August 6, 2025 • 52 mins
KANGAROOS and NSW LEGEND NOEL "CRUSHER" CLEAL JOINS THE ASHES RUGBY LEAGUE PODCAST ‼️ 🔥
Lee Addison interviews Noel Cleal, the former Roosters, Sea Eagles, Hull FC, Widnes, NSW and Kangaroo legend! 🔥
Cleal delivered a famous half-time speech when NSW won their first ever Origin, and also played in the first ever Blues clean sweep !
They talk about his career, including the Origins, the tests and his trip from country NSW along with his brother Les, to the big league!
Each fortnight you can join Lee Addison and John Davidson for analysis, news, interviews with guests, history lessons and lots more every fortnight to help whet your appetite for the 2025 series between England and Australia!
Lee Addison interviews Noel Cleal, the former Roosters, Sea Eagles, Hull FC, Widnes, NSW and Kangaroo legend! 🔥
Cleal delivered a famous half-time speech when NSW won their first ever Origin, and also played in the first ever Blues clean sweep !
They talk about his career, including the Origins, the tests and his trip from country NSW along with his brother Les, to the big league!
Each fortnight you can join Lee Addison and John Davidson for analysis, news, interviews with guests, history lessons and lots more every fortnight to help whet your appetite for the 2025 series between England and Australia!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to The Ashes Rugby League Podcast Episode nine.
My name is John Davidson. Lee Addison is not with
me today, but we can't keep him quiet. You'll hear
plenty from him in the near future. Each fortnite to
join myself and Lee for analysis, news, interviews with guests, history,
lessons and lots more. Every fortnight to help wet your
(00:23):
appetite for the twenty twenty five series between England and Australia,
The Return of the Ashes. I am an Australian journalist
based in the UK for many a year. Lee is
an Englishman who has coached at NRL clubs and lived
in Australia for a long time. You'll hear from Lee
very soon in our exclusive interview with Manly News, Wales
(00:44):
Kangaroos Witness and Hull f C legend Noel Kleel that
Lee recorded recently with Crusher. You can contact Lee at
Rugby League Coach dot com dot au or you can
email him at admin at Rugby League Coach dot com
dot au, and you can also find him at Rugby
League Coach on socials such as X and Facebook. You
(01:08):
can contact me on X or Twitter at Johnny d Davidson.
You can also get me on email or on Patreon
at Rugby league hub dot com Longreads. Now you won't
hear from me at the end. I'll speak to you
again in two weeks in our next episode. Now, let's
go to Lee Addison, who is interviewing Noel Kleile, who
(01:29):
turned who toured with the Kangaroos back in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Noel Crusher Kleil, have you been out digging holes or something?
You look like you've got your lumberjacks jersey on.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I have been out there. I've been. I had a
weekend with my brother at Warriolder, and I've been out
there cleaning up, putting away and washing dirt off the quad.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Did you go back home to worryolder?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah? Mat Yeah, I try and get out there as
often as okay, and it's not especially in winter time.
You can there's plenty of pigs about and there's a
lot of fun to be had.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Let's let's paint the picture for those who maybe don't
remember or don't know. Rugby league in the late seventies
was still very bush oriented oriented, wasn't it. So you
were plugged, you and your brother were plucked literally from
from which team did you play for in the that's right? Yeah,
(02:31):
And then you both went down to the Roosters, didn't
you at the same time.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I went down in nine eighty and Les came down
in eighty two. He was really reluctant to leave the
bush life that he that he was enjoying. But I
went there a couple of years earlier and we end
up talking him in the campany and he had one
year there at the roost of two, played sixteen games
(02:56):
we won for Down and he won the Player of
the Year and he took off straight after the was.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That well, he made it already, so he might as
well just just go back.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
He always says, he just went out to prove a.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Point the So yeah, I mean people won't be able
to imagine some of this now because you were playing,
you were playing eight grade for score. Weren't you hadn't
you won a premiership that year when you both got
picked up or when you got picked up?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah, yeah, we actually was. We played the tour in
Great Britain side and seventy a scalla for Northern Division
and from that game we went okay. And from that
game that no Mordy the grad old journalists from the
Dalla Sydney Dally's former Sydney Dally Telegraph or Dally Mirror.
(03:44):
He raned Bob Fulton. He said, listen as a cut
of the bush Rinders saying that cut the bush Rynders said,
are you better get on? Uh? And so it went
from that.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's absolute different world, isn't it. And we'll explore what
you just said about the Great Britain Tour match because
we'll talk about the eighty six tour soon and how
many games you had to play. Anyway, Bozo Fulton left
the Roosters and went to Manley and you followed him.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
That's correct, Yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Nineteen eighty three, Yeah, did you? Did you play against
the Great Britain Tour inside in eighty four?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Eighty four was probably a transition year, or I had
two years when I was at the Roosters. I played
primarily in the centers, and then and then when when
we went to mainly or I followed Bose out of mainly.
He sent him at the start of the eighty three season.
He said, I'm thinking about making a second hour area
(04:45):
and I thought, well, I don't know if that's such
a good idea because at the at the mainly club
at the time, there were six international backgrounds and and
he was going to try and make well. His idea
was to make main one and through through injuries and
suspensions and loss of form and all that sort of stuff.
I started the season the centers in eighty three and
(05:08):
I finished the finished the season in At the end
of the eighty three season, I was one of the
starting back rounds. But you know I was Les Boyd
and sued with Paul McCabe, Faddy Vaughton, Bruce Walker, Paul McCabe.
It was there was some quality players there.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Can you remember the sort of training methods at the time,
Were you working hard on fitness skills column A, column
B in the gym at all?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
For mine it was, you know, we we only trained
twice a week and sometimes three times a week, but
normally it was you know, a bash up on Tuesday
night and then and fine tuning on Thursday night. And
every about every month you'd have a two mile time
trip and you had to break your break your time
from the from the previous run. But I was I
(06:01):
was fortunate always. I was got a job as a
garbo and the mainly council and that the job itself
just entire running eye down kilometers every morning and a
bit of lifting for yeah, and probably lifting a thousand
fifty kilo bins. So I kind of you know, within
(06:24):
within three months of starting work as a garbo, you know,
that's when my food and you know went went to
another level as well.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
What would the r LPA say, Now if we trained
twice a week and just made everybody a garbo.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I probably wouldn't hurt them.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So alongside this time, you played a lot of games
from New South Wales and you were also playing I
read just thirty minutes ago played in the last game
that was under the old rules. That's correct, Yes, where
was that app?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
That was it? Like i'd have in eighty two?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Eighty one?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Thing? Sorry eighty one, and then I went best to
three in eighty two. But it's funny. I played in
lots of first and last. I played in the last
grand final at the s CG. Played in the first
side for New South Wales, the winner winner start of
origin here played in the very first clean sweep. So
I recognize a good luck charm mate.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
So between eighty four and eighty eight, you played twelve games.
So by my very quick mass, that means you must
have played nearly every one in state of origin between
those years more or less.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I missed, I missed, I missed an odd one here
and there. In that sequence, I played eight consecutive winning games.
And I think that's a State of Orizon record. I'm
not quite sure. I don't know. Well, yeah, I do
not know. David Middleton tell me that. Okay, So yeah,
(07:58):
but like I said before, maybe I was a good
luck chown.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Tell David Middleton, I think I found a new version
of him. By the way, his name, his name's Darren Parking.
Tell us about your halftime speech in nineteen eighty five, which,
for those who don't know, was the first time New
South Wales won the series.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Well, as you've been hanging around, knocking around and being
around football for a long time, and and and you know,
you know yourself, remembering halftime speeches are pretty you know
when you've when when you've had a couple of hundred
or three hundred half time speeches, you can't They become
a bit hazy. And you do. You probably remember the
end of game speeches more than the halftime. All you
(08:42):
want to do is get your breath and get a drink.
But I remember talking to the players about, you know,
during the dream boys. You know, we've got an opportunity
here and let's not go and mark it happen, you know.
But we had a lot of inspirational players in that team,
you know, more certain none Southern Turvy and and Wine Peace.
(09:02):
You know, he was a true inspiration as well. And
then there was a lot of passion in the side.
You know, there was no more passionate player than Stay
Right or Gary Jack, and you know we had it
was a pretty fair time, so it didn't need my
words of wisdom to ignite any sort of further energy.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I can remember two halftime speeches and they both contained
expletives glow. They were both high decibels and one of
them was a massive racist lur as well. So that
out of one hundred million halftime speeches. So dare to dream.
So you're dared to dream in that game. This is
probably quite a topical thing. What did it mean for
(09:54):
New South Wales to win that series at the time?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Well, the first two were siri or the first two
games eighty and eighty one, well one off, but you know,
Queensland one in nineteen eighty two, they won in nineteen
eighty three, and then and then the one again in
nineteen eighty four. At the end of the nineteen eighty
(10:17):
or the last game in nine eighty four, we we
had a team that was you know, there was I
think the last game in eighty four there was we
only had one in a national as opposed to Queensland
they had ten or eleven and we and we bet
them at Lane Park and that and from that, you know,
(10:39):
we won the next two in eighty two and the
one the whole three and eighty eighty six. But it was,
you know, it was a relatively young side in terms
of experience, but it was a rule there was just
a lot of passion in the side and that was
really really brought home by by Steve Mortimer.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
He played for Australia for the first time in nineteen
eighty five. Am I right in thinking your first game
was at Lang Park when Tomothy and Dowling got it on.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah, that that that was the that probably started. I
read somewhere the other day where Mark Graham said that
that that that was one of the you know incidents
that sort of and and he blamed Blocker and I
for for for doing something to him and I can't remember,
(11:34):
but but yeah, that was. That was at Length Park
and what happened that the tackle on on on Mark
Grahame was it ignited what was to follow. And it's funny.
I've got to replaced. And I was sitting on the
in the dugout when when they walked off together and
Arches said it was going to happen, So I I was.
(11:56):
I actually were out there and broke them up right
and by that time they didn't pum take much pull
on the part that was okay, it was it was
full on.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So again, just try and paint the picture for people
who don't know what was it like for you must
have only been in your early twenties something like that
at the time, and you were in the Origin side,
You're in the Australian side. Tell us a little bit
about the media landscape at the time and how recognizable
(12:28):
you were in in Sydney and wherever you went.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, it wasn't foody, wasn't. You didn't have because there
was only two games televised televised every week and that
was happening on the ib ON channel. Seven or Channel ten,
so party you lived in a bit of a you know,
a world where with the exposure was also more so
in the print media that that that was they really
(12:55):
and there were some really great journalists about then. There
was fellows like Ellen Clarkson and Peter Felingos and Ray
Chester and they were fantastic, fantastic men and and you
sort of there was a lot of feel good stories
written so that you know, it a bit different to
(13:17):
what it is today.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
How did you feel when you got your first cap
for Australia? So when you got the phone call? Who
phoned you? Who called you? Told you?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
We played a? We played a. It was the second
State of Origin in Sydney, the one that clinched the
first series for New South Wales. They were naming the
Australian side that night, but they were naming a squad
of twenty to go to New Zealand for the following
two Test matches were going to be played in in
(13:46):
in New Zealand. It was funny, so we went back
to after the game was over. They said they were
going to announce the touring squad and that and the
team for the first Test at midnight. So we My
brother Les was there and they have two partners at
the time. They come with us and we went back
(14:06):
to the Mainly Lease Club and they said, oh, we're
closing eleven thirty and we didn't get there, you know,
after eleven and they said sorry, and we thought where
else can we get a drink? And there was a
nightclub down at the Brookville Hotel called Duties and Doug
Parkinson had just had just performed there and the Test
(14:27):
Side just come through as we left the Manly Lease
Club and I was I was actually naming the tourings
whatnot the Test side. So we went down the under
the Brookvale Hotel and Doug was packing up his gear
and he kept the bar out and force. We stayed
there probably daylight.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
So that's how you celebrated your eighty six was a
big the year for you, Like you said earlier origin
Queen Clean sweep. Can you remember what Manly Seagulls how
they went that year?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
It's funny. It's funny because Mainly played in the eighty
three Grand Final and got beten by that great Paramouter
site and then and then we played again in the
Grand Final in eighty seven, which you know, four years
later and from that eighty three side there was only
two of us that have played in the eighty from
(15:22):
played in Baths Grand Finals eighty it was just Fatty
and Night. And so the club went through a massive
rebuilding and there was after eighty three there was you know,
fellows like Max Crilic and Graham Eedy, you know, great
great players, you know, for the club and for the nation.
They had retired and so Bozo went out and you know,
(15:45):
he bought Michael O'Connor, and there was a couple of
local juniors coming through, and Phil Day and David Ronson,
then Michael O'Connor, as I said, Darryl Williams. He just
went out and and the probably the key signing was
Kevin Wood. And you know we eighty six we were well,
(16:08):
I think eighty six we got beaten the first semi
and then there was a lot happening, you know after that,
and then eighty seven. You know, he bought those players
and there was a fairly big transit or you know,
big transition between the eighty three and eighty seven side
of players and a lot of retirements, a lot of
good players retired and you know, Les Board had left
(16:30):
and and a give an opportunity to hurt young blacks.
And it was, you know, it was. It was a
special part in my time, but mainly it was it
was a great times.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
And of course at end of eighty six you would
have got the phone call or seen it on television
or heard it on radio or with tam schooners down
somewhere when you heard about going on the kangaroot or.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Well, it was funny I'd played for I started the
the end of the eighty five season. I played the
whole Hall of eighty five and I think I missed
a game. I missed the last State of Orison game
in eighty five, and I didn't miss the club games.
And then there was a short tour in New Zealand
and and then I was. I was sitting at home
(17:16):
and Eric Hughes, the great English center that come out
and played for Cannabiuse coach of Witness, and he said, oh,
can you come over for a couple of months, And
I was, and I ran bars and said I Witness
had likely to come out, So I jumped on a
plane the next weekend. I spent four months at Witness
and and and then I came back and then straight
(17:40):
where the troll who was the chairman of selectors and
(18:10):
Don Ferner, and I said, you know, And then they
had the kangaroo train on squad for because we got
knocked out in the first couple of weeks of the
semi so that, you know, a month long kangaroo training
on squad and I just said, Almos and I have
a bit of a down time, and so they said,
you get we'll see you when you when you when
you come back. So I went to a y for
a week and I went home and picked catching for
(18:31):
a week and then I'll come back and recharged and
I was ready to go. They tell me, only haven't
told me? He said, oh, you'll be going on the tour.
So I was, you know, I had to prepare a
few things, but but it was nice here. It announced
us at the same.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Time it was basically a world tour because you started
off in Papping, New Guinea, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah, it was started in New Guinea and then went
to we flew on I think we flew. We flew
from New Guinea to England. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, you beat New Guinea sixty two twelve. You scored
two tries that day. According to this, yeah, yeah, both
eighty meter tries? Were they? Or thirteen games in England?
The Kangaroos can't even get one warm up game now
(19:35):
for this trip. But thirteen games you played in England.
The first game was at Wigan. I don't think, oh
yeah you did. You played second row in that game.
Australia won twenty six eighteen. Any memories of that? You
did score a try thirty fans?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
It was massive, It was massive, block of distal kind
of zoba. I remember that. Okay, I chased Henderson Gill
and the biggest fluke of all time. I wasn't going
to catch him, but I dived and my fingernail got
these heelers And actually Laser laserd signed for witness my
(20:17):
brother and he was over there at the time as well.
So yeah, it was not that was that was you know,
it was a bit of a reunion there and and we
won the game, and that that Wigan were the team
debate and we had to I think we've bet them
pretty easily in the finish. And then it was.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Always classed as the unofficial Fourth Test, wasn't it. So
some of the players that have that were in that
side that many people will know Dean Bell was on
the wing. The kid the former key Week captain Joel Leiden,
who would play for Great Britain in that series, was
in the centers you've just mentioned Henderson Gill Sean Edwards
was at five eight was at standoffs. Ian Roberts. Ian
(20:58):
Roberts played second role for Wigan yep, and Andy Goodway
was a loose forward the lock, so really really really
handy side and I would imagine that was a bit
of a baptism of fire. Then the team went to
whole kr on one forty six ten. Can you paint
(21:20):
a little bit of a picture of what you were
thinking about some of these grounds back then too, because
you obviously grew up in a sunny part of the
world and played at some nice grounds, and then all
of a sudden you're arriving at old shitty Central Park
and then Craven Park then would have been horrible and
cold and windy and not the most welcoming place on earth.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Yeah. I was for somewhere, as I said to applied
over there in the off season ninety five euty six,
so I was kind of you know, there was probably
no TAF a grander player than Norton Park, yeahs witness
and I so I was, you know, I was. I
wasn't a season for it, but I was, I knew,
(22:03):
I knew what to expect. And there wasn't a great
deal of pliers that went on the eighty two tour
that were on the eighty six tour, you know, I
think there was any sterlow Rick, Kenny and obviously Wally
and Jana and Mal, but there wasn't there. There was
a lot of retirement after the idy two Kan grew
to Yeah. The eighty six were you know, all newbies
(22:26):
and it would have been a big experience, you know
for those guys not having been out there before.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
So the eighty six tour was four years after the
nineteen eighty two Invincibles Tour, which I think shut the
foundations of world rugby league. They were the first team
to go through undefeated. Did did you have any pressure
on you as a group to try and emulate that
or was it subtly there?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Yeah, yeah, of course it would would have been sadly there,
but you know it was a different model fellas, and
I don't you know it was there was no never
I mention, let's do what the ad two eighty two
guys did it was like it was for us. It
was just to maintain the rage, I suppose, and and
keep doing what what Australia had done, and bearing in
(23:17):
mind the Great Britain. So I come out in eighty
four and it's to a similar two similar schoolines what
happened in eighty two and then again in eighty six.
So as I said, it was more maintaining the raids
than you know, trying to emulate anybody.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
How were the British public responding to you in in
general a way?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah, will will well received and probably more more so
on the on the pitch. And when we played the
second Test at Alan Raid in eighty six, you know,
everything we did the crowd, the English crowd would applaud,
(24:00):
but sadly, sadly when they when the Great Brininsaw did
something wrong, there was a chorus.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Of yeah you got that right, Yeah yeah. What's also
looking as like a pattern here is I think you
probably were clearly lined up to be in the side
that was going to play the Test from maybe the
second or third game, because for those of a certain
(24:28):
vintage you remember those tools, there'd be a midweek game
and then there'd be a weekend game and quite often
the Test team would be hinted at in the weekend
games prior, wouldn't it. So on Sunday, the nineteenth of
October of that year, you played in the second row
against Leeds and one forty nil.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, and looking at the side, Wally's at six, Stlow
at seven, Blocker at eight, Roy Simmons at nine, yourself
second row, Paul Syrin and Bob Linda also in the
back role garage Jack, Is it fair to say that
that Test side was emerging right then that you were
starting to think, I'm going a minute, I'll be playing
in that first Test.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yeah, because because I was incumbent as well, I played
in the three Tests against New Zealand and then I
played the Test against the Peppy and New Guinea guys
and that was you know, you kind of know from
the get go, there's there's the Kangaroos and they used
to put on the as and that was your midweek
team and it was it was the younger fellas that
(25:32):
we were, you know, they were emerging and one day
we'd become a lot of them would become part of
members of the number one side. So and Terry Lamb
he too to his Yeah, he played every game in
the tour, which and that was, you know, the three
(25:52):
tests off the bench, and he started a lot of
the other guys. A funny story we we played. We're
playing Calipax at Trump Hall, yes, and we'd run out
of wingers. Let's kissing Danny's knee and Mark O'Connor has
a guest on his cheek, and I think Chris Mortimer
was injured. So we'd run out of we'd run out
(26:15):
of troops and we went to training and Donnie Ferner said, well,
I don't know what we're going to do about wingers.
And I said, well, I can play the wing, yeah,
they said, and Bret Kenny piped up straight away. He
sees that that big basket playing the wing, I can
playing the other one. So Bret Kenny and I were
the wingers, and anyway we we Chris Anderson was captain
(26:40):
coach of Halifax and one Batore playing there at the
same time and wonderful servants to the game. And yeah,
we had a bit of fun that night.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
You played it, you didn't play well. Cumbri had got
beaten forty eight twelve and then the first Ashes Test,
which was on the twenty fifth of October nineteen eighty six,
Australia thirty eight, Great Britain sixteen at Old Trafford fifty thousand,
five hundred and eighty three people. And now can I
(27:11):
make you feel old crusher? That was my first ever
Test match that I went.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
To watch, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah? And so originally I thought I loved football soccer.
So my dad took me to man City and Salford
to watch the Rugby League. And obviously, in my eyes,
Salford was this little dodgy stadium with not many people watching,
and then City was thirty forty thousand people. And then
(27:41):
I go to Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United
that day as a young kid, and back then there
was lots of football hooliganism at soccer games in the crowds,
and I remember at Old Trafford that it was the
combination of seeing what looked like a football crowd for
a rugby league game. And then also these people were
(28:01):
these strange accents that I thought were American yelling at
me and my father. And now if that happened at
a soccer game, we'd think we were going to get
our heads kicked in kind of thing back then. But
they were actually giving us some memorabilia from Australia, and
I said to my dad, I said, Jesus a friendly
And there was a complete contrast between the big crowd
(28:21):
that was at a rugby league game as opposed to
a soccer game. So that was my memory. And then
the other big thing I remember of that was Joe
Lyden's try.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Yes, so.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I've watched that game back a couple of times, and
I actually think Great Britain confused themselves before they played,
because I don't know if you remember, they actually moved
the ball side to side quite quite a bit. They
didn't concentrate on going forward. It's like they didn't want
to take you on in the middle. They just kept
moving the ball sideways.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And they had had Kevin Ward and they had Yeah,
they had a pretty decent pack of forward so yeah,
yeah we will sup. We were surprised too that they
didn't try and cancer to the middle. I just I
just went shift to shift to shift.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
So the the greatest wing performance ever in kangaroo history
was the next game, Wednesday, the twenty ninth of October.
That from Hall Australia with you and Brett Kenny on
the wings won thirty six to two. That from Hall.
What do you remember about from Hall? Apart from being
very close to the grandstands you want to win?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
It was it was cold, Yes, it was when it
was hostile. Yeah, that might not not to the extreme,
but was just not not hostile is the wrong word?
That was fairly leyoud.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
They've made a big deal of it. On this page
it says this game saw Don Ferner play a couple
of players out of position, with Brett Kenny and No
Cleil on the wings. Saint Helen's were the next victims
thirty two eight. You scored a try. You wrapped up
from Drives on this tour back in the second row
(30:10):
and then the the big news from that tour was
Blocker got injured dislocated his elbow in that game.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
That's why I said it was with Wigan before that
was yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And then you went to Oldham the watersheddings, My god.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
You couldn't see it with the fog was that thick?
You couldn't see that the wingers on the other side
of the pitch.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
The watersheddings, What a great place for rugby league. That
was but you you actually didn't play that day, or
did you because he's a number fifteen with no name here?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
No, no, that was that was a Wednesday. I still remember.
I don't remember Terry Lame. How many tries he scoring
that game?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Two?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yeah, I remember him scoring a cable.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
And that was the closest match of the whole tour twenty.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Two sixteen in the conditions. The conditions were horrendous.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So all England have to do this year is turn
on the fog. On the eighth of November nineteen eighty
six was the second Test, thirty four to four.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
You won.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You didn't score a try, but is this the game?
You got mad of the match in this game? But
did you also break your arm in this? Okay?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
That was I think the next game?
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Okay, so you won the Ashes this day. You won
the Ashes this day, so talk to me about the
party after that.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
So there we are, mate.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
You won the Ashes this day. You got the ashes back.
You retain the Ashes by winning the second Test. So
you won the first test. This was the second Test,
and so you've won the Ashes. You've won a trophy.
Tell me about the party that night, or did it
just merge into all the other parties you had on.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
I do remember don Fin sign before the guide should
we win that we had never bright mm hmm. If
we won, we were going to be given four days
off and that was probably that was, you know, because
it was pretty constant. You know, you're training twice a day,
(32:14):
living in pretty confined areas and and you it was
just footy, footy, footy. So I remember we had a
we had a fair drink that night and then the
next morning I jumped in with So when we got
to England, we all groups of three and four just
(32:36):
buy buy an old ship box. So we there was
Phil Darling, myself and Michael, Michael and Dale Shira. We
all we all chucked in and bought a Vauxel I
think I was and that was a it was a
heap of pooh, but anyway, it got us from a
to band. So I just remember getting up the next
(32:57):
morning and jumping in it and go down down to
Witness because i'd played with Witness was there and I
stayed down there for two or three days and and
we had in the Great David Morrow actually came down
for a cut that dies as well. Okay, Yeah, it
was not a celebration of winning the ashes or on that.
(33:18):
It was like a break that And given that I'd
played a lot of foody for a long time, you know,
I had my period, it was it was probably more
of a lift to get away from it for a bit.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I'm just reading here before Kenny Brett Kenny's try with
the score at twenty eight il the crowd had begun
to chant what a load of rubbish, as you said earlier,
and it was clearly audible on television coverage apparently, and
they were actually applauding your play. In summary of the game,
Rex Mossap, who himself was was an ex kangaroo Juell
(33:53):
Rugby International actualist, said the words Australia carve them up.
They've decimated, dissected anduely diabolically destroyed this great Britain side today.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah, and after the first Test, you know, they's scored
sixteen points in the first Test, not and I really
thought that the second Test would be much more of
a contest, and it was for the first or half
hour and then we you know, we went away from them.
I think they've scored electric at the lectrizelet Yeah, and
(34:30):
possibly too, that everything we did that they turned a guard.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I've recently found and read a book by Les Bettinson
from that time, who was the great Britain manager, and
throughout it he talks about basically how worried the British
players were they were that their esteem was that low,
because I think what happened in eighty two completely changed
everybody's perception of how rugby league should be played. So
(34:56):
I think part of this, and looking at the results
and listening to some of the things that you say,
I think some of these teams were beaten before they
even stepped on the field because because of the rain
and gold jerseys they were up against.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I'd say that was the case in club goings. But
the first test was probably closer than the scoring on suggested,
but the second test was. But as I said that,
on the day we were everything we did turn the gold.
You know, Michael Iakonna chipped ahead and you know it
was just it was just fantastic stuff and hard to
(35:29):
defend against when you got appliers with his ability to
doing things like that.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
So a few days later, on the Wednesday, the team
played at Witness. Were you still driving around in the
Vauxhall then, or did you get back?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
I got back and come down on the bath.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
The Sunday Hull leftz away forty eight nil? Is that
when you broke your arm?
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, it's funny. Later in my career I went back
to England and I played at Hall for a couple
of you two or three years and coach them and
and I become good good mates with Andy Dnett, the
guy I broke my arm on yep, and it was
you know, it was he ducked his head. I was
just trying to wrap the ball up and he ducked
(36:12):
his head and forearm hit the middle of his forehead
and if you know Andy, it's probably not the sweetest
spot to hit him with hitting. Yeah, and and broke it. And
that was that was. That was my international career done
in a.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
One At least at least you had the ashes in
your hand. Did you get sent home then or did
you stay around?
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Well? Bob Fulton brang me before I even got to
the hospital or ring ring go in contact. He said,
you're you're coming home to get that fixed, you know?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
And how did he get hold of you? There's no
mobile phones then, so now he.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Just rang the Dragon Arrow, where he used to start.
So I was on now I stayed for the third
Test on the on the Saturday. Yeah, I flew home
on the on the Sunday morning.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
So you didn't go to France. The rest of the
boys went to and played another five games by the
look of it. So yeah, So if eighty seven you
won the comp what you you You retired early nineties
from playing.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Now Iden was my last my last year.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah. You did some coaching, didn't you in England?
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah? What' played? And then I coached one two noughty
three I think.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
And then those who were younger will remember you mostly
as a recruitment manager. You went to Paramatta first and
then Manly, is that right.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
That's correct? Yeah, and that's where I crossed across Many.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, in seven And I remember now you said to me.
The first word you said to me, a bit of
a bold move was getting an Australia an english person
to coach. You said, that's the first things you have
I said to me, Yeah, you weren't. You know, you
were nice about it. You weren't. And and you talked
about potentially mal Riley might have done some coaching back
(38:08):
then in the day and I remember you're joining me
in the coaching box when when I'd lost the first
three and I thought, oh, no, where we go because
there was an aura about Crusher at the club and
you knew if Crusher came to see her, you might
be you might be getting watched. And we actually won
that day and went great, and I ended up asking
(38:30):
you to stay in the coaching box for me all
the time. Lucky Charm. That's right, Lucky Charm. There's a
Feenie tell us a little bit about that time at
Manly because it was you. You would have arrived at
Many again when Des took over as a coach. I
think it's fair to say Des was very much the
(38:51):
rookie coach because I think he was the fitness coach originally,
wasn't he? And then you rebuilt the whole joint because
it had been Northern Eagles for a while and nearly
went off the radar and then came back as Manly.
And that was when the old amountables were put up
at Narrabeene and whatnot. Wasn't it to house you and
you had to rebuild it from scratch basically.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Yeah, because I think I think it was the the
two thousand and d of two thousand and three, and
then were two thousand and four, we.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Didn't make the playoffs. Two thousand and five. I didn't
want to just snuck in. And in two thousand and
six we made the playoffs, and then two thousand and
seven we made a Grand Final, and then two thousand
and eight we won the Grand Final. And we just
went out and got a funny story. I said to
the we we had. You look at the great Saint
(39:49):
George's side of the fifties and sixties, or you look
at the South Sydney side of the late sixties early seventies.
They had a number of of those great teams, those
two great sites, they had a number of players born
in the in the same year, you know, around the
same same couple of years. So I said to I'm
(40:10):
going to go out and sign a heap of kids
born in On in eighty four. And that was Steve made,
Matt Ballen Cain, Glen Glenn, Glenn Stewart was already the clubbyers.
So there was about me and I'm signed of Travis
Burns and there was about I think about six of
(40:31):
them born in eighty four, and and that was the
sort of the start and then you're throwing the Vera
Menzies and later on Jamie Lyon, who was born in
eighty three. It's sort of it sort of went from there.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
So it was the blend. It's the blend of ages,
use and experience and players who would peak together basically,
and yeah, And it's funny how that stands up, isn't
it Even in the modern game. Some of them about
some of the squads are so out of balance in
that regard that they don't have somebody experience to talk
to them in the playing group when the twelve neel
(41:09):
down behind the sticks. So there's too many young kids
in the team at the same time. You see, you
see that same pattern now. As much as the gamers
in theory changed, so many things stand true, don't they
through the test of time. And I think when I
think back to that manly side, it was full of
tough cookies too, full of tough fellas who would dig
in when things got tough. But I also think most
(41:30):
of them you'd be happy, you'd be happy to introduce
them to your wife, your mother, your kids, because they
were good people. There was a lot of good people.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
As you said, there were they were shaping mother Fellas
and and then and then after two thousand and night
we had a couple of years we still made the playoffs.
And then eleven there was we bought some more youth
in in care and forun and Danley, Cherry Evans and
will Hop Award Eye and and and and I just
(41:59):
you know, they they just took us to another level.
They and Jared we're here. How Graves was there for
for for a bit as well. He played, He played
until eleven. So we just had this blend of youth
and coming you know back into the well through the squad.
Not you know, Beaver had retired and Maddy Orford had
moved on, and Steve Bell had moved on, so we
(42:21):
the older guys that were you know, replaced by these
and there were some pretty haindy players about these young
guys that come through.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
And then you and Des went off to the Bulldogs
for a few years, and I think the success you
had there was quite similar in many ways. A couple
of grand finals, I mean, grand finals can go one
way or the other. So, yeah, what do you remember
about that time?
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Yeah, it was a good time. I uh, you know,
if you think about it. The club made two grand
finals or there was, there was coach there and it
was a great club to be at. You know, they're
the most passionate supporters, really well run loaves club behind
(43:05):
it and you know that no wonder they're successful because
of because of you know that the you know, the
bones of the club are there. And it was and
it's a great club. And I worked at Paramatter too,
and I and that's where I cut my teeth, so
to speak, in the recruitment world. And they are a
(43:25):
great club too. They they I really enjoyed my eight
and a half years there and I really enjoyed my
time there. It was, you know, without winning winning a
first grade premiership. We made it. I think we made
one grand final, but it was still the club was
(43:47):
a huge success other than winning grand finals.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
And then of course you had another stated that Manley's
recruitment man again in Dessy's second incarnation as coach that
ended twenty two I think twenty twenty two. Big differences
there at the time in terms of recruitment of players.
I mean, or were you still were we all over
it still? Did you have your contact books and whatnot?
Or did you have to.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah, I hadn't. It was only you know, it was
only a couple of four years. Since five years since
I've done it for four years. Sorry, so three is what? Sorry?
So I'd still maintained that contact. And we you know,
we we kind of. The club was was in pretty
(44:31):
fair condition when we got there, and you know, it
was ended up being a bit muddy at the finish,
but at the same time, the club was building in
the right direction, was going the right directions. And you know,
mainly is my club. You know, I've got to see
on my bam so that it used to be the
(44:56):
size of a postage stamp and now it's as big
as Yeah, So I made I enjoyed, I really enjoyed.
Mainly is my club. And you know, as a kid,
when I was, you know, eighteen ten year old, I
remember watching the nine sixty eight Grand Final when they
played South and I was only seven seven eight years yeah,
(45:17):
seven or eight, and I just remember, you know, Bob
Fulton doing this and that, and I become the biggest
Bob Fulton fan. And I I used to go and
watch the wash that there was a blackout of the
men's wear store and Mario and he could get mainly jumpers,
and I would wash his great big hold on every
Saturday for the first month of the footy season. And
he gave me a jersey and I was, yeah, you
(45:41):
see fat as as a kid out pig cats and
when I was twelve fourteen, I'd have mainly jersey. Answer yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I mean all this, all this stuff though, No was
building up to your crescendo, which is as a president
in local a grade in warhap that Well, this is
your career pinnacle.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Now it's going to be huge on my highlights.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
That's right, that's right. How much hair of your lost
been on the side, I was, I enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
It's it's a bit of fun then. And what we're
doing is providing an avenue for one hundred young people
to go and play play sport every weekend in the
winter and and and it's it's pretty rewarding that you
know that you can facilitate that. And it's it's it's expensive,
it's it's not too it's not too you know, it's
(46:40):
not easy. By the way we've we've we've got a
a raffle. We're just about to or we areking right now.
It's a Raffle and it's two tickets to the EPSOM
day at the day before the Grand Final in Sydney.
Three n it's a combination of the and and two
gets into the n r OL corporate lands at the
(47:03):
Graham Sydney Grand Final the Grand Finals.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Where can people find that?
Speaker 3 (47:09):
If you go on the Facebook page of the will
Heard Blues, you will see you can buy tickets. You
can buy a ticket online five dollars a ticket and
I don't know what. I don't know what you if
you could put a price on it, but it's a
it's a price that you can't buy.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
So war hope we'll have to spell it for some people.
W W A U C H O p E.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
War Head Blues, war Hoop Blues. And if you win
about ongoing with it.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
We might be able to make an arrangement to two
last questions, both very big hitting. Obviously, you're in the
game now in the bush right and every now and
then you're in the Daily Telegraph lamenting what has been
happening in the bush or not happening in the bush.
For I think you've been regularly in the paper for
(48:04):
the last two decades. You're at the coal face of that. Now,
where's your mind out with all that stuff in terms
of what is the next the next two Klill brothers
likely to emerge, not Clils, but the equivalents.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
You know. Yeah, I'm in two minds now mate. Because
once you're involved in it, you become part of it.
It's a difficult trying to find volunteers to actually do things,
you know, whether it be someone to get on the
gate or someone who took the barbecue or and it's
(48:40):
all voluntary. And you know, this club here will hope
we turn over about about one hundred thousand, which is
you know, if it's not it's not a great deal
of money, but you're still going to find it somewhere,
you know, just to just to register ensure kid te
out with you're talking sixty thousand hm, and it's hard
(49:02):
to come by. I just a little like see a
little bit more money filter down from from the top.
You know, we're talking about the next the next TV
rights and they're talking about you know, the biggest ever
and in the billions. I just hope the players, it
doesn't go to the players in the bulk of it.
(49:23):
I'd like to see it, you know, spread amongst the
grassroots and bushfully and it will be. But I just
hope that the players don't get too greedy and say,
well we want the biggest slice of the pie and
and to the other you know, the grassroots and bushfully
neglected and don't get a decent slice of it. And
(49:45):
funding is always going to be the issue. It's not
you know, yeah, we get by with volunteers and we
get by with players and all that sort of stuff,
but you know, it's it costs a lot of money.
And you know, you see kids out west that play
without boots on your seat. You know, you see towns.
You know, you see a town on glenn Us last
year didn't have a first grade side, which is it's
(50:06):
a town of ten thousand people, and it just sort
of breaks your heart to see that sort of those
sort of towns not not participating, participating in the game.
And in a town in New South Walest Country without
a footage term is not near as good a town
as what it is with the footage team.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Well, I've been out with you in war Hope and
your brother in Warriyolder and the football club is just
such a central part of the community.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
It's in both towns it's the golden thread that runs
through the town. And you know, the first thing you
walk into Warry Older and people talk about the great
players that have been the jam Vains or the you know,
the les Clears are those sort of fellas, and the
same here as in Warhape. You know, you walk down
the street and you know there's there's you're running a
rocky Laurel or I and Sherbert's family and that and that,
(50:57):
you know they that is as I said, it's the
golden thread that answer a bad times and that and
that's probably the same in every Bustan.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
Last question and the most hard hitting. My fellow host
of this podcast, John Davidson, is an Ovocastrian but has
been a massive man with the Eagles fan all his life,
and he says, I've got to ask you about the
footy show, the toe sucking incident.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
I've just said, I've just had surgery. I want to
my feet.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
What did it get up too hard?
Speaker 3 (51:33):
Is that like like like my hands, Yeah, the hands
and the feet they're not in good shape. It was
actually it was it was all in a bit of fun,
and you know it wasn't. It wasn't as you think
it was, and it was more to do with wmen.
They put my foot during the course of that day. Yeah,
(51:54):
that it was back in the fairy dies and corner
because it was fairy and you become involved and you
become part of it, so I yeh know, it just
was one of those things and you know, I'm not
Yeah it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
It wasn't in d Yeah, I got you got no cluil.
Thank you so much for your time and yeah, I
can't wait to get this podcast out for everyone to hear.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
You know, I'm a schooner.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (52:24):
Okay, thanks Mat
Hello and welcome to The Ashes Rugby League Podcast Episode nine.
My name is John Davidson. Lee Addison is not with
me today, but we can't keep him quiet. You'll hear
plenty from him in the near future. Each fortnite to
join myself and Lee for analysis, news, interviews with guests, history,
lessons and lots more. Every fortnight to help wet your
(00:23):
appetite for the twenty twenty five series between England and Australia,
The Return of the Ashes. I am an Australian journalist
based in the UK for many a year. Lee is
an Englishman who has coached at NRL clubs and lived
in Australia for a long time. You'll hear from Lee
very soon in our exclusive interview with Manly News, Wales
(00:44):
Kangaroos Witness and Hull f C legend Noel Kleel that
Lee recorded recently with Crusher. You can contact Lee at
Rugby League Coach dot com dot au or you can
email him at admin at Rugby League Coach dot com
dot au, and you can also find him at Rugby
League Coach on socials such as X and Facebook. You
(01:08):
can contact me on X or Twitter at Johnny d Davidson.
You can also get me on email or on Patreon
at Rugby league hub dot com Longreads. Now you won't
hear from me at the end. I'll speak to you
again in two weeks in our next episode. Now, let's
go to Lee Addison, who is interviewing Noel Kleile, who
(01:29):
turned who toured with the Kangaroos back in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Noel Crusher Kleil, have you been out digging holes or something?
You look like you've got your lumberjacks jersey on.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I have been out there. I've been. I had a
weekend with my brother at Warriolder, and I've been out
there cleaning up, putting away and washing dirt off the quad.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Did you go back home to worryolder?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah? Mat Yeah, I try and get out there as
often as okay, and it's not especially in winter time.
You can there's plenty of pigs about and there's a
lot of fun to be had.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Let's let's paint the picture for those who maybe don't
remember or don't know. Rugby league in the late seventies
was still very bush oriented oriented, wasn't it. So you
were plugged, you and your brother were plucked literally from
from which team did you play for in the that's right? Yeah,
(02:31):
And then you both went down to the Roosters, didn't
you at the same time.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I went down in nine eighty and Les came down
in eighty two. He was really reluctant to leave the
bush life that he that he was enjoying. But I
went there a couple of years earlier and we end
up talking him in the campany and he had one
year there at the roost of two, played sixteen games
(02:56):
we won for Down and he won the Player of
the Year and he took off straight after the was.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That well, he made it already, so he might as
well just just go back.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
He always says, he just went out to prove a.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Point the So yeah, I mean people won't be able
to imagine some of this now because you were playing,
you were playing eight grade for score. Weren't you hadn't
you won a premiership that year when you both got
picked up or when you got picked up?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah, yeah, we actually was. We played the tour in
Great Britain side and seventy a scalla for Northern Division
and from that game we went okay. And from that
game that no Mordy the grad old journalists from the
Dalla Sydney Dally's former Sydney Dally Telegraph or Dally Mirror.
(03:44):
He raned Bob Fulton. He said, listen as a cut
of the bush Rinders saying that cut the bush Rynders said,
are you better get on? Uh? And so it went
from that.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's absolute different world, isn't it. And we'll explore what
you just said about the Great Britain Tour match because
we'll talk about the eighty six tour soon and how
many games you had to play. Anyway, Bozo Fulton left
the Roosters and went to Manley and you followed him.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
That's correct, Yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Nineteen eighty three, Yeah, did you? Did you play against
the Great Britain Tour inside in eighty four?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Eighty four was probably a transition year, or I had
two years when I was at the Roosters. I played
primarily in the centers, and then and then when when
we went to mainly or I followed Bose out of mainly.
He sent him at the start of the eighty three season.
He said, I'm thinking about making a second hour area
(04:45):
and I thought, well, I don't know if that's such
a good idea because at the at the mainly club
at the time, there were six international backgrounds and and
he was going to try and make well. His idea
was to make main one and through through injuries and
suspensions and loss of form and all that sort of stuff.
I started the season the centers in eighty three and
(05:08):
I finished the finished the season in At the end
of the eighty three season, I was one of the
starting back rounds. But you know I was Les Boyd
and sued with Paul McCabe, Faddy Vaughton, Bruce Walker, Paul McCabe.
It was there was some quality players there.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Can you remember the sort of training methods at the time,
Were you working hard on fitness skills column A, column
B in the gym at all?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
For mine it was, you know, we we only trained
twice a week and sometimes three times a week, but
normally it was you know, a bash up on Tuesday
night and then and fine tuning on Thursday night. And
every about every month you'd have a two mile time
trip and you had to break your break your time
from the from the previous run. But I was I
(06:01):
was fortunate always. I was got a job as a
garbo and the mainly council and that the job itself
just entire running eye down kilometers every morning and a
bit of lifting for yeah, and probably lifting a thousand
fifty kilo bins. So I kind of you know, within
(06:24):
within three months of starting work as a garbo, you know,
that's when my food and you know went went to
another level as well.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
What would the r LPA say, Now if we trained
twice a week and just made everybody a garbo.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I probably wouldn't hurt them.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So alongside this time, you played a lot of games
from New South Wales and you were also playing I
read just thirty minutes ago played in the last game
that was under the old rules. That's correct, Yes, where
was that app?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
That was it? Like i'd have in eighty two?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Eighty one?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Thing? Sorry eighty one, and then I went best to
three in eighty two. But it's funny. I played in
lots of first and last. I played in the last
grand final at the s CG. Played in the first
side for New South Wales, the winner winner start of
origin here played in the very first clean sweep. So
I recognize a good luck charm mate.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
So between eighty four and eighty eight, you played twelve games.
So by my very quick mass, that means you must
have played nearly every one in state of origin between
those years more or less.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I missed, I missed, I missed an odd one here
and there. In that sequence, I played eight consecutive winning games.
And I think that's a State of Orizon record. I'm
not quite sure. I don't know. Well, yeah, I do
not know. David Middleton tell me that. Okay, So yeah,
(07:58):
but like I said before, maybe I was a good
luck chown.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Tell David Middleton, I think I found a new version
of him. By the way, his name, his name's Darren Parking.
Tell us about your halftime speech in nineteen eighty five, which,
for those who don't know, was the first time New
South Wales won the series.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Well, as you've been hanging around, knocking around and being
around football for a long time, and and and you know,
you know yourself, remembering halftime speeches are pretty you know
when you've when when you've had a couple of hundred
or three hundred half time speeches, you can't They become
a bit hazy. And you do. You probably remember the
end of game speeches more than the halftime. All you
(08:42):
want to do is get your breath and get a drink.
But I remember talking to the players about, you know,
during the dream boys. You know, we've got an opportunity
here and let's not go and mark it happen, you know.
But we had a lot of inspirational players in that team,
you know, more certain none Southern Turvy and and Wine Peace.
(09:02):
You know, he was a true inspiration as well. And
then there was a lot of passion in the side.
You know, there was no more passionate player than Stay
Right or Gary Jack, and you know we had it
was a pretty fair time, so it didn't need my
words of wisdom to ignite any sort of further energy.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I can remember two halftime speeches and they both contained
expletives glow. They were both high decibels and one of
them was a massive racist lur as well. So that
out of one hundred million halftime speeches. So dare to dream.
So you're dared to dream in that game. This is
probably quite a topical thing. What did it mean for
(09:54):
New South Wales to win that series at the time?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Well, the first two were siri or the first two
games eighty and eighty one, well one off, but you know,
Queensland one in nineteen eighty two, they won in nineteen
eighty three, and then and then the one again in
nineteen eighty four. At the end of the nineteen eighty
(10:17):
or the last game in nine eighty four, we we
had a team that was you know, there was I
think the last game in eighty four there was we
only had one in a national as opposed to Queensland
they had ten or eleven and we and we bet
them at Lane Park and that and from that, you know,
(10:39):
we won the next two in eighty two and the
one the whole three and eighty eighty six. But it was,
you know, it was a relatively young side in terms
of experience, but it was a rule there was just
a lot of passion in the side and that was
really really brought home by by Steve Mortimer.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
He played for Australia for the first time in nineteen
eighty five. Am I right in thinking your first game
was at Lang Park when Tomothy and Dowling got it on.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah, that that that was the that probably started. I
read somewhere the other day where Mark Graham said that
that that that was one of the you know incidents
that sort of and and he blamed Blocker and I
for for for doing something to him and I can't remember,
(11:34):
but but yeah, that was. That was at Length Park
and what happened that the tackle on on on Mark
Grahame was it ignited what was to follow. And it's funny.
I've got to replaced. And I was sitting on the
in the dugout when when they walked off together and
Arches said it was going to happen, So I I was.
(11:56):
I actually were out there and broke them up right
and by that time they didn't pum take much pull
on the part that was okay, it was it was
full on.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So again, just try and paint the picture for people
who don't know what was it like for you must
have only been in your early twenties something like that
at the time, and you were in the Origin side,
You're in the Australian side. Tell us a little bit
about the media landscape at the time and how recognizable
(12:28):
you were in in Sydney and wherever you went.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, it wasn't foody, wasn't. You didn't have because there
was only two games televised televised every week and that
was happening on the ib ON channel. Seven or Channel ten,
so party you lived in a bit of a you know,
a world where with the exposure was also more so
in the print media that that that was they really
(12:55):
and there were some really great journalists about then. There
was fellows like Ellen Clarkson and Peter Felingos and Ray
Chester and they were fantastic, fantastic men and and you
sort of there was a lot of feel good stories
written so that you know, it a bit different to
(13:17):
what it is today.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
How did you feel when you got your first cap
for Australia? So when you got the phone call? Who
phoned you? Who called you? Told you?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
We played a? We played a. It was the second
State of Origin in Sydney, the one that clinched the
first series for New South Wales. They were naming the
Australian side that night, but they were naming a squad
of twenty to go to New Zealand for the following
two Test matches were going to be played in in
(13:46):
in New Zealand. It was funny, so we went back
to after the game was over. They said they were
going to announce the touring squad and that and the
team for the first Test at midnight. So we My
brother Les was there and they have two partners at
the time. They come with us and we went back
(14:06):
to the Mainly Lease Club and they said, oh, we're
closing eleven thirty and we didn't get there, you know,
after eleven and they said sorry, and we thought where
else can we get a drink? And there was a
nightclub down at the Brookville Hotel called Duties and Doug
Parkinson had just had just performed there and the Test
(14:27):
Side just come through as we left the Manly Lease
Club and I was I was actually naming the tourings
whatnot the Test side. So we went down the under
the Brookvale Hotel and Doug was packing up his gear
and he kept the bar out and force. We stayed
there probably daylight.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
So that's how you celebrated your eighty six was a
big the year for you, Like you said earlier origin
Queen Clean sweep. Can you remember what Manly Seagulls how
they went that year?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
It's funny. It's funny because Mainly played in the eighty
three Grand Final and got beten by that great Paramouter
site and then and then we played again in the
Grand Final in eighty seven, which you know, four years
later and from that eighty three side there was only
two of us that have played in the eighty from
(15:22):
played in Baths Grand Finals eighty it was just Fatty
and Night. And so the club went through a massive
rebuilding and there was after eighty three there was you know,
fellows like Max Crilic and Graham Eedy, you know, great
great players, you know, for the club and for the nation.
They had retired and so Bozo went out and you know,
(15:45):
he bought Michael O'Connor, and there was a couple of
local juniors coming through, and Phil Day and David Ronson,
then Michael O'Connor, as I said, Darryl Williams. He just
went out and and the probably the key signing was
Kevin Wood. And you know we eighty six we were well,
(16:08):
I think eighty six we got beaten the first semi
and then there was a lot happening, you know after that,
and then eighty seven. You know, he bought those players
and there was a fairly big transit or you know,
big transition between the eighty three and eighty seven side
of players and a lot of retirements, a lot of
good players retired and you know, Les Board had left
(16:30):
and and a give an opportunity to hurt young blacks.
And it was, you know, it was. It was a
special part in my time, but mainly it was it
was a great times.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
And of course at end of eighty six you would
have got the phone call or seen it on television
or heard it on radio or with tam schooners down
somewhere when you heard about going on the kangaroot or.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Well, it was funny I'd played for I started the
the end of the eighty five season. I played the
whole Hall of eighty five and I think I missed
a game. I missed the last State of Orison game
in eighty five, and I didn't miss the club games.
And then there was a short tour in New Zealand
and and then I was. I was sitting at home
(17:16):
and Eric Hughes, the great English center that come out
and played for Cannabiuse coach of Witness, and he said, oh,
can you come over for a couple of months, And
I was, and I ran bars and said I Witness
had likely to come out, So I jumped on a
plane the next weekend. I spent four months at Witness
and and and then I came back and then straight
(17:40):
where the troll who was the chairman of selectors and
(18:10):
Don Ferner, and I said, you know, And then they
had the kangaroo train on squad for because we got
knocked out in the first couple of weeks of the
semi so that, you know, a month long kangaroo training
on squad and I just said, Almos and I have
a bit of a down time, and so they said,
you get we'll see you when you when you when
you come back. So I went to a y for
a week and I went home and picked catching for
(18:31):
a week and then I'll come back and recharged and
I was ready to go. They tell me, only haven't
told me? He said, oh, you'll be going on the tour.
So I was, you know, I had to prepare a
few things, but but it was nice here. It announced
us at the same.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Time it was basically a world tour because you started
off in Papping, New Guinea, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah, it was started in New Guinea and then went
to we flew on I think we flew. We flew
from New Guinea to England. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, you beat New Guinea sixty two twelve. You scored
two tries that day. According to this, yeah, yeah, both
eighty meter tries? Were they? Or thirteen games in England?
The Kangaroos can't even get one warm up game now
(19:35):
for this trip. But thirteen games you played in England.
The first game was at Wigan. I don't think, oh
yeah you did. You played second row in that game.
Australia won twenty six eighteen. Any memories of that? You
did score a try thirty fans?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
It was massive, It was massive, block of distal kind
of zoba. I remember that. Okay, I chased Henderson Gill
and the biggest fluke of all time. I wasn't going
to catch him, but I dived and my fingernail got
these heelers And actually Laser laserd signed for witness my
(20:17):
brother and he was over there at the time as well.
So yeah, it was not that was that was you know,
it was a bit of a reunion there and and we
won the game, and that that Wigan were the team
debate and we had to I think we've bet them
pretty easily in the finish. And then it was.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Always classed as the unofficial Fourth Test, wasn't it. So
some of the players that have that were in that
side that many people will know Dean Bell was on
the wing. The kid the former key Week captain Joel Leiden,
who would play for Great Britain in that series, was
in the centers you've just mentioned Henderson Gill Sean Edwards
was at five eight was at standoffs. Ian Roberts. Ian
(20:58):
Roberts played second role for Wigan yep, and Andy Goodway
was a loose forward the lock, so really really really
handy side and I would imagine that was a bit
of a baptism of fire. Then the team went to
whole kr on one forty six ten. Can you paint
(21:20):
a little bit of a picture of what you were
thinking about some of these grounds back then too, because
you obviously grew up in a sunny part of the
world and played at some nice grounds, and then all
of a sudden you're arriving at old shitty Central Park
and then Craven Park then would have been horrible and
cold and windy and not the most welcoming place on earth.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Yeah. I was for somewhere, as I said to applied
over there in the off season ninety five euty six,
so I was kind of you know, there was probably
no TAF a grander player than Norton Park, yeahs witness
and I so I was, you know, I was. I
wasn't a season for it, but I was, I knew,
(22:03):
I knew what to expect. And there wasn't a great
deal of pliers that went on the eighty two tour
that were on the eighty six tour, you know, I
think there was any sterlow Rick, Kenny and obviously Wally
and Jana and Mal, but there wasn't there. There was
a lot of retirement after the idy two Kan grew
to Yeah. The eighty six were you know, all newbies
(22:26):
and it would have been a big experience, you know
for those guys not having been out there before.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
So the eighty six tour was four years after the
nineteen eighty two Invincibles Tour, which I think shut the
foundations of world rugby league. They were the first team
to go through undefeated. Did did you have any pressure
on you as a group to try and emulate that
or was it subtly there?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Yeah, yeah, of course it would would have been sadly there,
but you know it was a different model fellas, and
I don't you know it was there was no never
I mention, let's do what the ad two eighty two
guys did it was like it was for us. It
was just to maintain the rage, I suppose, and and
keep doing what what Australia had done, and bearing in
(23:17):
mind the Great Britain. So I come out in eighty
four and it's to a similar two similar schoolines what
happened in eighty two and then again in eighty six.
So as I said, it was more maintaining the raids
than you know, trying to emulate anybody.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
How were the British public responding to you in in
general a way?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah, will will well received and probably more more so
on the on the pitch. And when we played the
second Test at Alan Raid in eighty six, you know,
everything we did the crowd, the English crowd would applaud,
(24:00):
but sadly, sadly when they when the Great Brininsaw did
something wrong, there was a chorus.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Of yeah you got that right, Yeah yeah. What's also
looking as like a pattern here is I think you
probably were clearly lined up to be in the side
that was going to play the Test from maybe the
second or third game, because for those of a certain
(24:28):
vintage you remember those tools, there'd be a midweek game
and then there'd be a weekend game and quite often
the Test team would be hinted at in the weekend
games prior, wouldn't it. So on Sunday, the nineteenth of
October of that year, you played in the second row
against Leeds and one forty nil.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, and looking at the side, Wally's at six, Stlow
at seven, Blocker at eight, Roy Simmons at nine, yourself
second row, Paul Syrin and Bob Linda also in the
back role garage Jack, Is it fair to say that
that Test side was emerging right then that you were
starting to think, I'm going a minute, I'll be playing
in that first Test.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yeah, because because I was incumbent as well, I played
in the three Tests against New Zealand and then I
played the Test against the Peppy and New Guinea guys
and that was you know, you kind of know from
the get go, there's there's the Kangaroos and they used
to put on the as and that was your midweek
team and it was it was the younger fellas that
(25:32):
we were, you know, they were emerging and one day
we'd become a lot of them would become part of
members of the number one side. So and Terry Lamb
he too to his Yeah, he played every game in
the tour, which and that was, you know, the three
(25:52):
tests off the bench, and he started a lot of
the other guys. A funny story we we played. We're
playing Calipax at Trump Hall, yes, and we'd run out
of wingers. Let's kissing Danny's knee and Mark O'Connor has
a guest on his cheek, and I think Chris Mortimer
was injured. So we'd run out of we'd run out
(26:15):
of troops and we went to training and Donnie Ferner said, well,
I don't know what we're going to do about wingers.
And I said, well, I can play the wing, yeah,
they said, and Bret Kenny piped up straight away. He
sees that that big basket playing the wing, I can
playing the other one. So Bret Kenny and I were
the wingers, and anyway we we Chris Anderson was captain
(26:40):
coach of Halifax and one Batore playing there at the
same time and wonderful servants to the game. And yeah,
we had a bit of fun that night.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
You played it, you didn't play well. Cumbri had got
beaten forty eight twelve and then the first Ashes Test,
which was on the twenty fifth of October nineteen eighty six,
Australia thirty eight, Great Britain sixteen at Old Trafford fifty thousand,
five hundred and eighty three people. And now can I
(27:11):
make you feel old crusher? That was my first ever
Test match that I went.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
To watch, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah? And so originally I thought I loved football soccer.
So my dad took me to man City and Salford
to watch the Rugby League. And obviously, in my eyes,
Salford was this little dodgy stadium with not many people watching,
and then City was thirty forty thousand people. And then
(27:41):
I go to Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United
that day as a young kid, and back then there
was lots of football hooliganism at soccer games in the crowds,
and I remember at Old Trafford that it was the
combination of seeing what looked like a football crowd for
a rugby league game. And then also these people were
(28:01):
these strange accents that I thought were American yelling at
me and my father. And now if that happened at
a soccer game, we'd think we were going to get
our heads kicked in kind of thing back then. But
they were actually giving us some memorabilia from Australia, and
I said to my dad, I said, Jesus a friendly
And there was a complete contrast between the big crowd
(28:21):
that was at a rugby league game as opposed to
a soccer game. So that was my memory. And then
the other big thing I remember of that was Joe
Lyden's try.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Yes, so.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I've watched that game back a couple of times, and
I actually think Great Britain confused themselves before they played,
because I don't know if you remember, they actually moved
the ball side to side quite quite a bit. They
didn't concentrate on going forward. It's like they didn't want
to take you on in the middle. They just kept
moving the ball sideways.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And they had had Kevin Ward and they had Yeah,
they had a pretty decent pack of forward so yeah,
yeah we will sup. We were surprised too that they
didn't try and cancer to the middle. I just I
just went shift to shift to shift.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
So the the greatest wing performance ever in kangaroo history
was the next game, Wednesday, the twenty ninth of October.
That from Hall Australia with you and Brett Kenny on
the wings won thirty six to two. That from Hall.
What do you remember about from Hall? Apart from being
very close to the grandstands you want to win?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
It was it was cold, Yes, it was when it
was hostile. Yeah, that might not not to the extreme,
but was just not not hostile is the wrong word?
That was fairly leyoud.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
They've made a big deal of it. On this page
it says this game saw Don Ferner play a couple
of players out of position, with Brett Kenny and No
Cleil on the wings. Saint Helen's were the next victims
thirty two eight. You scored a try. You wrapped up
from Drives on this tour back in the second row
(30:10):
and then the the big news from that tour was
Blocker got injured dislocated his elbow in that game.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
That's why I said it was with Wigan before that
was yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And then you went to Oldham the watersheddings, My god.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
You couldn't see it with the fog was that thick?
You couldn't see that the wingers on the other side
of the pitch.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
The watersheddings, What a great place for rugby league. That
was but you you actually didn't play that day, or
did you because he's a number fifteen with no name here?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
No, no, that was that was a Wednesday. I still remember.
I don't remember Terry Lame. How many tries he scoring
that game?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Two?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yeah, I remember him scoring a cable.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
And that was the closest match of the whole tour twenty.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Two sixteen in the conditions. The conditions were horrendous.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So all England have to do this year is turn
on the fog. On the eighth of November nineteen eighty
six was the second Test, thirty four to four.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
You won.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You didn't score a try, but is this the game?
You got mad of the match in this game? But
did you also break your arm in this? Okay?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
That was I think the next game?
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Okay, so you won the Ashes this day. You won
the Ashes this day, so talk to me about the
party after that.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
So there we are, mate.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
You won the Ashes this day. You got the ashes back.
You retain the Ashes by winning the second Test. So
you won the first test. This was the second Test,
and so you've won the Ashes. You've won a trophy.
Tell me about the party that night, or did it
just merge into all the other parties you had on.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
I do remember don Fin sign before the guide should
we win that we had never bright mm hmm. If
we won, we were going to be given four days
off and that was probably that was, you know, because
it was pretty constant. You know, you're training twice a day,
(32:14):
living in pretty confined areas and and you it was
just footy, footy, footy. So I remember we had a
we had a fair drink that night and then the
next morning I jumped in with So when we got
to England, we all groups of three and four just
(32:36):
buy buy an old ship box. So we there was
Phil Darling, myself and Michael, Michael and Dale Shira. We
all we all chucked in and bought a Vauxel I
think I was and that was a it was a
heap of pooh, but anyway, it got us from a
to band. So I just remember getting up the next
(32:57):
morning and jumping in it and go down down to
Witness because i'd played with Witness was there and I
stayed down there for two or three days and and
we had in the Great David Morrow actually came down
for a cut that dies as well. Okay, Yeah, it
was not a celebration of winning the ashes or on that.
(33:18):
It was like a break that And given that I'd
played a lot of foody for a long time, you know,
I had my period, it was it was probably more
of a lift to get away from it for a bit.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I'm just reading here before Kenny Brett Kenny's try with
the score at twenty eight il the crowd had begun
to chant what a load of rubbish, as you said earlier,
and it was clearly audible on television coverage apparently, and
they were actually applauding your play. In summary of the game,
Rex Mossap, who himself was was an ex kangaroo Juell
(33:53):
Rugby International actualist, said the words Australia carve them up.
They've decimated, dissected anduely diabolically destroyed this great Britain side today.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah, and after the first Test, you know, they's scored
sixteen points in the first Test, not and I really
thought that the second Test would be much more of
a contest, and it was for the first or half
hour and then we you know, we went away from them.
I think they've scored electric at the lectrizelet Yeah, and
(34:30):
possibly too, that everything we did that they turned a guard.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I've recently found and read a book by Les Bettinson
from that time, who was the great Britain manager, and
throughout it he talks about basically how worried the British
players were they were that their esteem was that low,
because I think what happened in eighty two completely changed
everybody's perception of how rugby league should be played. So
(34:56):
I think part of this, and looking at the results
and listening to some of the things that you say,
I think some of these teams were beaten before they
even stepped on the field because because of the rain
and gold jerseys they were up against.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I'd say that was the case in club goings. But
the first test was probably closer than the scoring on suggested,
but the second test was. But as I said that,
on the day we were everything we did turn the gold.
You know, Michael Iakonna chipped ahead and you know it
was just it was just fantastic stuff and hard to
(35:29):
defend against when you got appliers with his ability to
doing things like that.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
So a few days later, on the Wednesday, the team
played at Witness. Were you still driving around in the
Vauxhall then, or did you get back?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
I got back and come down on the bath.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
The Sunday Hull leftz away forty eight nil? Is that
when you broke your arm?
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, it's funny. Later in my career I went back
to England and I played at Hall for a couple
of you two or three years and coach them and
and I become good good mates with Andy Dnett, the
guy I broke my arm on yep, and it was
you know, it was he ducked his head. I was
just trying to wrap the ball up and he ducked
(36:12):
his head and forearm hit the middle of his forehead
and if you know Andy, it's probably not the sweetest
spot to hit him with hitting. Yeah, and and broke it. And
that was that was. That was my international career done
in a.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
One At least at least you had the ashes in
your hand. Did you get sent home then or did
you stay around?
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Well? Bob Fulton brang me before I even got to
the hospital or ring ring go in contact. He said,
you're you're coming home to get that fixed, you know?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
And how did he get hold of you? There's no
mobile phones then, so now he.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Just rang the Dragon Arrow, where he used to start.
So I was on now I stayed for the third
Test on the on the Saturday. Yeah, I flew home
on the on the Sunday morning.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
So you didn't go to France. The rest of the
boys went to and played another five games by the
look of it. So yeah, So if eighty seven you
won the comp what you you You retired early nineties
from playing.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Now Iden was my last my last year.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah. You did some coaching, didn't you in England?
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah? What' played? And then I coached one two noughty
three I think.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
And then those who were younger will remember you mostly
as a recruitment manager. You went to Paramatta first and
then Manly, is that right.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
That's correct? Yeah, and that's where I crossed across Many.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, in seven And I remember now you said to me.
The first word you said to me, a bit of
a bold move was getting an Australia an english person
to coach. You said, that's the first things you have
I said to me, Yeah, you weren't. You know, you
were nice about it. You weren't. And and you talked
about potentially mal Riley might have done some coaching back
(38:08):
then in the day and I remember you're joining me
in the coaching box when when I'd lost the first
three and I thought, oh, no, where we go because
there was an aura about Crusher at the club and
you knew if Crusher came to see her, you might
be you might be getting watched. And we actually won
that day and went great, and I ended up asking
(38:30):
you to stay in the coaching box for me all
the time. Lucky Charm. That's right, Lucky Charm. There's a
Feenie tell us a little bit about that time at
Manly because it was you. You would have arrived at
Many again when Des took over as a coach. I
think it's fair to say Des was very much the
(38:51):
rookie coach because I think he was the fitness coach originally,
wasn't he? And then you rebuilt the whole joint because
it had been Northern Eagles for a while and nearly
went off the radar and then came back as Manly.
And that was when the old amountables were put up
at Narrabeene and whatnot. Wasn't it to house you and
you had to rebuild it from scratch basically.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Yeah, because I think I think it was the the
two thousand and d of two thousand and three, and
then were two thousand and four, we.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Didn't make the playoffs. Two thousand and five. I didn't
want to just snuck in. And in two thousand and
six we made the playoffs, and then two thousand and
seven we made a Grand Final, and then two thousand
and eight we won the Grand Final. And we just
went out and got a funny story. I said to
the we we had. You look at the great Saint
(39:49):
George's side of the fifties and sixties, or you look
at the South Sydney side of the late sixties early seventies.
They had a number of of those great teams, those
two great sites, they had a number of players born
in the in the same year, you know, around the
same same couple of years. So I said to I'm
(40:10):
going to go out and sign a heap of kids
born in On in eighty four. And that was Steve made,
Matt Ballen Cain, Glen Glenn, Glenn Stewart was already the clubbyers.
So there was about me and I'm signed of Travis
Burns and there was about I think about six of
(40:31):
them born in eighty four, and and that was the
sort of the start and then you're throwing the Vera
Menzies and later on Jamie Lyon, who was born in
eighty three. It's sort of it sort of went from there.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
So it was the blend. It's the blend of ages,
use and experience and players who would peak together basically,
and yeah, And it's funny how that stands up, isn't
it Even in the modern game. Some of them about
some of the squads are so out of balance in
that regard that they don't have somebody experience to talk
to them in the playing group when the twelve neel
(41:09):
down behind the sticks. So there's too many young kids
in the team at the same time. You see, you
see that same pattern now. As much as the gamers
in theory changed, so many things stand true, don't they
through the test of time. And I think when I
think back to that manly side, it was full of
tough cookies too, full of tough fellas who would dig
in when things got tough. But I also think most
(41:30):
of them you'd be happy, you'd be happy to introduce
them to your wife, your mother, your kids, because they
were good people. There was a lot of good people.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
As you said, there were they were shaping mother Fellas
and and then and then after two thousand and night
we had a couple of years we still made the playoffs.
And then eleven there was we bought some more youth
in in care and forun and Danley, Cherry Evans and
will Hop Award Eye and and and and I just
(41:59):
you know, they they just took us to another level.
They and Jared we're here. How Graves was there for
for for a bit as well. He played, He played
until eleven. So we just had this blend of youth
and coming you know back into the well through the squad.
Not you know, Beaver had retired and Maddy Orford had
moved on, and Steve Bell had moved on, so we
(42:21):
the older guys that were you know, replaced by these
and there were some pretty haindy players about these young
guys that come through.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
And then you and Des went off to the Bulldogs
for a few years, and I think the success you
had there was quite similar in many ways. A couple
of grand finals, I mean, grand finals can go one
way or the other. So, yeah, what do you remember
about that time?
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Yeah, it was a good time. I uh, you know,
if you think about it. The club made two grand
finals or there was, there was coach there and it
was a great club to be at. You know, they're
the most passionate supporters, really well run loaves club behind
(43:05):
it and you know that no wonder they're successful because
of because of you know that the you know, the
bones of the club are there. And it was and
it's a great club. And I worked at Paramatter too,
and I and that's where I cut my teeth, so
to speak, in the recruitment world. And they are a
(43:25):
great club too. They they I really enjoyed my eight
and a half years there and I really enjoyed my
time there. It was, you know, without winning winning a
first grade premiership. We made it. I think we made
one grand final, but it was still the club was
(43:47):
a huge success other than winning grand finals.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
And then of course you had another stated that Manley's
recruitment man again in Dessy's second incarnation as coach that
ended twenty two I think twenty twenty two. Big differences
there at the time in terms of recruitment of players.
I mean, or were you still were we all over
it still? Did you have your contact books and whatnot?
Or did you have to.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah, I hadn't. It was only you know, it was
only a couple of four years. Since five years since
I've done it for four years. Sorry, so three is what? Sorry?
So I'd still maintained that contact. And we you know,
we we kind of. The club was was in pretty
(44:31):
fair condition when we got there, and you know, it
was ended up being a bit muddy at the finish,
but at the same time, the club was building in
the right direction, was going the right directions. And you know,
mainly is my club. You know, I've got to see
on my bam so that it used to be the
(44:56):
size of a postage stamp and now it's as big
as Yeah, So I made I enjoyed, I really enjoyed.
Mainly is my club. And you know, as a kid,
when I was, you know, eighteen ten year old, I
remember watching the nine sixty eight Grand Final when they
played South and I was only seven seven eight years yeah,
(45:17):
seven or eight, and I just remember, you know, Bob
Fulton doing this and that, and I become the biggest
Bob Fulton fan. And I I used to go and
watch the wash that there was a blackout of the
men's wear store and Mario and he could get mainly jumpers,
and I would wash his great big hold on every
Saturday for the first month of the footy season. And
he gave me a jersey and I was, yeah, you
(45:41):
see fat as as a kid out pig cats and
when I was twelve fourteen, I'd have mainly jersey. Answer yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I mean all this, all this stuff though, No was
building up to your crescendo, which is as a president
in local a grade in warhap that Well, this is
your career pinnacle.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Now it's going to be huge on my highlights.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
That's right, that's right. How much hair of your lost
been on the side, I was, I enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
It's it's a bit of fun then. And what we're
doing is providing an avenue for one hundred young people
to go and play play sport every weekend in the
winter and and and it's it's pretty rewarding that you
know that you can facilitate that. And it's it's it's expensive,
it's it's not too it's not too you know, it's
(46:40):
not easy. By the way we've we've we've got a
a raffle. We're just about to or we areking right now.
It's a Raffle and it's two tickets to the EPSOM
day at the day before the Grand Final in Sydney.
Three n it's a combination of the and and two
gets into the n r OL corporate lands at the
(47:03):
Graham Sydney Grand Final the Grand Finals.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Where can people find that?
Speaker 3 (47:09):
If you go on the Facebook page of the will
Heard Blues, you will see you can buy tickets. You
can buy a ticket online five dollars a ticket and
I don't know what. I don't know what you if
you could put a price on it, but it's a
it's a price that you can't buy.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
So war hope we'll have to spell it for some people.
W W A U C H O p E.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
War Head Blues, war Hoop Blues. And if you win
about ongoing with it.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
We might be able to make an arrangement to two
last questions, both very big hitting. Obviously, you're in the
game now in the bush right and every now and
then you're in the Daily Telegraph lamenting what has been
happening in the bush or not happening in the bush.
For I think you've been regularly in the paper for
(48:04):
the last two decades. You're at the coal face of that. Now,
where's your mind out with all that stuff in terms
of what is the next the next two Klill brothers
likely to emerge, not Clils, but the equivalents.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
You know. Yeah, I'm in two minds now mate. Because
once you're involved in it, you become part of it.
It's a difficult trying to find volunteers to actually do things,
you know, whether it be someone to get on the
gate or someone who took the barbecue or and it's
(48:40):
all voluntary. And you know, this club here will hope
we turn over about about one hundred thousand, which is
you know, if it's not it's not a great deal
of money, but you're still going to find it somewhere,
you know, just to just to register ensure kid te
out with you're talking sixty thousand hm, and it's hard
(49:02):
to come by. I just a little like see a
little bit more money filter down from from the top.
You know, we're talking about the next the next TV
rights and they're talking about you know, the biggest ever
and in the billions. I just hope the players, it
doesn't go to the players in the bulk of it.
(49:23):
I'd like to see it, you know, spread amongst the
grassroots and bushfully and it will be. But I just
hope that the players don't get too greedy and say,
well we want the biggest slice of the pie and
and to the other you know, the grassroots and bushfully
neglected and don't get a decent slice of it. And
(49:45):
funding is always going to be the issue. It's not
you know, yeah, we get by with volunteers and we
get by with players and all that sort of stuff,
but you know, it's it costs a lot of money.
And you know, you see kids out west that play
without boots on your seat. You know, you see towns.
You know, you see a town on glenn Us last
year didn't have a first grade side, which is it's
(50:06):
a town of ten thousand people, and it just sort
of breaks your heart to see that sort of those
sort of towns not not participating, participating in the game.
And in a town in New South Walest Country without
a footage term is not near as good a town
as what it is with the footage team.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Well, I've been out with you in war Hope and
your brother in Warriyolder and the football club is just
such a central part of the community.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
It's in both towns it's the golden thread that runs
through the town. And you know, the first thing you
walk into Warry Older and people talk about the great
players that have been the jam Vains or the you know,
the les Clears are those sort of fellas, and the
same here as in Warhape. You know, you walk down
the street and you know there's there's you're running a
rocky Laurel or I and Sherbert's family and that and that,
(50:57):
you know they that is as I said, it's the
golden thread that answer a bad times and that and
that's probably the same in every Bustan.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
Last question and the most hard hitting. My fellow host
of this podcast, John Davidson, is an Ovocastrian but has
been a massive man with the Eagles fan all his life,
and he says, I've got to ask you about the
footy show, the toe sucking incident.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
I've just said, I've just had surgery. I want to
my feet.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
What did it get up too hard?
Speaker 3 (51:33):
Is that like like like my hands, Yeah, the hands
and the feet they're not in good shape. It was
actually it was it was all in a bit of fun,
and you know it wasn't. It wasn't as you think
it was, and it was more to do with wmen.
They put my foot during the course of that day. Yeah,
(51:54):
that it was back in the fairy dies and corner
because it was fairy and you become involved and you
become part of it, so I yeh know, it just
was one of those things and you know, I'm not
Yeah it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
It wasn't in d Yeah, I got you got no cluil.
Thank you so much for your time and yeah, I
can't wait to get this podcast out for everyone to hear.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
You know, I'm a schooner.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (52:24):
Okay, thanks Mat
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