1976 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles season

Saturday 18 September

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	13 – 10	Parramatta Eels
Tries: Phil Lowe Goals: Graham Eadie (5/6)	[26]	Tries: Geoff Gerard Jim Porter Goals: John Peard (2/3)

Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Attendance: 57,343 Referee: Gary Cook Player of the Match: Graham Eadie

Manly-Warringah

Parramatta

FB 1 Graham Eadie LW 2 Tom Mooney CE 3 Russel Gartner CE 4 Bob Fulton (c) RW 5 Rod Jackson FE 6 Alan Thompson HB 7 Gary Stephens LK 8 Ian Martin SR 9 Phil Lowe SR 10 Steve Norton PR 11 Terry Randall HK 12 Max Krilich PR 13 John Harvey Substitutions: IC 14 Gary Thoroughgood IC 17 Mark Willoughby Coach: Frank Stanton

FB 1 Mark Levy LW 2 Jim Porter CE 3 Ed Sulkowicz CE 4 John Moran RW 5 Neville Glover FE 6 John Peard HB 7 John Kolc LK 8 Ray Price SR 9 Geoff Gerard SR 10 Ray Higgs (c) PR 11 Denis Fitzgerald HK 12 Ron Hilditch PR 13 Graham Olling Substitutions: IC 14 John Baker IC 15 Graeme Atkins Coach: Terry Fearnley

In 1976, after 30 years of competition, Parramatta reached their first grand final since their admission into the NSWRFL premiership in 1947. Their opponents were Manly-Warringah who had also joined the premiership in 1947, but were playing in their 8th Grand Final, having previously won in 1972 and 1973 with captain Bob Fulton, fullback Graham Eadie, prop forward Terry Randall and lock Ian Martin having played in those two premiership teams.

Eels winger Jim Porter scored first after his opposite Tom Mooney spilled a John Peard bomb in his own in goal to give Parramatta to a 5-0 lead. A penalty goal to Graham Eadie closed the score to 5-2 before Alan Thompson sidestepped through the Parramatta defence to send Phil Lowe in for Manly's first and only try in the Paddington Hill corner. Scores were locked 7-7 at half time.

Geoff Gerard scored a try in the Members corner, though Mark Levy missed the difficult conversion giving the Eels a 10-7 lead early in the second half. Two penalty goals for Eadie then gave Manly back the lead 11-10.

Parramatta missed a critical opportunity to win the game and their first ever premiership with ten minutes of the match remaining: 15 metres out from a wide-open try line,[27] Eels winger Neville Glover dropped the pass from John Moran which would have given the Eels the match-winning try in the Paddington Hill corner.[28][29][30]

Another penalty gave Manly a 13-10 lead. In the frantic dying minutes Parramatta threw everything they had at the Manly defence including the infamous "flying wedge" of dubious legality which had Ron Hilditch at the apex of a phalanx of players driving him towards the line. The wedge was stopped by the Manly defence less than a foot short of the try line. Hilditch would later say that his head came down on the try line with the ball trapped underneath him.

The Manly defence held and the Sea Eagles secured their third premiership in five seasons, while the Eels would have to wait five more years for their first.

It was Bob Fulton's 213th and final match for Manly after a brilliant ten-year career with the club and the grand final victory was largely credited to his experience and brilliance.[31] He was full of emotion as he accepted the J J Giltinan Shield and was able to end his playing career at Manly on the highest note. He would later return to the club as a successful coach in the 1980s but first he would finish his playing years and then commence coaching at the Eastern Suburbs Roosters (Fulton would join Easts in 1977, unable to resist a big money offer from the club that was backed by one of Australia's richest men and a big supporter of the future rugby league Immortal, Kerry Packer).

Manly's win was a triumph for the powerful triumvirate of Fulton, coach Frank Stanton and Secretary Ken Arthurson who would all go on to higher honours in the game. For Stanton, it was his first success in a coaching career which was to bring two premierships and two Ashes-winning Kangaroo tours. Arthurson had brought to the club players of a calibre to enable five Grand Final appearances in the 1970s for four victories. He would go on to become the Chairman of the New South Wales Rugby League and later the Australian Rugby League.

• New South Wales – Graham Eadie, Terry Randall

• City Firsts – Graham Eadie, Max Krilich, Terry Randall