IN MANLY loyalty is a battered six-month-old TAB ticket with your team's name on it. Greg Fletcher, a diehard fan, has a wad of them, equalling a total winning pool of about $35,000.

For Mr Fletcher the receipts are a de facto logbook of the season's highs and lows. He keeps them in his pocket. "This one here," he said, "it was when they were paying 13-1. That must have been in March, after they lost to Newcastle."

Manly players and fans were keeping the party celebrating their thumping grand final win going strong throughout Sunday night and well into yesterday afternoon.

The team held a rooftop celebration at the Bella Vista apartment complex at North Steyne; at 12.30pm, a group of players emerged to pose for the assembled media and an occasional honking Commodore. The fullback Brett Stewart was showered with beer from the balcony above; a group of girls were close enough to the players to exchange shouts and be showered by the odd bottle top.

At the Corso a great proportion of people were wearing maroon, the battle standard in a suburb that has scant regard for the outside world and its ideas about dress codes and social inhibition.

It is a mentality that sustains the Steyne Hotel. Dave Lloyd and David Harris had arrived by 11.30am, kicking off a second day of partying in true Manly form.

"We're about to have a thousand beers," Mr Harris said.

Mr Lloyd lives in Melbourne, but still describes himself as a Manly local. He was undecided about whether to turn up for his flight back to Melbourne this morning.

"You've got to soak these things up," he said, "especially after last year's result. It makes it a lot sweeter. I can't wait to return to rub it in to everyone, and I'm not going to take my jersey off."

At the beach, Kevin Harrison, a council worker, drove around for much of the day in his buggy, which he had converted into a shrine to his team. "A lot of people sing out to me or sound their horn. That's the way it is around here."