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On the same day Bob Fulton's death shocked the rugby league world, his influence across the NRL remained as sound as it had done for the previous 55 years.

Even on the day he died, Bob Fulton's influence on the rugby league world was as significant as it had been almost every day for the past 55 years.

Widely regarded as one of the game's finest players, Fulton's death at age 74 to cancer on Sunday rocked the NRL.

The news dropped first on 2GB's Continuous Call team, where the rugby league Immortal had added another string to his bow in radio commentary to go with his stardom as a player, coach and selector.

Within minutes, Manly's team bus were told, where Des Hasler, the man Fulton brought to the club as a 23-year-old halfback in 1984, was plotting an old-school ambush of Parramatta.

Out in Dubbo, Ivan Cleary and Wayne Bennett were informed just before kick off.

Bennett and Fulton had been one-time teammates for Australia, but drove each other as the two coaching powerhouses during the 1990s.

Cleary, meanwhile, first made his name as a first-grader under Fulton, playing under him at Manly in 1993 and still passing on his messages routinely today.

"He taught me lots of lessons, but one in particular I'll never forget," Cleary said on Sunday.

"I was injured one week and I thought I was being tough to play the next week.

"I thought, 'I'm doing a good job because you're supposed to play injured'. My knee was strapped up and we were just about to play Newcastle up there.

"He comes up to me and he goes, 'Why is your knee strapped?'

"I said, 'Because I hurt it last week'. He said, 'Mate, once you go out there, you're not injured', and walked off.

"I was rattled. I went out and I had a shocker in the first half, then he sprayed me at halftime.

"Lucky, we won that game and he came up to me and said, 'well done, mate'.

"It's one I've used on a few players over the years."

Back at Parramatta, Hasler's ambush was being carried out by one of Fulton's own.

Josh Schuster, one of the young boys Fulton and his son Scott had brought into the Manly academy at age 14, was starring.

Starting at five-eighth for just the second time, Schuster had a hand in three of the Sea Eagles' tries in the kind of win Fulton would've been proud of.

Fulton was, of course, arguably Manly's finest-ever player.

So good, that on arriving in 1966 from country footy in the Illawarra, he never once played reserve grade for the Sea Eagles.

His record of 129 tries stood for 30 years after he played his last game for the club, with two of them coming in the 1973 grand final win over Cronulla.

He was also part of the club's maiden premiership in 1972, and captained them to victory in 1976 while also leading both NSW and Australia.

He returned as Manly's coach in 1983, guiding the Sea Eagles to premierships in two separate stints in 1987 and 1996.

"He is someone who has made such a massive mark on the game," Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans said.

"I hope in some small degree we've made his family proud on what will be a difficult day for them."

Meanwhile, on 2GB, Ray Hadley was trying to put the pain into words after Fulton fought well beyond the few weeks he'd been given to live late last year.

"He was the first of those Immortals and I always thought he would be Immortal," Hadley said.

"I just thought he would live forever. And now he's gone. It's a very sad.

"He was my best mate ... I'm going to miss him as many will.

"He was a great man, a great rugby league player but the most loyal friend I have ever had."

But this week, Fulton's influence will live on.

Not just at Manly, but also in the six clubs that had coaches who once played with or under the great man, and in the minds and hearts of countless others who were inspired by one of the game's most towering figures.