When we were kids

[imported_bronco]

Well this thread was a flop on WORL so i'll give it a go here where the kiddies posts won't shove it onto the back pages.


I remember before i got the internet that i thought that league was all wonderfull and saint like. I thought every team was perferct and no team was more perfect than mine, the Brisbane Broncos. Those were my first days of league for me, where i was just young and wasn't told the things that went on in the game, i just loved watching the footy.
Those are the days i wish i could go back to. When the political bullshit didn't bother me, i didn't know league had any. I was just a pure fan who loved the game and only the game.

Those were the great days when NZ FTA Telly would show about 3 games a week and they would show the local lion red comp. The glory days i call them. Brisbane never did too well in the ARL. always there or there abouts, the first time i ever saw them win a trophy was in 97. Wellington always used to get cained in the local league comp and upper hutt weren't much better but they were always good to watch, the grass roots of NZ league. North Shore were pretty good then and won it a couple of times i think.
I still have great memories of those days, they were only 4-5 years ago but they seem ages ago. I, like most Kiwi league fans was introduced to the game in 95 when the Warriors hit centre stage. I got bored one day and switched the channel and i guess that i'm in this forum proves that i was hooked from the first moment i saw it. The Broncos won that night but i wasn't a fan right away.For a couple of weeks i was a manly and warriors fan. I then watched the Broncos a bit more and loved their style of play and how they played to entertain and win.

Anyway i'm waddling on. My point is that the internet has given me a real sour taste about league and the fans. I went from thinking my Broncos were perfect to realising that they weren't so perfect and that they caused super league. I learnt about super league for one. I remember at primary school all the other kids would draw funny drawings but i'd draw the ARL logo with the words simply the best under it. I remember actually thinking the Broncos were going to go to the ARL lol. To cut that story short, the Broncos went to SL and so did I.

The internet showed me how all fans didn't just get on wonderfully that we bicker alot and constantly put our sport and its teams and players down. I guess thats life but its hard when your in NZ with very little league in the media and your painting this idealic picture in your head about how great league is.

Now the above may sound as if i hate league but nothing is further from the truth if anything the internet has made me more passionate for the game.
These days i don't like to read a lot of the news stories on the web and some may say i'm out of touch with the game or don't know much about it but i didn't know that league was one big general knowledge test.
I prefer to keep away from all the negativity in the league news these days, i'll read the odd article on the broncos official site but other than that nothing really. Its the pollitical bullshit that gets to me. Its tiresome and i'm sick of people who call themselves league fans bringing the game down from the inside, its ok when union do it but when its our own people destroying the game that gets annoying.

League to me is waiting all week, that anticipation of the weekend of footy. Sitting down on a sunday afternoon and watching the matches. I don't care whos playing if its footy i'm watching. Thats league not all the selection crap and SL bitch fights.

Now all of that you may not give a toss about but hey just felt like saying something. Just remember how when we were kids we had the puriest thoughts before we became wise of the world and the real going ons behind closed doors in league. It was the actual product on the field that mattered and some of you forget that these days.

Please feel free to share your stories about the way you felt when you learnt about the truths of our game. Do you want to go back to being an inocent kid who just loved watching the footy?

Cheers
bronco

 

[poindexter]

the Broncos caused superleague? how do you work that out? i think you will find that the NSWRL and the ARL had more to do with starting the war than the Broncos. those 2 organisations and you can probably add a certain tv station as well didnt do the Broncos any favours with there decisions on certain aspects of the running of the clubs. i was as happy as larry when superleague came in and if i had my way they would not have came back together it was only becouse Arthurson and his mate quit that it happend if they had done the right thing from the start it would have never have happend.at all.

 

[imported_bronco]

It really started when the Broncos were upset about Wendell Sailor being valued under the cap as 10k. Then with Our CEO John Ribot running the whole porcedure and later becoming the SL Chief Exectutive alot of blame lies in the Broncos court.
Of course there were faults on both sides, the ARL probably handled the situation poorely and SL made changes that in some ways had to be made. The ARL were being run by a bunch of old boys who had no idea about modern day sport. I can't remember what sum they handed over the rights to 9 for but it was pathetic.
Its your views that explain why brisbane are viewed as arogant. SL, has set our game back a long way supporters wise and has seen the culling of many teams even though we did need to bring the comp number down.
If you had had your way league would currently be dead. There is no way league could of survived with the 2 seperate comps.

Anyway i don't see this has anything to do with the topic. I did not start this to have an SL debate, even though i try to post something that is supposed to be about our pure memories of league you have to stamp your bitterness on it.

Cheers
bronco

 

[imported_Rasputin]

hehe, ain't that the truth bronco,good on ya)

 

[imported_bronco]

Yes thats definetly the truth of the matter. Even how guttless it may be.

Cheers
bronco

 

[Hass]

How ironic is it, that on the thread Bronco pointed out how pure and non-political we once were, someone still manages to respond by raising the most political issue of them all?

I'd like to take the moral high ground and let it be, but I can't. The fact of the matter is, that Brisbane were the architects behind Super League. Whatever their reasons were, Brisbane were the club that was behind the Rebel Competition. It was John Ribot who had "the vision". He managed to get Canberra and Canterury to see "the vision" as well and Super League was born.

Whoever said politics and sport don't mix was spot on. Although it can be seen they go hand in hand, it is all too apparrent that it is a deadly concoction.

Cheers.

 

[G@v]

When I were a lad twas back in the 60's, the decade they refer to as swinging! I just remember lot's of bumps and bruises, and the only swinging I knew was on the local rec.

Rugby League, did it exist in my world of war games, cowboy's and indibugs, or the TV progs of that era. The only thing about Oz I knew back then was it was next to New Zealand, Rolf Harris came from there, and Skippy was the most intellegent marsupial known to kids who didn't know the meaning of the term. And that if you dug a deep hole in the back garden you'd eventually end up either in Oz or NZ, or in my case, New Caledonia.

Oh, I just about recall, it was then I probably first watched some League on the BBC, with Eddie Waring's commentary......"Look's like he's gone for an early bath".

 

[imported_Rasputin]

Now theres a blast from the past, I remember listening to Eddie Waring calling the Kangaroo (no not skippy gav) tests in 1963 on the ABC radio. Eddie was a great commentator adding a lot of colour to his calls. Far better than the screechers of today.

My earliest memories of the game are sitting with my Dad on a saturday afternoon listening to Frank Hyde call the games. I am reluctant to mention thefirst game I saw live as it will give Willow too much satisfaction but it was Parra V StGeorge at the SCG in 1962. I was quite excited when Ron Willey kicked an early goal for parra but it was all down hill from there withGasnier carvingus up and the score finished up 52-2 or thereabouts. Parra was actually leading the comp prior to that game as well.

 

[Willow]

There was a local footy field called 'Wheat Park'. I've managed to convince myself that it bred many a fine football player. I know it bred many a broken bone and that was just during training.

Apart from Wheat Park, we used to also play footy in our front yards back in the 60s.
I was brought up in the western suburbs of Sydney and the typical house was built on a ¼ acre block with 2 foot high 'fence' in the front yard which was comprised of a series of posts and one rail. The rails werea 10cm by 10 cm block of wood which had the pointy ends sitting vertically.
We used the fence as our try line and when we scored we had be to careful not to dive over with the ball close to our chest for fear of of taking off the top of our scalp on the fence rail.
One can only wonder why our parents didn't see any danger in this. Especially considering the fact that we were in full of my Dad who was often mowing the lawn with his new 'Victa Lawn Mower'. He would often curse us as we dodged his maneuvers across the grass amidst the inevitable flying stones as theyshot out from the mower's blades after hitting the odd patch of gravel.

But it was fine and thanks to our Victa Lawn Mower and my Dad's attention to being house proud, our yard was in better condition than Wheat Park.

 

[imported_Rasputin]

Unfortunately our yard was on a slope so we had to play on the narrow grassed footpath. Of coursebeing tackled over the sideline meant ending up on the bitumen road so one learnt to run very hard but very straight.Good training for a front rower ) Many years later Iplayed at North Sydney Oval and recall thinking about that footpath the whole bloodygame.

 

[Willow]

LOL, that's tough. How's that old saying go?
'...we were so poor that we couldn't even afford a football?' ...or something like that.

It's a little unfortunate that my kids have missed out on such dangerous times.
But I have to say that to this day, I keep well clear of mowing the lawn and I get someone else to do it.
It's all to do with childhood trauma...that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[G@v]

We had a garden (Not some low brow yard, LOL) and there wasn't room for any football of any kind, too mant rocks and a rabbit hutch.... no fences, just a privet edge for bothfront and back garden. Lawn mower? get a rabbit! )

 

[tigger]

Bronco - It is a fact that you were responsible forSuper League. I blame this solely on you!

 

[imported_Bigbopper]

My first game of League came before television. In fact because I went every week and as all games were played on a Saturday afternoon I didn't hear a game on radio until the 1960's. I still haven't heard a Souths game on the radio.
From the late fifties we would watch the footy program on Saturday morning before going off to the game. They were certainly different times.
With regard to the SuperLeague war might I suggest that we all get over it.
Cheers
Bigbopper

 

[pepe]

when i was 7 years old the family packed up shop in melbourneand moved to qld,what i remember about the drive from maroochydore airport to our port of call caloundra was the funny looking rectangular grounds with two goal posts at each end,gods knows what the horizontal bar was for.

i now know how dorothy must have felt in oz,growing up in carlton i had never seen such wonderful beaches where the water was actually blue and the sky was clear,butwhat impressed me most was thosefunny looking grounds, it was not long before my 7 years of afl background would be put to use on the league ground,i had become the designated kicker in our team,and i kicked on every occasion i recieved the ball!!!!

to toughen us up we played backyard footy which was full of bindies,of course we never played in shoes as i don't think we owned up a pair.

they were great days growing up on the coast in the 70's,we made our own enertainment without the distractions of playstation etc.

cheers pepe

 

[tigger]

Though i cannot remember my first game, i imagine it was at about age 5-6.

When i was 7 we moved from Balmain to Lilyfield & i was about 1km from Leichhardt Oval (or God's Country!).As you probably know Leichhardt Pool is next door which used to provide most of my young entertainment. Daring each other to jump off the ten metre platform in the mornings and watching the footy in the afternoon was pretty much my weekends till i was 12.

In those days, being at Leichhardt Oval with a hotdog & a can of coke watching league was about the best thing i could imagine. At halftime, we used to play footy on the hill, which always was entertaining due to the slope of the hill & the other spectators in the way! If you got tackled you would end up rolling 10 metres down the hill & probably collect half a dozen people on your way down!

I pity the new generations that will not have this experience.

 

[imported_Storm]

Its always interesting how when we think back on things, we tend to remember even better or worst than they accutally were. Change is something alot of people don't like, and tend to remember it poorly if it doesn't bring instant success.

For example some people go on about how great crowds where in the 1980's when the averages were acctually less than half of what we have today, in regards to the SL war, it was something that needed to happen in the aspect that League needed to cut the number of Sydney sides, but the way they went about it was incorrect. So be it, lets move on with the game and try and make it better than it use to be.

My first taste of football was in Victoria, it was all AFL, until one day I saw a wallabies match. Union got me onto a style of game i enjoyed more than AFL, and from there I decided I wanted to play a code of Rugby. St Kilda had a League team in which I joined because it was closest and also I was victorian ignorant that all Rugby's were the same. I soon learnt that wasn't the case and with only being really young its a wonder i even liked union. Within about 2 years we had moved up to Sydney where I adopted the Magpies as my team.

My love of League really however didn't fully take off till the 1995 RLWC. I have always enjoyed Internationals more than club game, and seeing so many different teams and nations taking place really got me enthused on league.

 

[legend]

I agree Yaksorm. Everyones perception of "the good ol days" was that everything was bigger and better and that was most definitely not the case. I remember going to a league game in either 82' or 83' as it was Parra v St George at Belmore and there was only a couple of thousand at the game. This was when Parra was in their trifecta period. I do remember 94' though and as a Raiders supporter our crowds were great. It was a great year in general for RL in 94.

 

[imported_Rasputin]

Don't know which Parra game your reffering to there Legend but when Parra played out of Belmore their average crowds were 14K. Average for their first year at the new stadium in 86 was 20K. When comparing crowd figures from different eras one must also consider the changingdemographics. An average 14K crowd amongst a population of 2.8M (which Sydney was in the 80's) is a much larger representation per head of population than 15K amongst 4.7M which is the eels current average.

 

[imported_Roopy4246]

I had three older brothers and was brought up on a small property in a district where there were only about five families within walking distance. We didn't have TV till I was about ten but we played football every day during winter and cricket every day during summer. I had been playing football in the backyard and on the weekends for years before I ever saw a game on TV and I can destinctly remember thinking that it didn't look anything like I thought it would. My mental picture of football was like a giant mobile wrestling match, just like you see kids playing now.