At the end of 1999, they entered into a joint venture with the North Sydney Bears to form the Northern Eagles, which rugby league statisticians regard as a separate club.

In 1946, Manly Warringah defeated North Sydney 12-8 in the Presidents Cup Grand Final which helped the club gain momentum in pushing for inclusion into the NSWRL competition.

North Sydney endured an exodus of players to the newly formed team with 20 Manly juniors returning to play for their local club in their first season.

[1] Manly immediately adopted the maroon and white colours they had used for their Presidents Cup team since its inception and borrowed originally from the Freshwater SLSC of which Ken Arthurson and other players were members.

In 1988, Manly, missing six regular first grade players, including captain Paul Vautin, Michael O'Connor and Phil Daley who were all playing in the first Ashes series test just four days later, plus other stars such as Dale Shearer, Mal Cochrane and David Ronson (all six had played in the 1987 Grand Final win), put the touring Great Britain Lions to the sword with a 30-0 demolition at Brookvale Oval.

Teenage halfback Geoff Toovey was named man of the match, scoring one of the Sea Eagles five tries on the night while the side was led by Noel Cleal who had a point to prove after being a shock omission from the Australian team.

During this period, Manly introduced a number of players who became stars of the game over the next decade including local juniors Jason King and Anthony Watmough, as well as the Stewart brothers from Wollongong, back row forward Glenn and speedy try scoring fullback Brett.

[4] Brett Stewart later that night was charged with the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl outside his apartment block, of which he was subsequently cleared, an incident which led to the damning Four Corners investigation, "Code of Silence".

[5] 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 St. George Illawarra Dragons and the Wests Tigers.

This was followed with an upset 27–16 win over beaten 2010 Grand Finalists the Sydney Roosters, where Manly-Warringah went into the match without its captain Jamie Lyon, Shane Rodney, Dean Whare and Glenn Stewart through injury and also Jason King and Steve Matai through suspension.

This is regarded as one of the most commendable wins in Manly's history[6] and featured outstanding performances by its younger players including Kieran Foran, Jamie Buhrer, William Hopoate and Vic Mauro.

This was followed up with a 26–12 win over the Newcastle Knights at Brookvale, before a 32–20 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs which ended Manly's unbeaten run at Bluetongue Stadium, having won all of its previous matches at the venue.

The Sea Eagles' premiership defence began with an away trip to Eden Park in Auckland where they faced the New Zealand Warriors in the Grand Final rematch and won 26–20.

Certainly a series of gruelling encounters at the business end of the season provided plenty of excuses had they wanted to use them, but instead it seemed the greater the challenge the more the Sea Eagles lifted to tackle it.

Most of the headlines for Manly throughout the year came more due to off-field reasons following news popular back-rower Glenn Stewart would be joining Souths in 2015 with the club's salary cap constraints preventing them from making him an offer.

This is what happened after a late-season stutter saw them relinquish their grip on the minor premiership, lose several key players at just the wrong time, and get bundled out of the 2014 Finals Series in straight sets despite their top-two finish.

It was questioned if this could be very much a new-look Manly side in the next year or two but as long as the club can lock down its two star halves past their current 2015 deals the future should remain bright.

However, Manly had a strong back half of the 2015 season and ended up finishing 9th, only just missing the finals after being dead last going into Round 17 and in danger of earning the club's first ever wooden spoon.

The team would be without the services of Kiwi five-eighth Kieran Foran who had joined rivals Parramatta, as well as long serving dual-premiership hooker Matt Ballin who was released after suffering his second anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury in two years.

[7] However, despite this and the club's horrendous draw which saw it have five 5 day turnarounds in the opening 9 rounds, they showed glimpses of becoming a top side once again, eventually finishing the regular season in 13th position, recording eight wins.

After the first two rounds, Manly were found guilty of minor breaches of the salary cap over the previous five years, due to a subtle change in one particular rule interpretation instigated by the NRL's CEO.

Investigation of close to one million pieces of information and searches of all relevant electrical devices showed all payments to players were correctly and accurately reported to the NRL.

Their season was further marred by an incident when seven players boycotted the round 20 match against the Sydney Roosters due to their refusal to wear the club's "pride" jersey, which was the start of an unfortunate end to the year for the Sea Eagles.

The Council at the time, which already had the long established North Sydney club to contend with, was very pro-rugby union and attempted to prevent the rival code from spreading to the area.

The ground itself was described by former Sea Eagles Test player and television commentator Rex Mossop as being "hard baked" with not much grass covering, especially in the centre portion where most of the play took place.

From the mid-late 1960s, Brookvale Oval was into the rectangle shaped ground it is today through the removal of the outer track and old showground buildings that also doubled as change rooms on match days.

Brookvale Oval (officially known as 4 Pines Park) is as of 2025, an 18,000-capacity rectangular stadium that has been the home of the Sea Eagles since 1947, with the venue last redeveloped in 2022 with the opening of the Bob Fulton Stand.

The club moved all training and administration operations to this new, 4-storey building as well as the centre providing approximately 3,000 seats and premium hospitality spaces to be utilised on match day.

[36] Historically, Manly has had a rich history of local juniors representing the first grade side, including former Australian, State and Club captains Max Krilich and Geoff Toovey.

Current NRL players: Extended squad Head coach Assistant coaches Managers Updated: 10 February 2025Source(s): Sea Eagles Team Profiles, Sea Eagles 2024 The first Manly-Warringah team to play in the NSWRFL Premiership on 12 April 1947 was: 1 Albert Collins – FB 2 Jim Walsh – WG 3 Kelly McMahon – CE 4 Mackie Campbell – CE 5 Johnny Bliss – WG 6 Merv Gillmer – FE 7 Gary Maddrell – HB 8 Harry Grew – LK 9 Ern Cannon – SR 10 Pat Hines – SR 11 Max Whitehead – PR (c) 12 Keith Kirkwood – HK 13 Jim Hall – PR Harold Johnson – positions In 1990, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club recognised their players, past and present, with a team announced to reflect the best squad up to that point.