Two top eight sides in Manly and Canterbury are poised to lock horns this week, with the fixture on track to smash the record books and make history in more ways than one.
David Riccio and Michael Carayannis
Canterbury and Manly’s blockbuster on Friday night is set to break all sorts of attendance records with a crowd of about 40,000 expected for the Accor Stadium clash.
The top eight sides will come head to head in what is expected to be one of the largest crowds of the season.
History could be set on two accounts, which include:
• Eclipsing the biggest crowd for a 6pm Friday game (not including Magic Round). Melbourne and the Warriors hold that record with 28,716 people attending the Anzac Day clash at AAMI Park in 2014. The next best crowd was in 2019 between Parramatta and Manly with 25034 people attending CommBank Stadium; and
• The largest regular season crowd between Manly and Canterbury. A figure of 25,771 people attended Accor Stadium in round five 2004 to watch the teams play.
The all-time record crowd for any fixture involving the two teams is the 1995 grand final when 41,127 people watched the Bulldogs beat Manly at the SFS.
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo knows his fans are keen to see their team again.
“We’re really excited about getting home next week,” Ciraldo said. “We’ve been travelling around from Townsville, to Brisbane, back to Sydney, to Bundaberg and over to New Zealand, so we’re really excited to get back to Accor next week.
“Our fans are going to be really excited to see us play the style of play we’re playing right now. We’re very excited to get home.
“(Viliame) Kikau had his 150th game last week and Burto (Matt Burton) had his 100th (against the Warriors), so we’ll go back and honour those two guys and we’re really excited to be playing in front of our home fans.’’
Canterbury fans again took to the streets of Belmore to celebrate their win against the Warriors on Friday night.
The Bulldogs will face Manly without Stephen Crichton and Kurt Mann. Their ability to run deep into the finals will determine if Mann plays again this season.
He suffered a broken collarbone against the Warriors on Friday night and will require surgery.
He is facing six weeks out, needing the Dogs to push towards the grand final to play again this season.
Tigers bound Jeral Skelton is expected to come into the backline to replace Crichton.
Meanwhile, Sea Eagles are confident outside back Tommy Talau will return after missing the loss against the Tigers because of a pectoral injury.