Watching Classic Grand Finals on Fox this week

[taste2taste]

watching classic grand finals on fox this week i have learnt

1-nearly every tackle made in the pre 90's era would have earned a 10 week suspension in this era.
2-Parramatta's 'wall' NEVER worked!
3-Mundines bombed try in 99 with 2 open support players goes down as the most selfish play in history.
4-Lamb's hit on Ellery Hanley in 88 was so far off the ball not a single camera or official saw it.
5-Jason Taylor cant tackle.
6-Phil Blake would 'chip n chase' nearly every time he touched the ball.
7-the best thing league ever did was get rid of scrums.


anything else?

 

[East Coast Tiger]

There were some f**king ordinary players who played in grand finals.

 

[innerwestrabbit]

There were some f**king ordinary players who played in grand finals.

And there will always be

 

[Patorick]

Scrum penalties.

Grrrrrrrrr.

 

[anjado]

Only seen the 1990 Grand Final this week so some thoughts.

If 40/20's were around in the early 90's Ricky Stuart would of been an immortal. His long kicking game in the 1990 Grand Final was the best i have ever seen and maybe of all time.

1990 Grand Final is pretty underrated as a game because it falls after the 89 decider but in my opinion it is one of the best Grand Finals of all time.

The game was better in terms of the ruck back then why they hell it is so slow now is laughable really, turnovers, taps are all done with no time off waiting for the defence the defence is in position waiting it is how the game show be to game flows so much better.

The game was also a better spectacle due to the lack of structure in play it seemed way more unpredictable.

Alexander vs Stuart was a fantastic clash and both had superb games in the Grand Final. Alexander's 35-40 metre pass out to Bentley in the first half was unbelievable and so was Stuart's to set up Ferguson's try.

Fittler vs Daley was also an awesome clash between the best two young players in the competition.

 

[DC_fan]

Getting rid of the marker being able to strike for the ball in the play the ball was a great idea. Saw the 1966 GF and in just about every play the ball the marker lashed out with his boot, either to rake the ball back or break the leg of the guy plying the ball.

 

[hellteam]

Whoever thought the game was better to watch back then is deluded by their sense of nostalgia. Even comparing now to the 99 gf which I watched last night, all the players were so much slower and their skills (passing, kicking etc) were shocking. 75 percent of the plays were just aimless one off the ruck runs by slow forwards.

 

[Big Pete]

Loving Fox's Origin and Finals replays. I've gone from not really caring about the grand final to really anticipating the day and all 3 games.

Particularly like all the grand finals from 04 on largely because I haven't seen most of them since their original air date (big exception of course) & reliving a lot of players who are familiar but it's been so long since I've heard their name it almost feels surreal watching them.

Only issue I have is using the Fox callers for some of the later games. They just don't bring that excitement for mine although with that said I don't mind hearing their odd perspective on a controversial call. Smith basically commentated the refs. in that game or at least that's what it felt like.

Shame I don't have a Tivo, would have enjoyed catching some of the other games but I spose there's always next year.

 

[Brutus]

I wanna see mid-week cup grand finals.

Balmain v Norths 1976.

 

[DC_fan]

Whoever thought the game was better to watch back then is deluded by their sense of nostalgia. Even comparing now to the 99 gf which I watched last night, all the players were so much slower and their skills (passing, kicking etc) were shocking. 75 percent of the plays were just aimless one off the ruck runs by slow forwards.

It is a romanticised myth that the game twenty, thirty or more years ago was a better spectacle.

 

[The Green Mushroom]

The players might have been less athletic and less fit, but the play the ball was pretty damn fast--and in my opinion much, much, better than the mess we have today.

 

[hellteam]

Watch a game you'll be surprised. They weren't held down as long but it took the same anount of time for Lazarus etc to be able to get up

 

[nrlnrl]

It is a romanticised myth that the game twenty, thirty or more years ago was a better spectacle.

agree partly with this, the coverage wasn't as thorough & people mostly only remember what they want to - seeing some of the games again makes you realise that things weren't "always better"

it's a fantastic sport, I appreciate it now & then

 

[Ronnie Dobbs]

Unlimited interchange was the devil. Players going off after 10 minutes. A joke.

6 interchanges, 8 metres between the teams and contest for the ball in the tackle would all be good things for the game.

 

[forward pass]

Whatever happened to the field on GF day being covered in streamers and paper and toilet paper ?

And the balloons - why don't they release the team colour balloons anymore?

 

[Jason Maher]

Watched the 88 GF last night. Shit there were some cheap shots in that game, especially at the start. Saw a bit of the 99 GF, before thankfully I had to take my wife to work. Watching Lazarus do cartwheels still makes me want to commit random acts of violence.

 

[Springs]

Whoever thought the game was better to watch back then is deluded by their sense of nostalgia. Even comparing now to the 99 gf which I watched last night, all the players were so much slower and their skills (passing, kicking etc) were shocking. 75 percent of the plays were just aimless one off the ruck runs by slow forwards.

75% of plays now are either aimless one off runs by either slow forwards or dummy halves. And that's after the play the ball took 15 seconds because of hold and wrestling techniques.

 

[Son of Minto]

I loved watching the '66 grand final. Johnny Raper was just a machine. He was damn near unstoppable that day.

 

[JW]

The thing that stands out for me is the depth of the backlines 10-15 years ago (particularly Canberra and Brisbane) and the way every player charged on to the ball. You can tell the teams were well drilled in this area.

Today, the backs usually stand quite flat in comparison and a lot of players tend to receive the ball virtually standing still.

 

[Perce]

Anyone know who the caller was of the 1971 GF? He sounded like he should be reading out funeral notices.
Interesting to see Langlands in that game - the crowd went up whenever he touched the ball. Agree with posters above re scrum penalties, striking for the ball at marker - and, on the positive side, calling a tackled player held immediately so there was no endless holding down before the PTB. The tackling was generally good, but the ball-handling was surprisingly poor. And of course the other thing you notice is how skinny a lot of the blokes were back then compared to the gorillas who go around nowadays.