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Kieran Foran has taken over the northern beaches, with his name and face at KFC Manly Vale and 4Pines Park.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n
And on Thursday night, the Sea Eagles<\/a> will play the Rabbitohs<\/a> at the renamed Foz Pines Park.<\/p>\n Manly are winning again, vibes are high. First there was Angeball, and then later came Bazball<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, \u2018Fozball\u2019 has well and truly reached pandemic levels. There\u2019s a viral energy around it that has been driven, in part, by local social media content creators and podcasters.<\/p>\n \u201cFozball feels like a way of life now for Manly fans,\u201d die-hard Manly fan and content creator Ella Kasmar told Nine.com.au.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not one specific thing. It\u2019s not just the way we play. It\u2019s the hope that\u2019s been instilled in this club, it\u2019s the positive vibes, and it\u2019s our performance on the field.<\/p>\n \u201cFoz cares so much about the club, and that\u2019s being instilled into the players and fans, and it\u2019s showing in their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n When a team in any sport has a turnaround like Manly\u2019s over the past two months or so, of course fans are going to mobilise, get hyped, and jump on the momentum train.<\/p>\n But according to Hello Sport podcast host Tom Birmingham, one thing Fozball is not is a hype train, because hype trains eventually derail and Fozball is a concept and therefore cannot.<\/p>\n Vibes are high among Sea Eagles players in the Fozball era. (Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n \u201cThe start to the season was so f — ed that you found a proud people on the Peninsula who aren\u2019t used to being as bad as it felt like we were,\u201d he told\u00a0Nine.com.au.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were floating in the ocean looking for something to grab onto, and then Kieran Foran comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just fans that have jumped on the Foz train. When has a brand as iconic and corporate like Kentucky Fried – sorry, Kieran Foran Chicken – ever leaned into such a niche promotion?<\/p>\n But that in and of itself is probably why the Fozball movement is as successful as it has been.<\/p>\n It\u2019s largely driven by new media like Kasmar and podcasts like Hello Sport. The emergence of this type of organic, local coverage has given fans a new way to engage with players, each other, and the game more broadly.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Fozball movement didn\u2019t start on the back pages of any newspaper – it was fan-driven,\u201d Hello Sport co-host Eddy Simpson said.<\/p>\n Indeed all three credited the NRL Soapbox on Instagram as the one who minted the phrase.<\/p>\n \u201cThe beauty of the new world we live in from a media perspective is anyone can partake, be a part of, or find themselves at the centre of these weird, funny movements,\u201d Simpson continued.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s been great to see it. Manly are obviously one of the great teams of all time, and we will win the comp.\u201d<\/p>\n If there was one thing that irked Simpson the most about Fozball, is the term itself and its links to Ange Postecoglou<\/a> and the England cricket team<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"SYDNEY,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ccfe41e6a06b7907bd088b846e33d51303164733.jpeg\")
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