Pneuma
First Grade
- Messages
- 5,475
Hilarious.It's funny how the NSWRL uses State of Origin as a cash cow after Bob Fulton described the inaugural game as the "non-event of the century" in its lead up.
Hilarious.It's funny how the NSWRL uses State of Origin as a cash cow after Bob Fulton described the inaugural game as the "non-event of the century" in its lead up.
The fool wasn't even alive when this was going on.Hilarious.
Love that mate. State of origin at that time took the game to another level. Ive been watching it for nearly 40 years but those first few games were truly frightening. Ahhh the great game of rugby league!The fool wasn't even alive when this was going on.
I'll give my account of SOO, and after that if anyone doesn't think the rivalry was real then they can join the potato group.
It was 1984, SOO had been going on for a few years, and yes the NSW supporters hadn't really been taking it too seriously the years gone by. So many years of NSW flogging Qld had done that to their/our psyches.
This year was a bit different though.
Qld had been wininng. It felt different.
I was Captain of our team, we were all 14. Our halfback was the NSW ballboy for the night. The games were played on Tuesday then.
I called on our team to come to the SCG with me, a lot of them weren't allowed, school night, only 14 etc. I was "lucky", I didn't have parents, just guardians, they knew it was a lost cause in trying to tell me when I could go out or not, so the deal was that as long as I told them where I was going it was cool. Four other players were allowed to go.
This was the game in the torrential rain, where Noel Cleal buggered up that goal line drop out, where Greg Dowling took that miraculous catch off the cross bar.
It was also the first game where the "Wally is a wanker" chant started.
The Bill O Reilly stand was a construction zone, we ended up being in the "concourse", which meant we were ensconced in mud, pure fucjibg mud. Our shoes were covered, our jeans were covered, and half our shirts from the splashed mud. We were totally drenched to the bone, and we didn't care.
NSW lost the game, but the 29,000 of us there witnessed the beginning of NSW and SOO.
Steve Mortimer, the NSW captain, lived a street away from me at the time. We used to see each other at our local corner store.
I saw him up there a few weeks later and I told him I was at the game. He hugged me and said to the store owners, Terry and Arthur, "I'm paying for whatever he's getting!!"
I said "Right, well I'll have two packs of Craven Mild if thats the case.Oh and you'd better give e me some bread for the house,as that was what I really came down for!"
He paid for it.
The next year the game was sold out, and we had 20 of us there this time. I'd found a shop in the food court in China Town that would sell alcohol without checking ID.
We all got smashed on Foster's!!
What a typical Queenslander thing to say, as if we all share the same brain cell as bozo, and share his exact views....Hilarious.
I thought he was from Singapore and arrived in Logan via an aircraft carrier?What a typical Queenslander thing to say, as if we all share the same brain cell as bozo, and share his exact views....
Besides of course he would say that, he was an Australian coach, he would want the international game to be on spotlight moreso than the CocksVCanes
I love this story. I’m going to read that post over a few timesThe fool wasn't even alive when this was going on.
I'll give my account of SOO, and after that if anyone doesn't think the rivalry was real then they can join the potato group.
It was 1984, SOO had been going on for a few years, and yes the NSW supporters hadn't really been taking it too seriously the years gone by. So many years of NSW flogging Qld had done that to their/our psyches.
This year was a bit different though.
Qld had been wininng. It felt different.
I was Captain of our team, we were all 14. Our halfback was the NSW ballboy for the night. The games were played on Tuesday then.
I called on our team to come to the SCG with me, a lot of them weren't allowed, school night, only 14 etc. I was "lucky", I didn't have parents, just guardians, they knew it was a lost cause in trying to tell me when I could go out or not, so the deal was that as long as I told them where I was going it was cool. Four other players were allowed to go.
This was the game in the torrential rain, where Noel Cleal buggered up that goal line drop out, where Greg Dowling took that miraculous catch off the cross bar. And the infamous all in brawl.
It was also the first game where the "Wally is a wanker" chant started.
The Bill O Reilly stand was a construction zone, we ended up being in the "concourse", which meant we were ensconced in mud, pure fucjibg mud. Our shoes were covered, our jeans were covered, and half our shirts from the splashed mud. We were totally drenched to the bone, and we didn't care.
NSW lost the game, but the 29,000 of us there witnessed the beginning of NSW and SOO.
Steve Mortimer, the NSW captain, lived a street away from me at the time. We used to see each other at our local corner store.
I saw him up there a few weeks later and I told him I was at the game. He hugged me and said to the store owners, Terry and Arthur, "I'm paying for whatever he's getting!!"
I said "Right, well I'll have two packs of Craven Mild if thats the case.Oh and you'd better give e me some bread for the house,as that was what I really came down for!"
He paid for it.
The next year the game was sold out, and we had 20 of us there this time. I'd found a shop in the food court in China Town that would sell alcohol without checking ID.
We all got smashed on Foster's!!
I actually rate Wally higher than Johns. I just remember him tearing apart NSW so much.I love this story. I’m going to read that post over a few times
And your actually right because I think it was that game when it started to take off
Every year the king would find a way to beat us
i hated him for so long until I read his book
Lewis is so underrated these days
I put him just behind johns as the best rugby league player ever
I actually rate Wally higher than Johns. I just remember him tearing apart NSW so much.
And thanks for your words, much appreciated.
Agreed. To me it's a Kent's hair between them.Both players could take over game & had no weakness in their game.
Manly signed lewis in 87Agreed. To me it's a Kent's hair between them.
Gene Miles as well, I think. The Manly signed part.Manly signed lewis in 87
shame he never went there rather then the broncos
bennett never got on with him and they basically used him for marketing then punted him
Yeah nah, rivalries are real
You have either completely misunderstood or deliberately misinterpreted my post (again) The question isn’t whether they (rivalries) are real, it is whether they (rivalries) are more relevant than say ladder position or market size.
Nevertheless, if you don’t understand you could simply say I don’t understand and save us both the trouble.
Why in 2017, despite both teams being top 8, did Both panthers v eels games only draw 14k people if rivalry is such a driver of interest?Yes, I proved that. Ashes get more attention than when Australia played world no.1 challenger despite england being crap for years
Why in 2017, despite both teams being top 8, did Both panthers v eels games only draw 14k people if rivalry is such a driver of interest?
ko day/time, venue, weather, form, opponent all matter,
Yes, I proved that. Ashes get more attention than when Australia played world no.1 challenger despite england being crap for years
Rivalries in rugby league are real. They just not be what supporters of other clubs perceive.
I'll use my team, Cronulla, as an example.
Most supporters from other clubs think that we judge the Dragons as our biggest rivals.
I don't.
That rivalry has diminished a long way, it may come back, I hope it does.
In mine, and many others, our real rivals now are:
1- The Storm
2- the Cowboys
3- Manly (because we have been their bitches for so long, but the tide is turning)
4- Dragons.
I am devastated that we only play The Storm once this season, and it's in Melbourne. That's f**ked.
When I was growing up there were traditional rivals that everyone knew about South's vs Easts, Sharks vs Dragons, Norths vs Manly.
But never did I know that there was rivalry between Penrith and Parra. Yes there may have been internally but externally it wasn't really known.
Now it is.
Rivalries evolve like organisms.
Rivalries in rugby league are real. They just not be what supporters of other clubs perceive.
I'll use my team, Cronulla, as an example.
Most supporters from other clubs think that we judge the Dragons as our biggest rivals.
I don't.
That rivalry has diminished a long way, it may come back, I hope it does.
In mine, and many others, our real rivals now are:
1- The Storm
2- the Cowboys
3- Manly (because we have been their bitches for so long, but the tide is turning)
4- Dragons.
I am devastated that we only play The Storm once this season, and it's in Melbourne. That's f**ked.
When I was growing up there were traditional rivals that everyone knew about South's vs Easts, Sharks vs Dragons, Norths vs Manly.
But never did I know that there was rivalry between Penrith and Parra. Yes there may have been internally but externally it wasn't really known.
Now it is.
Rivalries evolve like organisms.
Proved what exactly? We are arguing two different things evidently.
You keep forgetting about perspective for one. The Ashes may be big in Australia or England but that doesn’t mean that it is big in say New Zealand, South Africa or particularly the subcontinent. Even more particularly if they have a choice of watching their own team play.
If you want to flip it back to the NRL, if say Brisbane and Melbourne play a game against each other or say hypothetically Newcastle and Gold Coast are top of the table and play each other (these teams aren’t rivals are they) those matches would out rate games where two ‘rivals’ are playing. So the amount of people watching matters more than who is watching. Those things are dependent on factors like success and markets more so than traditions.
The second thing you keep forgetting is relevance. You keep assuming that specific rivalries are always going to be relevant. That there is some kind of constant here when essentially all throughout human history there is no constant.
So whilst the Ashes have a tremendous history, nobody could conclude that will be always be the case. That is dependent on factors like the future of Test cricket vs short form cricket particularly where the money is going, what countries are playing international cricket in the future and other things that you or I mightn’t have even perceived yet.
Rivalries in rugby league are real. They just not be what supporters of other clubs perceive.
I'll use my team, Cronulla, as an example.
Most supporters from other clubs think that we judge the Dragons as our biggest rivals.
I don't.
That rivalry has diminished a long way, it may come back, I hope it does.
In mine, and many others, our real rivals now are:
1- The Storm
2- the Cowboys
3- Manly (because we have been their bitches for so long, but the tide is turning)
4- Dragons.
I am devastated that we only play The Storm once this season, and it's in Melbourne. That's f**ked.
When I was growing up there were traditional rivals that everyone knew about South's vs Easts, Sharks vs Dragons, Norths vs Manly.
But never did I know that there was rivalry between Penrith and Parra. Yes there may have been internally but externally it wasn't really known.
Now it is.
Rivalries evolve like organisms.