Manly have revealed how war stories from the initial Battle of Brookvale and watching replays of the famous brawl helped inspire them to their bashing of Melbourne.
The Sea Eagles' 18-8 win over the Storm on Friday night was easily the best of their season so far, on a night when tempers often flared and three players were put in the sin bin for late hits.
The match immediately earned comparisons to the 2011 clash between the two rivals, which is remembered as one of the most spiteful in the modern-day NRL as fights spilled over the sideline.
Daly Cherry-Evans is the sole remaining player from either team on that night, while the likes of Brad Parker and Aaron Woods were both on the hill watching as young Manly fans.
The Sea Eagles invited Jamie Buhrer to speak with them this week about the match and the Melbourne rivalry, while Anthony Watmough and Glenn Stewart were among those invited into the sheds after.
"We built it up to be like that game," Parker told AAP.
"The rivalry isn't as strong as back then. But from the first hit up, we put it in.
"We had a couple of chats this week from old players talking about that rivalry, and it got us really fired up to put in a good performance.
"We were watching the video during the week and it was so unreal watching blokes like Chez (Cherry-Evans) and Foz (Kieran Foran) getting involved in it.
"Jamie Buhrer came in, and then we had blokes like Gifty (Stewart) and Watmough come to the sheds afterwards and had a beer with them.
"They were loving it. It was really good to put in a performance not only for the fans, but for the old boys too."
Manly's win was built on the same physicality the club made famous during their golden era, and was a far cry from the side who conceded a combined 76 points in the two previous weeks against Newcastle and Penrith.
In one first-half set, they put Melbourne players on the ground with back-to-back big hits as Haumole Olakau'atu, in particular, flattened Justin Olam.
Another sizeable shot was landed by Raymond Tuaimalo Vaega on William Warbrick, in one of the most physical matches of the opening seven rounds.
Cherry-Evans said they had used the emotion of the rivalry and history between the two teams to try and turn around their defence after the horror fortnight.
"We had three pretty rough weeks where we haven't got a result, and we needed to spark something," he said.
"We did tap into it.
"We have a good understanding of where that rivalry stems from.
"Our best response to that is to show respect to the opposition and play well and play tough, and we did that."
