2005 Round 13 Sydney Roosters vs. Manly (classic)

Overcoming a deficit to beat the high-flying Roosters in a gritty display, Des Hasler's young chargers finally gave hope to long-suffering Sea Eagles fans. Remarkably, Manly came into this Friday night clash in second spot on the ladder after coming from 20 points behind to beat the Panthers 5 days earlier. Local juniors Anthony Watmough and Jason King were both immense and in Choc's case, his display in this game would earn him a debut call-up for NSW a few days later. The talk around this time centred on whether the Eagles could finish in the top eight for the first time since 1998. Even though, at the top of the broadcast, Fatty mentioned that fans were feeling confident the team could win the whole thing, that was very much not the case. Most fans (including myself) were just happy to see the team put together consecutive wins. We also couldn't understand why the club, thus far, had failed to re-sign their skipper Michael Monaghan. He was another guy who was playing out of his skin in the early weeks of the 2005 season. This victory certainly went some way towards making that happen, even though it eventuated that Monas would need to move to the hooking position at season's end to make room for Matt Orford. A switch he took on with class and distinction. Another remarkable aspect from this game was that it marked a very rare Eagles appearance on Friday Night Footy. They were locks for the prime-time spot during the ’90s but in the ensuing years were often relegated to what was known at the time as the graveyard shift (a 7.30pm Saturday night kick-off on Fox). I'm not sure how long it had been since Manly had a Channel Nine broadcast game on a Friday. It was likely during the early stages of the 1998 season. From memory, this NE game from was their only prime-time game during the joint-venture years:    • 2001 NRL Round 8 Northern Eagles vs. Wests...   One final thought on this one while I'm on a roll. Rabs mentioned during the broadcast that their "stats man" David Middleton (the genius!) had worked out that Manly only needed to win four of their remaining 13 games of the season to make the finals. With the win in this game, that equation made it only three wins from 12 games required. Easy stuff, right? On current form, they'll have that wrapped up before the State of Origin series was done. Well, as it turned out, the team fell off a cliff after this victory and it took Manly until the final round against Canberra to secure that elusive third victory. Along the way were some close losses but also some absolute thumpings - including a demoralising 44-6 loss to Souths the very next weekend, a 49-24 loss to the Tigers in round 17, a 36-10 loss to St George at home in round 19 and perhaps the worst of them all: a 68-6 massacre at Shark Park in round 24. The Eagles would limp into the finals and be voted first off the island after week 1. There was always next year! Link to the opener with sound:    • NRL 2005 Friday Night Football Channel Nin...