1. Melbourne’s winning streak is being compared to the Easts 18 wins in a row so I thought it would be better to compare it to St.George’s unbeaten team which included every game of the year with one draw. Easts lost two early games to Cronulla and St.George and a major semi final loss to St.George. Before the grand final Graeme Langlands received a pain killing injection in his leg but it hit a nerve that wasn’t supposed to be there and he could only walk. Do you remember him taking a penalty kick that went a few feet causing a scrum feed to Easts? The Saints team mates as well as the team managers tried to persuade him to play the 2nd grade full back but he wouldn’t listen so the rest of the team gave up causing the 2nd half walkover.
5. The St.George team was stacked in an era you could get away with it.
So were Easts of 1975.
6. And they only won 18 regular season games, which I know was all there was.
Yes but they won them all but for one draw and won the grand final easily and the opposition full back wasn’t a passenger as Langlands was.
The statistics are misleading because of the changes in the rules of the games. How many people are turned off by the blowouts? That would be an interesting statistic.
7. I’m guessing they didn’t travel interstate or contend with a pandemic or see one of the game’s greatest players retire.
No the NSWRL did include may Queenslanders who came to play in the Sydney competition. That is why we have State of Origin. Grame Langlands was such a player but he played with an injury which meant he was a passenger like no other inthe history of the game.
8. As for the 1975 Roosters, they went back-to-back, how can they not be considered a great team?
We are discussing a team of one year. St.George went back-to-back too.
2. Doesn’t matter how many times the Dragons beat them, they didn’t beat them in the GF.
Yes it does. St.George were unbeaten and in 1975 St.George beat them twice and could have beaten them in the grand final without a full back who couldn’t use one leg but still took kicks for the line. Plenty of commentators like Greg Alexander say things like “Easts were great because they won 38 nil” but they ignore the facts that don’t fit in with their praise.
you can’t compare the amateur game League was back then with today’s.
3,It was a semi professional game back then. Players were paid but their main income came from jobs during the week. Rugby Union was the game for amateurs who could afford to live if they were injured. Look up how Rugby League in Australia started thanks to the efforts of Victor Trumper and J.J.Giltinan who helped Alec Burdon who was injured and couldn’t work.
4. They are a great club. Bellamy is a super coach. I hope that more Mexicans will take up the game but PVL, who thinks AF is boring, has said we won’t be taking RL to Perth or Adelaide.
5. Seriously, 1999 was with official help. The grand final referee had been chosen by the CEO from the days of Arthurson and Quayle. The referees are not an independent body.
6. To sell the game in Melbourne the second largest city in Australia. Rugby League is a small international game restricted to NSW & Qld, Yorkshire & Lancashire, NZ (Mainly Auckland) and a small part of France. Melbourne like St.George-Illawarra were a super club, made up from the former Super League teams of Perth, Adelaide and Hunter Mariners. Last century and before Melbourne was the home of AF with very little RL news. The Storm was RL’s attempt to break into that big market. The AFL grand final the day before was a rare boring blowout and the NRL wanted a close grand final to sell the game in Melbourne. The two super teams had met three times before with StG-Ill winning all games easily with a total score of 62-26. The half time score was 14-2 and it looked like another easy win for the Dragons. The second half was completely different with Melbourne making a comeback but the main difference was St.G-Ill were told to get off quickly and penalised whereas Melbourne were allowed to hold them down longer. That was the momentum shift that helped make it an exciting grand final for everyone as well as the target Victorian viewers.
7. You really think they set up an 80 minute game to have that ruling at the end ?
Not the ruling at the end but as I said above the game only had to be close and the 2nd half was completely different to the previous seven halves.
I have been through this before but rarely get arguments against but you are welcome to try.
