By Steve Jancetic
October 6th 2008 @ 7:15am
View The Roar's top rugby league writers.
NRL Tipping now live on The Roar. Join now.
Love new art, fashion, music? Check out Aussie site which unearths all things cool and creative.
Related coverage
Manly exorcise demons with grand final record win
Manly laid claim to the greatest grand final triumph of all time as they thumped reigning NRL premiers and arch-nemesis Melbourne 40-0 at ANZ Stadium tonight.
The win avenged their 2007 loss and sent veteran forward Steve Menzies out a winner in the sweetest moment of his career.
The Sea Eagles produced their best display of the [...]
This article is over 2000 days old and has been trimmed.
Get Australia's best NRL opinion emailed daily.
Like this content? Buzz it up!
Free Email updates:
Our daily emails are only sent if there is content for the sport or that author. You can subscribe to multiple daily emails; or get the daily Roar email with all our content in it. We value privacy. More...

(1)
![After a comprehensive 3-0 rout of Ireland in their recent friendly in Limerick, the Socceroos will be out to extend their winning streak when they take on Korea Republic in Seoul.
But without the talismanic Tim Cahill in their midst, Australia may need to find a new match-winner when they run out at Seoul World Cup [...] Mike Tuckerman: Time for some fringe Socceroos to step up](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/time-for-socceroos-th.jpg)
![The AFL’s might over the Australian sporting landscape is down to nights like the Brownlow. Not the glamour of the WAGS or intrigue of who will claim the medal, but rather the tradition of the event.
The Monday night Brownlow ceremony is the perfect lead-in to the biggest week of the AFL year: the [...] Adrian Musolino: Ablett takes the glory and the 2009 Brownlow Medal](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ablett-brownlow-medal-th.jpg)
![Groundsmen around the world, please note: bowlers do exist. But the way you are preparing the pitches, they may become extinct. Ditto for Test cricket.
I realise you must be under instructions to prepare a pitch like a billiard table so that it lasts for five days and more spectators turn up to swell the organisers’ [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: There’s too many tall scores and small thinking](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/tall-scores-small-thinking-tendulkar-th.jpg)
![The next chapter in rugby league looks set to begin in 2010, and while the symbolism may be huge, in reality it may just mean another day at the office.
With News Ltd and the ARL set to make way for an independent commission to run rugby league, many supporters are praising the heavens that they [...] Steve Kaless: New league commission really just more of the same](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/david-gallop-th.jpg)
![The AFL needs to quickly take greater control of third party payments otherwise the league is in danger of becoming a clone of world soccer. The result is a two tier system that will have clear divisions between the rich and poor, allowing powerhouse clubs to dominate while the weaker clubs simply make up the [...] Justin Rodski: Third party payments must be controlled](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/bombers-magpies-anzac-chris-bryan-th.jpg)
![Expansion hasn’t been the golden ticket to significantly better crowd figures with a below 10,000 average crowd for the last round highlighting the complexities of drawing punters at this time of the year. But rather than being the ticket to better crowds, expansion is partly the reason for the deplorable crowds in Brisbane.
Brisbane came into [...] Adrian Musolino: FFA needs to reconsider expansion plans for 2010/11](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ffa-needs-reconsider-th.jpg)
![At the beginning of October, Cricket Australia announced that the old state second XI competition would be replaced by a new Under-23 competition focussing on the development of spin bowlers. What was formerly known as the CA Cup would henceforth be known as the Futures League.
The Futures League will promote aggressive cricket by default, [...] Brett McKay: Australia’s spin future in a league of its own](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/australias-spin-future-hauritz-th.jpg)
![Queensland rugby going broke. Melbourne struggling to find players. The ARU hemming and hawing over requests for the Force to bring in replacements for their staggering injury toll. The Waratahs losing ugly.
And all four provinces out of the five on the Super 14 table.
It seems that there’s nothing but bad news in rugby at the [...] Andrew Logan: Winning grassroots gold at Mudgee Rugby Festival](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mudgee-rugby-th.jpg)
![A recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald referred to a new development in cricket bats, with about a quarter of the back of it flattened and rolled so that a batsman, especially in Twenty-20 cricket, could use both sides of it as a switch hitter.
If the development is a success, it will represent the [...] Spiro Zavos: Double-bladed bats have the wood on tradition](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/double-handed-bats.jpg)
![The Expert Determination Panel, otherwise known as Barry Paterson QC, a former New Zealand High Court judge, and David Kirk, former All Black captain, lived up to its grandiose title in allocating the fifth Australian Super Rugby to Melbourne.
The decision was a determined one, in that the madcap South African bid was rejected, and [...] Spiro Zavos: SANZAR finally gets it right on Melbourne](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/next-five-things-john-oneill-th.jpg)
![A couple of years ago I went to Yankee Stadium with my sons to see a World Series game. We were seated near the home plate and during the pre-game warm-ups you could hear the players chatting as they belted balls high into the inky-velvet darkness of the night sky.
The facilities at the ancient ground [...] Spiro Zavos: Yankee Stadium sport’s most iconic ground? No way](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/scg-th.jpg)
![When Melbourne announce that coach Dean Bailey – who has presided over a total of seven wins in his two seasons at the helm – has been given a new contract, effectively extending his stay by a year, you have every right to question what the world is coming to.
The guy has lost 37 of [...] Michael DiFabrizio: Give Fremantle’s Mark Harvey a contract extension](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mark-harvey-th.jpg)




Terry Kidd said | October 6th 2008 @ 10:00am | Report comment
Good effort Manly well done.
On a different tack …. forgive me if memory is a little hazy, but am I right in thinking that no Manly or Storm players were involved in any off-field indiscretions this year? If so, its good to see that both grand final teams were professional enough to realize that you don’t need to be drinking in a bar at 3am to be a good footballer.