Matty Johns reveals the untold stories of the rivalry between Newcastle and Manly

Manly hated the Knights and the Knights hated Manly, for a decade it was as intense a rivalry as the game has ever seen - then one moment of magic changed everything.

Matty Johns reveals how deep Manly v Newcastle rivalry runs

Everyone loves a rivalry.

Think Ali v Frazier. Bunnies v Roosters. Chris Rock v Will Smith.

Some burn out quickly, others sustain. In rugby league nothing compares to the heat and longevity of the Rabbitohs and Roosters.

But the Newcastle-Manly rivalry, for a short time, was the most intense and vicious in the game.

These events led to a truly bitter rivalry through the mid-90s, in which every game drew huge crowds and saw plenty of carnage.

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Paul Harragon gets a firm grip of Mark Carroll’s head during an early season clash between Newcastle and Manly in 1997.

1988 – THE AMBUSH

The Knights entered the competition in 1988 and, for the club’s first-ever showing, they played a home trial game against defending premiers Manly.

Apart from Kiwi international Sam Stewart, the Knights were a young group of unknowns, players whose contracts were a fraction of their rivals.

The full-strength Sea Eagles travelled up the highway for what they believed was a low-key trial to blow off a few cobwebs.

When the bus arrived at what is now McDonald Jones Stadium, they were faced with a hostile crowd of more than 21,000 Novocastrians and a young Knights team who were pumped to the eyeballs and prepared for the biggest game of their lives.

The young Knights battered the underprepared Manly, winning 24-12.

It’s a victory which laid the foundation of what the club stood for, and is still spoken about today.

For Manly, it was a meaningless trial match.

NOT A GAME, AN EVENT.

From that game the Knights and their supporters recognised the home fixture against Manly as more than playing for two points.

The clash was always intense and always a sellout.

At the back end of the 1990 season, with the Knights on the brink of a first finals finish, the Manly-at-home event rolled around.

I was playing under-/21s that day and before our midday kick-off, the gates were shut with more than 25,000 people already jammed in, while locked out fans tried to climb the stadium walls to get in.

The Knights were victorious 10-4.

At this point and heading into the mid-90s, I’m sure the rivalry was purely from our end, with Manly viewing us as an annoyance more than an enemy.

But that was about to change.

Malcolm Reilly was a game changer for Newcastle.

THE ARRIVAL OF MALCOLM REILLY

Heading into the 1995 season, legendary English hardman Malcolm Reilly was appointed Knights coach.

Reilly was a Manly icon who Ken Arthurson brought to the Sea Eagles in an effort to win their first premiership. It worked and they went back-to-back in 1972-73.

Before Malcolm arrived in Newcastle I asked his former teammate and dear friend, the late Bob Fulton, what to expect.

Bozo’s words were, “Get ready, he’s a tough task master but he’ll immediately turn you into a title contender.”

Fulton and Reilly were like brothers, and they absolutely hated losing to one another. You could feel a change in how Manly viewed us, the matches became more personal.

SPUD v CHIEF

Holy cow, didn’t this get out of hand. Heading into the 1995 season, Mark Carroll was out to prove he was the best front-rower in the game and wasn’t afraid of letting Paul ‘Chief’ Harragon know about his intentions.

In the Origin series that year Phil Gould roomed the two together in an attempt to quell a growing hostility. It made things worse.

In the lead-up to game one they outright refused to talk to one another.

Spud told me he’d lie in bed unable to sleep, fists clenched, expecting Chief to leap across and rain punches on him at any time.

The series was a disaster for New South Wales and they went their separate ways, putting a circle around Round 17 where the volcano would erupt.

Paul Harragon, Jim Serdaris and Mark Carroll smile during an awkward team dinner during NSW Blues Origin camp in 1995.

THAT GAME, THAT CAR CRASH

In the week leading up to this Round 17 clash, the pressure intensified. Every day the papers hyped the Spud/Chief face-off. On the night, the atmosphere was unbelievable. A ground record of almost 33,000 jammed into Marathon Stadium, capacity was 29,000.

In the second tackle of the match a fight erupted, it was always going to, the pressure was too intense.

Midway through the first half Chief suffered a bad groin injury and it was pretty clear he wasn’t going to be able to continue.

Minutes after, Manly scored and we were standing as a group behind the try line and the trainer is trying to get Chief off the field. He pushed the trainer away screaming, “If I’m going off, I’m taking him with me. Joey kick off to Spud.”

Paul Harragon and Mark Carroll fight during a match in 1995.

Joey indeed kicked off to Spud, and what followed was the most sickening clash I’ve ever seen, with Chief charging at Spud from 50 metres, smashing the Manly front rower off his feet and knocking himself unconscious. The impact was that of a car crash.

Spud stood over our Skipper taunting him … it was chaos.

Manly were far too good for us. We got caught up in all the madness and they beat us 34-18.

Later that season we met again, this time the stakes were even higher, a grand final qualifier. In the wet, the two forward packs belted each other relentlessly and they were again too good, winning 12-4.

The next week they would suffer a shock loss to Canterbury in the grand final. I believe the intensity of the grand final qualifier had a hand in it.

THE FINAL ACT

For the next 18 months the rivalry never subsided, and in 1997 it intensified even more.

We met in a trial game at Coffs Harbour which was played like a Finals match, lots of late hits, plenty of injuries.

Come finals time, a match at the SFS resulted in probably the most spiteful of all clashes that season.

Both sets of players attacked each other with foul play and cheap shots. Once again, plenty of injuries but this time, some suspensions.

And then we meet again grand final day. In the grand final qualifier we beat North Sydney in a close, hard-fought match.

However, the following day Manly just hung on to beat the Roosters 17-16 in a match which has largely been forgotten.

It was one of the best finals matches I’ve ever seen. Manly were out on their feet in the final few minutes. The Roosters did us a huge favour, the Sea Eagles left the field battered and fatigued.

On grand final day, before we ran out, we gathered in a circle and Chief announced his intentions, “Players don’t get sent off in grand finals.”

I’ll be honest, in the opening 15 minutes Chief was very nearly wrong. A lot of his tackles were very high and very hard. In keeping with tradition a fight broke out in the first two minutes.

The first 20 minutes were brutal but then it settled into a fast, open game.

Darren Albert after scoring the winning try in the 1997 grand final.

When Darren Albert put the ball down with only seconds remaining to win us the match, the

bubble burst on the rivalry. It was never the same.

We were no longer the annoying underdogs, chipping away at the big boys.

Spud left for the London Broncos, some players retired. Manly would soon after become the Northern Eagles.

It was a great rivalry which lasted 10 years. Who knows, maybe it ignites again on Thursday night.