Back in the day when The Manly Daily was considered the local bible and the beaches derby was afforded acres of coverage, the sports team had a list of antagonists to call on for colourful quotes.

In the green and white corner, we had the likes of Steve Lidbury, Mat Guberina, John Hearn and Grant Andrews to lean on.

In the blue and red corner, Bruce Malouf (who once described the Rats as lower than a New York street gang), Mark Reber, Luke Donnan, Nick Gregorski, Sean Maloney and James Hilterbrand could be relied upon to whip things up.

But the undisputed king of banter is our very own Damien Cummins.

Turtle, a long-serving Manly first grade hooker/prop turned coach, loves derby day like a kid loves Christmas Eve.

So it was interesting to hear he reckons the rivalry has gone off the boil of late.         

"It’s lost a bit of momentum the last few years. There's been too much love between the clubs," he said with a shake of the head.

"The Tik Tok generation is – what are the words they use? – all positive vibes and feels and don’t fully get the emotion of the derby.

"We used to fight the Rats on the field and keep fighting them off the field – now they kiss and hug each other."

But there is hope of a return to the good old days.

With a wink of the eye, Turtle told us: "I reckon the Anzac Day derby is going to be a bit spicier than the last few years."

And why is that?

"It's down to the Holmeses. They are the Rats' ruling monarchy with their imperialist ways, driving out people they don't want and bringing in people they want using a pocket full of money that wasn’t there before to buy players," Turtle – tongue slightly-in-cheek - continued.

"They nicked one of ours (Zac Barnabas) and came after a few others and that hasn’t gone down too well at Manly.

"The hate is back, baby."

Reminded he was a member of the Warringah coaching staff when the Rats won their one and only premiership in 2017, Turtle joked: "I did it for the money."