THE RED V NOSTALGIA THREAD

[baggygreen man]

Steve Edge the Dragons 1977 GF winning skipper and the only player to lead two different clubs to titles, remains in awe of the Dragons’ colossal feat of 11 successive premierships.

"No league fans have seen anything like it since.
There was simply no stopping that mighty Saints side. Never before and never again,” Edge recalled in a AAP interview.

“ I saw the whole shebang first-hand from the Sheridan Stand at the SCG with my father and grandfather. “That’s how I grew up.”

“We’d watch them all play and didn’t miss too many of the grand finals; saw ’em all.”

 

[OneEyedDragon]

Steve Edge was a lucky man. He saw the great teams play and played successfully for the Big Red V himself.i grew up in the bush and all I knew was that the Sydney rugby league teams played a few rounds and then St George won the grand final - every year! So they were my team and I've remained a rusted on supporter ever since. A couple of highlights for me were meeting Harry Bath and Graeme Wynn at Coolangatta Tweed Golf Club back in the day when they had called in for beer, and meeting the legends Graeme Langlands, Regards Gasnier and Johnny Raper while I was living on Norfolk Island. All great blokes and happy to put up with starry eyed fans.

 

[Number of the Beath]

Johnny Riley is a name that does not jump out at you as he was not a among the host of Saints Immortals/Hall of Famers, either did he play 20 Test matches. But Riley was an integral part of the Golden Era for six years being picked for the '59 GF but injured then finally one of the 13 for the '62 GF.
Riley was a Saints Junior coming into grade in 1959 and stayed until 1964, playing centre alongside the great Reg Gasnier on many occasions over his career.
After a stellar start to his career, he was chosen for the Blues in 1959 then topped that with being picked in and playing his only Test on the 1959-60 Kangaroo Tour. He is listed on the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo #349.

The man who has a close hand view of those glory days said a in a AAP interview; '' a champion team always beats a team of champions''.

But Riley adds, that behind the giants of the game that filled the trophy cabinet at Kogarah lay an unsung hero who never won a premiership as a player and whose representative career extended to one solitary game for NSW City Firsts in 1945, Club boss Frank Facer

Without “forward-thinking” club secretary Frank Facer, he doubts the Dragons’ dynasty would have ever transpired without their fearless bass.

“He (Facer) was a genius at finding good players and bringing them into the club. Even when we were bulging with internationals and thought we didn’t need anyone else, he’d find somebody somewhere and bring them in''.

“ His logic was: “Well, I’d rather have him here than having him play against us. It was amazing over that period how many great players St George had and how he kept getting them to keep the momentum.”

Years ago I worked with a guy who played junior footy with Johnny Riley and talked about what a phenomenal player he was.
Those guys were before my time, sadly - but I did get to watch Bath's Babe's.

 

[Saints Forever]

Brian Smith was one of those. The same plonker who selected his useless brother ahead of Peter Coyne and said we had "the smell of Newtown" about us.
I still hate that prick.

And selected his brother in front of Andrew Walker who was a prodigious talent at 17 years of age

Huge boot

saw him kick a field goal from 10 metres on his own side of half way

 

[Trifili13]

I give credit to Brian Smith for getting systems and structures in place at the Dragon's, Parra and Rooster's but the key is then to get a coach to get you 'over the line' on the big day as Brian was not your man for that job.

 

[Slippery Morris]

Brian lost 3 GF's to Super coach Wayne Bennett and 1 to an Immortal in Andrew Johns who destroyed Parra. If Brian won the 3 against Supercoach he would have 3 GF's and Wayne would have 4. Lucky for Saints, 1 he lost was against Saints. But if Brian won them all Saints would have had 2 and not 1 since the last GF.

He brought back life to the Dragons because the were very bad the previous years before he came to the club. Since 1985 they went down bigtime and took a while to recover. He joined in 91 and in 92-93 they made GF's. Not bad.