Every now and then Matt Fuller closes his eyes and listens to the chant inside his head.
It’s Sunday, March 12, 1995, and 24,932 fans have the WACA packed tighter than a prop forward’s head tape for the Western Reds’ first ever game in the NSW Rugby League.
Fuller donned the No. 9 jersey as hooker that day, the first of 59 games that would become the club record in its short tenure at the elite level, as the Reds beat St George 28-16.
“It was loud and deafening and it inspired us in that first year. And it was a big reason why we won 11 games of 22. It was an unbelievable time,” Fuller says.
“There was a famous quote from our coach Pete Mulholland that it took us two years to get ready for the first game, then we had a week to get ready for the second game. That was very true, that’s exactly how it felt.”
After the high of round one, came the first road trip, to Newcastle.
“We led 10-nil early on and then get flogged (54-14), so back to earth,” Fuller says.
Fuller is one of a handful of players who remained in Perth after the team folded, just a year after it morphed into the Perth Reds as part of News Limited’s doomed Super League competition.
A quarter of a century later, 48-year-old Fuller will join most of his old Reds’ teammates for a reunion next Saturday at North Beach Rugby League Club. The get together coincides with Perth’s first ever State of Origin game, tomorrow week at Optus Stadium, just a penalty goal kick or two away from their old home ground.
Fuller reflects on the Reds’ turbulent history and makes a stunning call.
“If Super League hadn’t come in that side would have won a premiership,” he says.
“You only have to look at Melbourne Storm, who got most of our Junior Reds and a sprinkling of senior players like Rod Howe, Matt Geyer, Robbie Kearns and Wayne Evans. They won the premiership in one year (their second season) in 1999. They were given our blueprint, and a lot of our resources, because we’d folded.”
Fuller hopes Perth heeds the lessons of its first incarnation if it gets another full-time NRL team.
“When the ARL and Super League war started, the Reds at the time were supported by the ARL and they jumped ship. In hindsight, it was their death because the ARL wouldn’t take them back, even when the Super League war had finished,” he says.
“The Reds aligned themselves with Super League very early on for their survival, which probably shows they were bleeding financially and felt they could be propped up by News Limited.
“The only positive if there is one, is that the game became a lot stronger from it. Once the war finished, rugby league became stronger.”
The Western Reds’ financial model was doomed from day one. They had a $1.8 million salary cap and had to pay not only their only players, headed by big signings Brad MacKay and Mark Geyer, but visiting teams’ accommodation and air fares. By the time Super League came knocking, the Reds were haemorrhaging and had no choice but to sign on with the rival competition.
The schism might have led to the Reds’ downfall but Super League meant a windfall for players. Fuller’s salary went from $100,000 to $250,000 “overnight”.
“Financially it was great for players and I was about the seventh or eighth highest paid,” he says.
“I was on holidays in Mandurah and got a phone call saying come straight to the Burswood. I walked into a room and was told we were going to Super League and they gave us $30,000 that night just to sit down and talk with them.”
Mulholland, the inaugural coach and now a recruitment manager for Canberra Raiders, hopes to join his old charges for the reunion if health permits. He’s battling lymphoma and has been energised by the support from his rugby family.
https://thewest.com.au/sport/rugby-...ects-on-an-era-of-western-reds-ng-b881231646z
