http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/netw/200810/programs/DO0747H001D9102008T213500.htm
The Fibros And The Silvertails
9:35pm Thursday, 09 Oct 2008
Documentary CC PG
The Fibros And The Silvertails is the story of the feud between two football teams that turned into a war about class and alleged corruption.
The teams are Wests and Manly. The year is 1978. This is a film about football, class and place. It is a social history and a sports history.
The film explores the different areas that are the Western Suburbs and Manly in the 1970s. Manly represent the new face of the game. A wealthy club, they can afford to restock their team with imported players. They have won the premiership three times in the last decade. Wests have to look back to 1952.
In 1978, a new coach, Roy Masters, takes over at Wests. He starts to inspire the team with something new, the language of class war. He coins a new phrase - fibros versus silvertails - to describe the struggle of working class teams and fans in the Western Suburbs against the elite of the city's north and east.
In the ensuing season, ideological inspiration and violence come up against money and power and the film explores the clashes on the field as well as the contest off the park.
Wests and Manly meet four times in 1978. The first game is an exhibition match in Melbourne, a bloody game that initiates the feud. Wests win an equally tough game at Lidcombe Oval, while Manly take revenge at Brookvale. At the end, we return to the final at the Sydney Cricket Ground. By now the entire game is overshadowed by controversy involving referee Greg Hartley.
The film features interviews with Tom Raudonikis, Roy Masters, Les Boyd, Max Krilich, Graham Eadie, Greg Hartley and many others, and includes footage of key games not seen for 30 years.
At the start of the 1978 season Wests and Manly are just two teams among many. By the end, they are bitter rivals. Animosity will linger for years. The words 'fibros' and 'silvertails' will become part of Australia's sporting vernacular. And everyone will have two teams; their own and the team playing Manly.
