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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Last weekend’s NRL Grand Final, in which the Brisbane Broncos came from 10 points down at half-time to defeat the Melbourne Storm 26-22, took me back nearly half a century.
On September 16, 1967, I was one of 56,358 rugby league fans at the Sydney Cricket Ground, to watch the NSW Rugby Football League Grand Final between South Sydney and Canterbury Bankstown.
Of note, the crowd was the smallest for a number of years due to the first live television broadcast, by all four Sydney TV channels.
These were the days well before a National Rugby League competition, with the Sydney-based premier rugby league title race at the centre of the game in Australia.
Living in Sydney at the time, I became a passionate Canterbury Bankstown fan and followed them until the Auckland Warriors joined the NRL in 1995
The 1967 rugby league competition was light years away from today, where the best players are paid wheelbarrows full of money.
In the 1960s, payments for rugby league players were modest compared to today and were based upon per-match fees, win bonuses and prize money.
The prize money for the winning team in the first-grade final in 1967 was $40.
The top dog was St George, who had won an amazing 11 consecutive NSWRFL grand finals from 1956 to 1966.
Throughout the season, St George were the hottest of favourites to win the NSWRFL premiership for the twelfth successive time.
When the Saints won the minor premiership, it seemed just a formality for them to continue their stranglehold on the country’s major rugby league competition.
However, the St George 1967 aspirations began to unravel when they were beaten by South Sydney, 13-8, in the semi-finals.
Few gave Canterbury a chance when they squared off with St George in the preliminary final, with the winner progressing to meet Souths in the grand final.
In a dramatic showdown, Canterbury Bankstown scrambled home 12-11 in the penultimate post section encounter.
My cloudy recollection of the title decider is of our group of mates walking out to the SCG from Town Hall station, stopping for the obligatory pub counter lunch and a few beers, on the way.
I do vividly remember we were in the cheap seats, on “The Hill”, which was a standing room only area at the Randwick end of the ground.
Canterbury led 8-5, before the turning point in the match.
Rabbits second-rower Bob McCarthy intercepted a Canterbury pass to scamper the length of the field to dot the ball down.
With nine minutes remaining the score was locked at 10 points apiece.
An incorrect Canterbury scrum feed saw them penalised close to the goal posts, with the Rabbits’ kick soaring between the two sticks.
The hard-fought battle finished with a 12-10 South Sydney victory.
I have followed the NSWRFL and NRL ever since my time in the Australian Big Smoke, with today’s affiliation most definitely with the New Zealand Warriors.
Fast forward to the 21st century, where I trot out my usual saying at the end of each NRL competition year.
“Next season will be the Warriors’ year”.
Go The Wahs.