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SYDNEY - Ask any surviving Northern Eagles player and they'll tell you they hated playing for the failed merger side.
Local junior Jason King despised the fact he made his National Rugby League (NRL) debut for the Northern Eagles and not Manly.
"I hated it when it turned
into the Northern Eagles," he said.
"It was a bit of an empty feeling (playing for them) to tell you the truth, I wasn't a big fan of the club."
Luke Williamson only joined because he had nowhere else to go.
"I was thrown a lifeline to be honest," said Williamson.
"That was sort of testing times. We had a relatively fair side but there was a lot of stuff going on off the field."
And Steve Menzies, the ultimate clubman and Sea Eagles legend, admits the years of the merger with bitter rivals North Sydney were the toughest of his stellar career.
The thought of playing in a grand final was nothing more than a distant dream.
"It was are we going to get paid and are we going to have a team next year," said Menzies.
"I think those were the types of things that were in the forefront of everyone's minds, not when are we going to play our next grand final."
Victims of the Super League war, Manly and Norths merged in 2000, but it was a marriage made in hell and it lasted just two seasons.
The Sea Eagles, once despised for `buying' premierships and known as the `silvertails', were on the verge of collapse.
Enter Max Delmege. A wealthy businessman determined to not let the maroon and white Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles die, he coughed up A$6 ($7.15) million just to keep the club alive.
The club was privatised in 2004 and the Penn family, through their company Penn Sport, weighed in with more financial support soon after.
That same year former player Des Hasler was appointed coach and ever since the club has been improving.
With a five-year plan aimed at premiership success, the Sea Eagles now stand one win away from achieving their goal, and it's still 12 months ahead of schedule.
"We had 22 players on our books and Des and I had no money and no hope," recalls Sea Eagles recruitment officer Noel Cleal.
"With the help of Max Delmege and the Penn family we've been able to be active in the market place.
"We targeted specifics, where we had voids in the club and we always wanted to get a marquee player every year which we have done.
"We set a five-year plan and it's funny, while we've done that we're probably a year ahead of ourselves.
"We thought we might make a bigger dent next year. This year is a bonus but we're not going to knock it back."
It cannot be stressed enough that without Delmege and Penn Sport chief Scott Penn providing continued financial assistance, the Sea Eagles would still be a rabble - if they were alive at all.
Hasler rates the businessmen's contributions as "very crucial", but Delmege says the staff at the football club deserve all the credit for the turnaround.
"You can't give any more credit to the staff that have been doing the recruitment, in particular Des and Crusher (Cleal), it's just awesome," said Delmege.
"I leave it all to them. I'm purely there to give moral and financial support."
Manly will go into Sunday's grand final against Melbourne with just three surviving members of the Northern Eagles debacle - Menzies, King and Williamson.
Since 2004 the club has recruited heavily and developed their own young talent.
Top recruits include representative players Ben Kennedy (now retired), Matt Orford, Brent Kite, Steve Bell and recent addition Jamie Lyon.
Test hopefuls Brett Stewart and Anthony Watmough plus Kiwi centre Steve Matai were talented juniors handed a first grade opportunity by the Eagles.
Together they've formed a disciplined outfit on the verge of premiership glory.
It's an amazing transition and King is relishing the change in fortune.
"We've been through the dark days and finally come out and we've made the grand final a few years down the track," he said.
"I always dreamed this day would come ... but those dark days were pretty tough.
"We had CEOs coming to training sessions assuring us that we were going to be paid and all that type of stuff.
"So the club has really come a long way since then and it's a credit to the administrators and the staff at all levels."
Williamson has little doubt Hasler is responsible not only for Manly's on-field performance, but for attracting players to the club.
"Ever since Des came on board, I'm pretty sure he had a goal of achieving the ultimate prize and that's shown in the way they work on and off the field," said Williamson.
"Players have come and gone in that time, but the club's recruited well and a core group of players have been here for three or four years and now it's proving its worth."
Local junior Watmough says he can remember how popular Manly were back when the club made three successive grand finals from 1995-1997.
He thinks the support is even greater now.
"I can still remember last time Manly were in three grand finals in a row and the buzz around the local area was unbelievable and now it's even bigger," he said.
"I don't think we're the team everyone loves to hate anymore. I think we're the team everyone is starting to shine to and take in as a second team."
Just how well Manly are liked will be determined on Sunday. But win or lose, Delmege says it's up to the fans to decide whether they won't their nickname back or not.
"If Manly supporters want us to be known as the silvertails then I'm all for it," said Delmege.
"But if they want us to be known as the Manly Warringah battlers, then I'm all for that too."
- AAP