It’s generally the first two dates you mark on the calendar each year when the draw comes out - Home derby and away derby. The home derby is normally on a fast track. Sunny skies, a packed hill and the Manly faithful in the stands cheering ‘Marlins, Marlins’... previously it was the ‘Blues, Blues, Blues’ call as we pushed back those in green via scrum or maul! Then of course there is the return leg up the Rats drainpipe that is Pittwater Rd. While Google Maps will tell you it’s only 14.4 km between Manly Oval and Rat Park, in all honesty, it could be a lifetime away. Everything just seems a little slower. People talk that way, drivers drive that way, Rats wingers run that way. The drive in is when you have to really switch on. You generally lock your car doors as those staying across the way in the caravan park can never be fully trusted. And when you run out of those sheds, a place that takes you back to medieval times, you know you will be greeted with a