AUGUST 1992
GOLD Coast Seagulls’ chief executive, Greg Bandiera defended his rocky relationship with captain-coach, Wally Lewis, as pressure mounted on Lewis to keep his job in the face of another disappointing season for the Tweed Heads’ based club.
A former Sydney Easts’ star, Bandiera called a spade a spade, and it was common knowledge that he and Wally had had a number of disagreements.
“There is respect for each other,” Bandiera told me, as I investigated reports Lewis was to be sacked, and replaced by (former New South Wales State of Origin forward) John Harvey. “We have a beer together, and we share a joke, in addition to talking business. He’s got a two year coaching contract, and aside from anything else, it would be a very, very bad business deal to pay him out, which is what we would do, if we had to sack him.”
John Harvey, who was coaching at Wee Waa, was a Tweed favourite, having coached Seagulls to premierships in the domestic league. Lewis had played under Malcolm Clift at Seagulls in 1991, before taking on the captain-coach job.
Bandiera said it was tough situation for Lewis to compete with full time non-playing coaches at the other 15 clubs in the NSWRL.
“I think Wally has to be more of a hard task master next year, and it will be easier to do that, without the worry of playing,” Bandiera said.
Lewis confirmed he would retire after Gold Coast’s final round match against Penrith on August 29.
Bandiera said Lewis did not fully realise the commitment required, when he took on the captain-coach role.
“I think he thought he could watch a video on Monday, and come along to training on Tuesday and Thursday, and he would get by,” Bandiera said. “The fact he has so many personal commitments hasn’t helped.”
In Brisbane club football, halfback, Steve Plath scored two tries as Wynnum-Manly demolished Norths 30-12 at a packed Kougari Oval. The Wynnum side of 1992 was made up largely of home grown products and was coached by Gary Seaton, a member of the star studded 1982 premiership side, coached by Des Morris.
Norths’ coach, former Test prop, Dave Brown said too many of his players had not been pulling their weight, leaving it to ‘champions’ like former Bronco, Craig Grauf and versatile, Darryl Duncan to do the work.
Brown and Grauf had clashed at training, with Grauf storming out of a night session at Bishop Park.
“The fact it became fairly heated between Craig and myself, means he is at least thinking about the task at hand,” Brown said. “When Craig turned up for training on Saturday, I left it up to the players to make a decision about whether he started.”
Easts’ halfback, Paul Green suffered a back injury scoring a try in the Tigers’ 20-12 win over Logan City at Meakin Park, Kingston. Green copped knees in the back as he crossed, and spent the night in hospital. Former rugby union star, Paul Mulvihill kicked six penalty goals for Easts in what as a fiery encounter, with three Logan players binned by referee, Peter Blakeney.
Wests wrapped up a semi-final spot with a 44-26 win over Ipswich at North Ipswich Reserve. Valleys’ coach, Geoff Naylor said he hoped to meet with officials soon, to sort out his future, after the Diehards’ 46-30 win over Redcliffe. The result was not enough to get Valleys a spot in the finals. Prop, Eric Kennedy got Naylor’s award as the best player, while co-prop, Wade Fenton and halfback, Brett Daunt shared the players’ player award.
The Sunshine Coast judiciary suspended Bribie Island player, Shane Horner from the game until January 1, 1996, on a high tackle charge, arising from an incident which left Caloundra player, Trevor Reddy with his jaw broken in three places. Trevor was the son of former Wide Bay coach, John Reddy and a nephew of Test forward, Rod.
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Steve Plath would have to be a relation of Johns? Look very similar. Great article 🙂👍