Wish I could say I'm surprised but I tipped them to win it. Well done Manly, hatters gonna hate because they couldn't see your talent.
Sif the Warriors deserved it more. At least Manly were one of the top teams consistently over the season.
Nah, Manly deserved it tbh but kudos to the Warriors. They played their hearts out against a better team. That Johnson is going to be insane in a couple of years.
My problem is more with the fact of Origin. It's just not a fair comp when you have teams like the Dragons giving up 5-7 players, Melbourne giving up 3-4, Brisbane giving up 5-6, and the Cowboys giving up 2-3. While Manly only give up 1-2 at a time. The same thing happened when they won the comp in 2008 - Teams like Melbourne lose 8 players and Manly lose 1. And it's not just the number of players, it's who they are. Lockyer's, Thurston's, Smith's, Cronk's, Slater's. And who do Manly give up? King or Watmough or Stewart. Hardly irreplaceable key players. Teams like the Broncos and Dragons go through hell and back during the Origin period. Teams like Manly come out smelling like roses. The Cowboys were holding Manly out of the top 4 for weeks and weeks before Origin struck. Every single team I mentioned except Melbourne and Manly came out of Origin worse off.
If I had to rate the top 5 players without looking at stats it'd be 1.Glen Stewart 2.Brett Stewart 3.Michael Robertson 4.Sam Rapira 5.Simon Mannering thought halves on both sides were very ordinary.
