Who have you met ??

[Babyface O'reilly]

Had beers at Town Hall Hotel with Paul Mares when he did volunteer work at the Jets early 00s. The young guys here might not know that he and Eric Grothe were done for fraud by burning Eric’s car. They drove out to the bush, parked the car with the windows left up, threw a molotov which bounced off the window and started a bushfire. He didn’t mind recounting the story either. He wasn’t doing too well, health wise either. Over weight and carried a kitchen towel to keep dry as he was a massive sweater. Top bloke.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Big old bump to this thread.

Met many but some standouts...

Craig Fitzgibbon n Nate Myles at The Sheaf on Australia Day roughly 2011 and many an ale. Darryl Braithwaite was playing that night, got chatting with em both and we all got a few rounds in for each other. Top blokes, genuine people. Met Jarrod Saffy that night too - he was one of the most impressive players I've ever met.

First player I ever met was Craig Young. My dad had loads of copper mates when I was young and he took me along to a get together one night... he didn't follow football but I was a massive dragons fan... and then Craig Young rolls up - this is 1980 so peak of his prime and I was in awe, but was wearing bulldogs socks (who knows why) at the time and everyone was giving me grief. Another was Michael "Weaponhead" Porter after a sharks game at the King Wan. Neighbours (sharks fans) had taken me to a game as a kid, and a big old leagues club chinese feed. In walks Michael, who my neighbours got chatting to.. and introduced me.

I hit Steve Edmed for 6 once when playing Leichhardt Wanderers about ten years ago. His young fella was only about 14 but an absolute gun though.

Met Steve Price (Dragons coach at the time) and Corey Pearson on a night out at the Tank Stream bar and we all shared a bunch of beverages over a number of hours. Great night.

But the best was sitting opposite Wayne Bennett at a function where he was the Keynote speaker. Written about it on LU forums a few times. But honestly one of the highlights of my life to speak with him, then hear him speak - on stage to 500-odd people. Everyone was in awe and I then saw first-hand why so many players he'd coached thought so highly of him. Ricky Walford was there too and I got introduced - another top guy and doing outstanding things for the indigenous community.

There's plenty of others but I can honestly say I've never met anyone bar top shelf, genuine people who've played or coached the game.

 

[Pugzley]

I once worked for the Royal North Shore Hospital where I met Alex McKinnon and a few Knights players at the Spinal Injury unit. Also met Ivan Cleary while shopping at Blacktown Westpoint.

 

[mongoose]

not a League player but I awkwardly met Quade Cooper as he sneaked out of my roommates bedroom one morning about 11 years ago... (she wasn't hot at all, good on her though... )

Met Tonie Carroll at a party around 2014, nice guy

Met a bunch of Raiders when I was a kid- Stuart, Clyde, Lazo, Paul Martin...

 

[Mark B]

R

Had beers at Town Hall Hotel with Paul Mares when he did volunteer work at the Jets early 00s. The young guys here might not know that he and Eric Grothe were done for fraud by burning Eric’s car. They drove out to the bush, parked the car with the windows left up, threw a molotov which bounced off the window and started a bushfire. He didn’t mind recounting the story either. He wasn’t doing too well, health wise either. Over weight and carried a kitchen towel to keep dry as he was a massive sweater. Top bloke.

Read an article from a few years ago regarding Paul. Seems to be doing ok in the buying and then leasing out those pubs around the place. Probably learnt a thing or two from Jack Gibson and Uncle Nick of how to keep things going after football.

 

[bileduct]

I had a job with a Fox Sports subcontractor from 2002 - 2004 in the commentary booth at games and worked pretty regularly with:

Gary Freeman
Warren Smith
Russell Fairfax
Wally Lewis
Laurie Daley

Went to school with a few players:

Michael Monaghan
Joel Monaghan
Terry Martin

Used to see Chicka Ferguson pretty regularly at my primary school when he was a Wormald technician.

Other than that I've met a whole bunch of players for brief moments, too many to mention.

 

[GreenMachine121]

RTS , JTS & their dad played in my touch footy team when RTS was at the roosters …. Yeah we didn’t lose a game
Met and played touch against Russel Crowe , mark carrol & beaver … all good blokes , even had a joint with Rusty outside the Charing cross hotel after the game haha
Tricky trindal - good bloke
Reni Matui - so drunk was lying on the floor … was still talking though
Beau Champion - came to a poker night at a mates place - quiet
Matt Orford …. Banged his ex haha
Met all of 94 raiders team after they flogged manly at brookvale in the last round that year
All good except Ricky who was a bit rude

 

[Jim Rockford]

Tricky trindal - good bloke

Absolutely. I've got an awesome photo of him and me. We're both laughing hard as one of the other Souths boys had just cracked a joke about the massive height differential between the two of us.

 

[Reflector]

Have an uncle who lives down the south coast and on the drive home I took a detour to grab a beer at the Gerringong Hotel. I wanted to check the place out, see if Cronin was kicking around at all or did he take more of a hands off role these days?

I went in and there were a bunch of blokes watching a Fox Classic match between the Bulldogs and Easts from the late 80's and getting into it like it was live. Then I spotted Crow leaning against the bar in his Gerringong RL polo. I grabbed a beer and asked him if any of his old Parra team-mates ever dropped in? He could probably tell I was in the mood to chat so he beckoned for me to come join him at a table across the floor, saying something about COVID restrictions.

We sat down for about 20 minutes as I sank my beer, just chatting about the old days, Jack Gibson, about the rumoured Newtown offer Singo made him etc. Crow is exactly how he's always come across- your typical laid-back publican from the country. He said amongst the blokes watching the old match on the other side of the bar was Joe Thomas (hadn't picked him out though). I finished my beer, got him to sign a couple of coasters for my uncle and my neighbour respectively (both lifelong Eels fans), shook his hand and then said I'd better get a move on back to Sydney.

Nice joint down there, the Gerringong Hotel.

 

[Jim Rockford]

You could always tell that Cronin was a genuinely good bloke.

 

[Reflector]

You could always tell that Cronin was a genuinely good bloke.

It would be interesting to know what he was like as a coach. I can't imagine him being the kind of bloke who'd ever fire up at his team the way Sticky, Des or Bellyache do.

*Edit*

Saying that, he led the Eels to arguably the biggest upset of the 90's when they knocked off the Broncos at their QE2 Stadium Grand Opening as reigning Premiers in '93, so maybe his poor winning record was more a reflection on that Parra squad overall than his motivational skills as coach?

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

The Crow poured me a beer in his pub in the late 80s. I remember he had a massive black eye at the time.

 

[horrie hastings]

Had beers at Town Hall Hotel with Paul Mares when he did volunteer work at the Jets early 00s. The young guys here might not know that he and Eric Grothe were done for fraud by burning Eric’s car. They drove out to the bush, parked the car with the windows left up, threw a molotov which bounced off the window and started a bushfire. He didn’t mind recounting the story either. He wasn’t doing too well, health wise either. Over weight and carried a kitchen towel to keep dry as he was a massive sweater. Top bloke.

Ha Ha, i cant remember what year it was but Paul Mares was living up on the Hawkesbury River, i was staying with friends who have a house at Wobby Beach which is opposite Brooklyn and Danger Island and was on their wharf fishing, Paul Mares pulled in at the wharf to have a look at my fishing bag which had 3 bream in it, he just turned around and said they are a bit undersized, i just looked at him and said wouldn't you be better trying to torch a car properly, he just laughed and left. And for the record the bream were all over legal size. My friends said Paul wasn't really liked around Wobby.

 

[horrie hastings]

Have an uncle who lives down the south coast and on the drive home I took a detour to grab a beer at the Gerringong Hotel. I wanted to check the place out, see if Cronin was kicking around at all or did he take more of a hands off role these days?

I went in and there were a bunch of blokes watching a Fox Classic match between the Bulldogs and Easts from the late 80's and getting into it like it was live. Then I spotted Crow leaning against the bar in his Gerringong RL polo. I grabbed a beer and asked him if any of his old Parra team-mates ever dropped in? He could probably tell I was in the mood to chat so he beckoned for me to come join him at a table across the floor, saying something about COVID restrictions.

We sat down for about 20 minutes as I sank my beer, just chatting about the old days, Jack Gibson, about the rumoured Newtown offer Singo made him etc. Crow is exactly how he's always come across- your typical laid-back publican from the country. He said amongst the blokes watching the old match on the other side of the bar was Joe Thomas (hadn't picked him out though). I finished my beer, got him to sign a couple of coasters for my uncle and my neighbour respectively (both lifelong Eels fans), shook his hand and then said I'd better get a move on back to Sydney.

Nice joint down there, the Gerringong Hotel.

I've seen the Crow behind the bar a couple of times at his pub in Gerringong but that was many years ago, never talked to him really but did get served by him one of the times.

 

[Jim Rockford]

Ha Ha, i cant remember what year it was but Paul Mares was living up on the Hawkesbury River, i was staying with friends who have a house at Wobby Beach which is opposite Brooklyn and Danger Island and was on their wharf fishing, Paul Mares pulled in at the wharf to have a look at my fishing bag which had 3 bream in it, he just turned around and said they are a bit undersized, i just looked at him and said wouldn't you be better trying to torch a car properly, he just laughed and left. And for the record the bream were all over legal size. My friends said Paul wasn't really liked around Wobby.

I know exactly where you're talking about Horrie. I had a friend from high school who lived on Dangar Island.

 

[horrie hastings]

I know exactly where you're talking about Horrie. I had a friend from high school who lived on Dangar Island.

Spoke to one of them a couple of days ago, both are locked down at Wobby at the moment and not in their Sydney house, would love to be up there at the moment just dangling a line off the wharf. One time when i stayed we took the boat over there for dinner at Dangar Island bowling club, great night just doing something different. Great part of the world and so close to Sydney and i don't mind the odd bream and flathead i catch when i visit.

 

[Reflector]

The Crow poured me a beer in his pub in the late 80s. I remember he had a massive black eye at the time.

Should've asked him if Beetson had been in lately?

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Spoke to one of them a couple of days ago, both are locked down at Wobby at the moment and not in their Sydney house, would love to be up there at the moment just dangling a line off the wharf. One time when i stayed we took the boat over there for dinner at Dangar Island bowling club, great night just doing something different. Great part of the world and so close to Sydney and i don't mind the odd bream and flathead i catch when i visit.

You could always dangle a line in the Cooks River lol

 

[I Bleed Maroon]

I served both Mal Meninga and Glenn Lazarus at my old job. Lazarus was getting some printing done and Mal was on the hunt for some external storage for his computer or something like that. Those are the only two I actually shared words with, but I've encountered Petero Civoniceva, Milford and Justin Hodges in the wild.

 

[Ghostface Killah]

I served both Mal Meninga and Glenn Lazarus at my old job. Lazarus was getting some printing done and Mal was on the hunt for some external storage for his computer or something like that. Those are the only two I actually shared words with, but I've encountered Petero Civoniceva, Milford and Justin Hodges in the wild.

Did you ever meet Jason Smith?