 2012

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