The origins of the Manly-Warringah Rugby League football club can be dated back to the early 1930s when the Manly-Warringah Junior Rugby Football League was founded (1932). In 1947 the Manly district was invited by the New South Wales Rugby Football League (along with Parramatta) to join the Sydney metropolitan competition. The club adopted the Sea Eagles as its emblem and has gone on to compete in every first grade season as the Manly Sea Eagles, apart from three years between 2000 and 2002 when the club briefly merged with the North Sydney Bears to form the Northern Eagles club. After the joint-venture team ended the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles returned the National Rugby League (NRL) as a sole entitiy where it continues to compete today.
Since 1947 the club has won seven first grade premierships - 1972, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1987, 1996 and 2008. Its reserve grade side has also won five premierships - 1954, 1960, 1969, 1973 and 1988. Two of the club's former players have been named in the NRL's 'Team of the Century' - Ken Irvine (wing) and Bob Fulton (reserve); while six have been named in the '100 Greatest Players' list - Kerry Boustead, Roy Bull, Graham Eadie, Bob Fulton, Ken Irvine and John O'Neill.
