Bob 'Roadie' Batty

Veteran Manly fullback, a highly consistent player for the club during the 1960s, retired as the club's greatest point-scorer with a record 257 grade games to his credit. Bob Batty came to the club from Murwillumbah and was a member of the Manly's reserve grade side that won the premiership in 1960. Not overly robust, Batty started his career as a winger but developed into a safe, reliable fullback in defence and a fine attacking player who more than held his own in a decade which produced a host of champion fullbacks. A member of Manly's losing grand final teams in 1968 and 1970, Batty retired after a trial match at the beginning of 1972, leaving the way for his young successor, Graham Eadie. This meant that he missed out on the club's maiden grand final win against Easts that year but he was the first clubman to amass over 1000 career points (ironically, a record overtaken by Eadie in the 1970s). Batty was later a lower grade coach of the club during the mid-1970s. Batty passed away in 2004, aged 65.