That team is listed below. “First off, it took a day or two to come to grips with being in a grand final. For us, it was about the team, but it was about the town. After a scrum win deep in Manly territory, O’Davis danced past Toovey and Terry Hill to touch down.Sea Eagles fullback Shannon Nevin snatched back momentum with a converted try in the shadows of half-time to stretch Manly’s lead to 16-8 at the break, but the favourites would not score again.O’Davis, the Churchill Medallist, stepped, propped, bobbed, weaved then stretched out to score next to the posts just six minutes from full-time, and Andrew Johns converted to tie the scores at 16-all.The noise inside the stadium had become deafening. While warming up for the opening round game against the Manly-Warringah spent much of the middle of the season near the top of the ladder and were earmarked as a possible premiership contender with impressive wins over the At the end of the 2010 season Manly Warringah lost Manly-Warringah's 2011 season started with an 18–6 loss to the Despite losing many players from the 2010 season, the Sea Eagles found themselves sitting in second place on the NRL Ladder at the end of the regular season, behind the In their opening playoff game, Manly-Warringah registered a 42–8 win over the North Queensland Cowboys at the Sydney Football Stadium. There’s such goodwill for the Newcastle Knights in Sydney, and I think it’s got a lot to do with that time back in 1997, because on that day, every person in Australian sport wished they were a Knights supporter.”Sign up to receive our Breaking News Alerts and Editor's Daily Headlines featuring the best local news and stories.news, local-news, knights, nrl, sports, rugby league, history, throwback thursdayMORE THAN A GAME Former Newcastle Herald Rugby League Reporter BRETT KEEBLE covered the Knights for 24 years. That was from fellow elite players. “I could have had one of my legs missing and I still would have played.” IT started with brutality and ended with brilliance. “The underlying confidence you get from that, I look back now and think, ‘I was only 20. With 18-8 lead, Manly had everything under control until the last 25 minutes when Roosters made a stunning comeback to win the final for the first time since 2002. “There was a bit of magic happening, and it wasn’t a burden hanging around our neck. They then lost Kieran Foran (Eels) and coach Geoff Toovey. They were red-hot; 22 internationals at a club! “The bus trip before the breakfast, people were already lining the streets to wish us well as we left Marathon Stadium,” Cessnock-born utility forward Bill Peden said. Upon entering the NSWRL, Manly took on the colours of maroon and white. All the way home, there were people having parties on the sides of the road and in the roundabouts, then by Wallsend, we’d slowed to a crawl.”It was there where Andrew Johns practised his surfing skills atop a police patrol car.“I’ll go on the record to say Andrew was on the cop car. Sea Eagles fullback Shannon Nevin snatched back momentum with a converted try in the shadows of half-time to stretch Manly’s lead to 16-8 at the break, but the favourites would not score again. The Sea Eagles have donned commemorative logos every decade since their 50th in 1996 and continued to do so for their 60th in 2006; and 70th in 2016 to mark their respective anniversaries of inclusion in the competition. Johns would need a miracle to play in the grand final, and Knights fans held their breath, praying for Joey’s bung lung.Back-page banner headlines suggesting “HE COULD DIE” – a doctor’s warning if Johns played – only added to the drama.Thriving on the theatre of it all, Johns crawled out of bed and on to the field for the team’s final training session, joined them on the bus to Sydney the day before the game, played through the pain, set up the winning try, and was last man standing after weeks of celebrations.That included stage-diving and crowd-surfing as The Screaming Jets entertained a packed Civic Park after the tickertape parade and City Hall civic reception two days after the grand final.Harragon’s gammy hammy was kept under tighter wraps.“I had a bit of trouble with it that week but I was managing it and it certainly wasn’t going to keep me out,” Harragon said.“I could have had one of my legs missing and I still would have played.”IT started with brutality and ended with brilliance.Unable to run flat out, urged on by his coach’s gentle reminder that “you don’t get sent off in grand finals”, Harragon was like a wrecking-ball in the opening 15 minutes.