Watching Classic Grand Finals on Fox this week

[East Coast Tiger]

Are the 80's and early 90's GF the ABC commentary or commercial channels?

My endearing memories of a lot of those games are David Middelton, Johnny Peard and Warren Boland.

Growing up in regional Australia, the ABC was the broadcaster of League. At one stage both the ABC and 10 (was it 10?) showed the game simultaneously, but you would have to be stoned to watch a game with ads in it.

Did I imagine it or is Fox showing the GF live on Sunday simultaneously with Nein?

I thought I saw an ad on Fox to that effect.

 

[Jason Maher]

Ummm....88 grand final. Back Door Benny stayed down after incidental contact from Peter Tunks (in possession) and Tunks was sin-binned.

Great acting by Benny, they even got the smelling salts for him. Heaps was disgusted by the call in commentary.

Who could forget that dogact he did when he got Mario Fenech sent-off after biting his own hand and claiming Mario did it...as grubby as many people say they are, that's something I couldn't even imagine the Melbourne Storm players doing.

Ah, good old back door Benny. Puts any modern player in the shade in the grub stakes. A true prick's prick. Bloody good player though.

 

[nrlnrl]

Did I imagine it or is Fox showing the GF live on Sunday simultaneously with Nein?

I thought I saw an ad on Fox to that effect.

only for Toyota Cup, they're showing NRL grand final at 7.30

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Thought that must have been the case. Shame. Would be awesome to be able to watch it on Fox instead of Nein.

 

[nrlnrl]

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.

pretty sure it was Alan Marks - he called league on the ABC for many years & Kevin Ryan was the co-commentator for '71

 

[Perce]

pretty sure it was Alan Marks - he called league on the ABC for many years & Kevin Ryan was the co-commentator for '71

Cheers.

 

[Galeforce]

What you have to remember is 25 years ago all the players had day jobs. It wasn't until Superjoke the league went full time professional.
.

Correct , the first "professional" football player i recall was Bob Fulton in the mid 1970s. Most players were either labourer , worked loading beer kegs for their leagues club or garbos ( in those days they hung on back of garbage truck and picked up each garbage tin and hand loaded into back of the truck. Training included going for a couple of km road runs.Post match drinking was the norm , not to mention a smoke.

todays players are bigger , stronger and have more stamina due to fulltime training regimes. Part of the interest in watching a game in the old days was watching the early game softening up and then how both teams managed the end game fatigue. With only two replacements , who had either played earlier in 3rds or reserve teams , the game was slower.

 

[LeagueXIII]

Yes was Alan Marks, he also did the 1980 GF between Bulldogs and Roosters. Reg Gasnier was his co-commentator in 1980.

Norman May called the 1966 GF.

The ABC caller I liked the most was John O'Reilly he made the game sound exciting, he was the ABC caller on the 1976 GF.

 

[LeagueXIII]

Correct , the first "professional" football player i recall was Bob Fulton in the mid 1970s. Most players were either labourer , worked loading beer kegs for their leagues club or garbos ( in those days they hung on back of garbage truck and picked up each garbage tin and hand loaded into back of the truck. Training included going for a couple of km road runs.Post match drinking was the norm , not to mention a smoke.

todays players are bigger , stronger and have more stamina due to fulltime training regimes. Part of the interest in watching a game in the old days was watching the early game softening up and then how both teams managed the end game fatigue. With only two replacements , who had either played earlier in 3rds or reserve teams , the game was slower.

Alot of forwards worked as labourers to keep fit.

Plenty of players were policemen, teachers, tradies and sales reps.

 

[Perce]

Ummm....88 grand final. Back Door Benny stayed down after incidental contact from Peter Tunks (in possession) and Tunks was sin-binned.

Great acting by Benny, they even got the smelling salts for him. Heaps was disgusted by the call in commentary.

Terrible sin-binning. This was in a game where pretty much every tackle seemed to go high, Steve Folkes snuck in at least three dirty left-hooks to a held opponent, and Paul Dunn smacked Michael Pobjie in the teeth (and won the Clive Churchill!) Anyway, didn't cost the Dogs in the end.

Did you notice when Hanley went down the commentators weren't that fussed - and in fact they were allowed to have a line drop-out and then play all around where Hanley was laid out on the ground. Crazy shit!

did you also notice Mossop's schoolmasterish putdown of Pobjie for doing something illegal 'in every tackle'. I'd forgotten what a crap commentator Mossop was.

 

[Perce]

watching classic grand finals on fox this week i have learnt

3-Mundines bombed try in 99 with 2 open support players goes down as the most selfish play in history.

I think you're being harsh - sort of. I know Sterlo said in commentary that he had two players unmarked outside him - and indeed he did - but it would have been risky trying to pass out there with a defender immediately on his left. I think the big problem was Mundine's comically bad hands - that should have been a simple pit-down.

It's still hard to work out how the Dragons lost that game. Melbourne was shot to ribbons. Other observations:
*Those blousy 1999 shirts made them all look a bit effeminate
* Not Paul Marquet though, who probably had the roughest head of any player since Langmack
* I'd forgotten how good Kimmorley was at Melbourne
* Craig Fitzgibbon looked old even when he wasn't
* Rodney 'Needles' Howe must be one of the worst players ever to get an Australian jumper
* Craig Smith was an underrated prop, but sure enough there he was in the GF lifting his knees into the tackling player
* If Sisa Waqa gets one-quarter as good as Marcus bai the Storm will be happy

 

[innerwestrabbit]

Correct , the first "professional" football player i recall was Bob Fulton in the mid 1970s. Most players were either labourer , worked loading beer kegs for their leagues club or garbos ( in those days they hung on back of garbage truck and picked up each garbage tin and hand loaded into back of the truck. Training included going for a couple of km road runs.Post match drinking was the norm , not to mention a smoke.

todays players are bigger , stronger and have more stamina due to fulltime training regimes. Part of the interest in watching a game in the old days was watching the early game softening up and then how both teams managed the end game fatigue. With only two replacements , who had either played earlier in 3rds or reserve teams , the game was slower.

Ron Coote would fall into that Category as well. Did a lot extras, did not drink a lot, very fit and great athlete.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Seeing some of those matches, the play the ball mightve been fast but it was sure messy.

Just on that 1999 game, I remember Melbourne looked down but werent out, but after Roarty try they were all over the Dragons.

 

[Ulysseus]

I remember Harrigan making about 11 refereeing errors favoring the storm that day....................................................... suspicious.

 

[Perce]

I remember Harrigan making about 11 refereeing errors favoring the storm that day....................................................... suspicious.

I think your memory might be a bit faulty mate. Have another look at the replay - don't think Harrigan got many wrong at all. Pretty massive choke from the Dragons though - hard to see how they blew that one.

 

[LRC69]

One thing with the athleticism is that the big guys today have way better lateral movement in defence whci reduces gaps.

Also, most games back in those days was played in daylight so had less dew on the pitch and ball.

This means you could play more width in attack without being slid out in defence and there fore exploit the bigger less mobile men (who also had less interchanges)

Makes a huge differences.

Im not worried about the wrestle or slower play the balls today as I hate the dummy half running and surrender tackles. If you want good open field play than get it off the back of an off load which would mean you need bigger forwards who can off load, therefore more room for the little blokes etc.... think of Beetson in the 75 game.

 

[clutch]

why dont Network Nine ever do a GF Marathon.

What fantastic FTA exposure it would be, particularly in Melbourne where interest in the NRL GF is up with the Storm in this years GF, if Nine Network showcased the NRL/ARL/NSWRL GF's of years passed on Go or GEM.

 

[Perth Red]

Watching the 06 final, two very talented teams. Shame neither was legitimate in terms of salary cap!

 

[Perth Red]

I remember Harrigan making about 11 refereeing errors favoring the storm that day....................................................... suspicious.

Made up for it in 06 where Brisbane are getting every decision.

 

[Big Pete]

Watching the 06 final, two very talented teams. Shame neither was legitimate in terms of salary cap!

:?