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Manly celebrate during the qualifying final between the Manly Sea Eagles and North Queensland Cowboys
It’s my belief that, if at the start of the year, every NRL fan voted on which team they didn’t want to see win the premiership, Manly, Melbourne, New Zealand and Brisbane would all poll strongly.
Yet, these are the exact four teams who will battle each other this weekend in the NRL grand final qualifying games.
Seeming as one of them is destined to win the 2011 premiership, it begs the question, which team is the lesser evil? Essentially, which team do we hate the least?
I know one thing, it’s not Manly.
For the other three teams that remain in the hunt for the NRL silverware, if you dig deep enough, you can find an angle to make a Warriors, Storm or Broncos premiership palatable.
Yet when it comes to Manly, the good news angle completely dries up. There is no silver lining for rugby league fans if the Sea Eagles win the title.
Despite the perception that Sydneysiders will always support the Sydney teams, you would be hard pressed finding anyone in New South Wales’ capital city that actually wants Manly to win. Most Sydneysiders don’t even classify Manly as a Sydney club, such is the hatred for the Sea Eagles.
In the 70s, 80s and even parts of the 90s, Manly were the team that everyone hated.
The hatred was primarily born out of their reputation of poaching rugby league’s best players, and therefore attempting to buy a premiership.
Their financial position is what gave birth to the ‘Silvertails’ nickname, as Roy Masters created a social war to fire up his Western Suburbs Magpies teams, Manly’s biggest rival. Coach Masters had his players believing they were the poor, battler underdogs, up against the rich and arrogant favourites. The Silvertails versus the Fibros.
It was sporting psychology at its very best and the hatred of Manly was shared by all the other teams.
The Sea Eagles club has also been home to some incredibly polarising rugby league figures, including Rex ‘Moose’ Mossop, Ken Arthurson, Graham Lowe, Bob Fulton, Paul Vautin and Geoff Toovey. They were polarising by virtue of Manly fans loving them, and everyone else hating them.
However, the hatred of Manly diminished significantly in the late 90s and early part of the 2000s as the club struggled on and off the park. Fans found it hard to truly hate a loser.
But Manly’s resurgence in recent times has ensured the venom has returned. And it’s not just due to the fact that they’re successful again; the club contains some legitimate villains in their ranks.
Overseeing the whole operation is head coach Des Hasler, who is very partial to an almighty whinge. Much like Masters thirty years earlier, he also plays the psychological mind games to perfection, and has his players believing everyone is against them.
It’s siege mentality 101.
Yet Hasler needn’t waste his time trying to brainwash his players into thinking everyone hates them. Far from fabricated, the paranoia is real – everyone does hate them.
Anthony Watmough is a thug. Steve Matai is a penalty waiting to happen, who spends so much time at the NRL judiciary that he should pay rent there.
Brett ‘Snake’ Stewart has become a sook. And his brother Glenn can’t fight his way out of a paper bag.
Jamie Lyon didn’t want to play for New South Wales. Will Hopoate can’t escape his surname. Kieran Foran is a Kiwi. Daly Cherry-Evans has a hyphen in his name.
George Rose isn’t skinny. Brent Kite is soft. David Williams couldn’t catch syphilis.
Tony Williams likes Two and a Half Men. Matt Ballin steals lollies from babies. Steve Menzies prefers AFL. Nik Kosef produced the Twilight movies.
Mark Carroll drinks light beer. Ian Roberts killed Phar Lap. Cliffy Lyons. . .actually, no, I love Cliffy.
Brookvale Oval is the worst stadium in Australia. Manly Leagues Club pokies never pay out. Manly stabbed the North Sydney Bears in the back. Their jerseys have always sucked.
The Spit Bridge should just remain up 24/7.
I hate Manly.
But I think you may have cottoned on to that by now.
You can follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanOak