French rugby league in the glory days
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31
What a sad day for rugby league – Samoa thrash France 62-4 in a World Cup match in Warrington. France were once one of the ‘Big Four’ of Rugby League, along with Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. France won series against the Kangaroos in Australia in 1951 and ’55, and drew the 1960 series. They reached the final of the 1968 World Cup, and won home series against the ‘Roos in 1967-68 and 1978. Samoa is made up mainly of NRL players, and there is nothing in France to compare with the intensity of the NRL. Admittedly most of the French players are from Perpignan based Catalans Dragons, which competes in Super League, and others come from Toulouse, which has just been relegated from Super League. But France does not boast the playing depth, or systems of the NRL.
Marie and I return to Brisbane after a North Queensland trip. After we drop off our hire car in Townsville, the lass who drives us to the airport says she is originally from Caboolture, and is ashamed to admit it, given the Moreton Region centre has become known primarily as crime central. It is a terrible shame, given my grandfather on mum’s side, Charles Mortimer Kelly, was a sawmiller at Caboolture, back in the good old days.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1
The staff at Mr Z (cafe), Baringa on the Sunshine Coast, greet Dennis Moore like an old friend. Dennis, a former assistant coach at Manly-Warringah, is my interview subject for Men of League Foundation magazine. We go back a long way – to the 1970s, when we were teammates at Brothers and Norths, with Dennis having moved to Brisbane from the South Burnett. Dennis, who looks fitter than when he played, also had a coaching stint with Hull in England. England beat Papua New Guinea 46-6 in a Rugby League World Cup quarter final in Wigan, with winger, Tommy Makinson (St Helens) scoring an amazing five tries. The Princess of Wales is in attendance.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2
I watch part of the Dr Charles Perkins Oration, which is delivered by Larissa Baldwin-Roberts from the Climate Action Network, who touches on the Lismore floods. The crime rate is soaring in parts of Kent, England, and it seems Albanians are too blame. Kent is the ‘Garden of England’ and you don’t associate rampant crime with that beautiful part of the world, where we have several close friends.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3
Former sports television producer, Allan Catt, has died aged 77. He was in charge of Channel TEN in 1974, when the revolutionary (for Australia) Amco Cup knockout competition started. The inaugural competition, which was won by Western Division from New South Wales Country, launched Ray Warren into television commentary. It was Australia’s first TV specific sports series which involved regular matches in regional areas. Catt also fronted Test coverage of the 1986 and 1990 Kangaroo tours, and was an advisor for the Tina Turner campaign. He played rugby league as a teenager, and represented Combined New South Wales High Schools, which was a great achievement at a time when nearly all state schools played league. I met him a number of times during my reporting career.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Norths Leagues at Nundah is the venue for Men of League Foundation lunch, which I MC. I interview 1982 Kangaroo tourists, Rod Morris, John Ribot, Mark Murray and Greg Conescu. Rohan Hancock is a late apology. I covered the tour for the Brisbane ‘Telegraph’, and it was a time when players and journalists enjoyed a beer together. Things were not always cordial, but things were usually resolved over an ale or two.
Bob Ellicott QC., has died aged 95. He led the Australian Rugby League’s legal fight against News Ltd during the Super League ‘War’ in the mid 1990s. Marie and I lived next door to his daughter, Sue during our time at Grange, in Brisbane’s inner north.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5
Australia beat Lebanon 48-4 in scrappy Rugby League World Cup Quarter Final in Huddersfield. Josh Mansour, who represented Australia in seven Tests, scores Lebanon’s only try. Mansour, one of footy’s good guys, said before the game he would sing both anthems. Not sure whether he did.
“Apparently he was a blindingly fast winger,” says one commentator (not sure which one) when referring to Ken Irvine, during play in the Marsh Cup One Day Cricket match between New South Wales and South Australia at North Sydney Oval, where the scoreboard is named in Irvine’s honour. That would be something of an understatement. Irvine, who held World professional sprint records, finished his career as the leading try scorer in top level rugby league in Australia. He played for North Sydney, Manly-Warringah, New South Wales and Australia. Irvine, a consummate finisher, was a product of Mosman Marist Brothers at North Sydney. He won a number of professional Gifts, and, on a heavy ground at Dubbo in 1963, clocked a world professional record of 9.3 seconds. (Not sure of the distance).
Our eldest lad, Damien, is down from Ayr in North Queensland, and attends a ‘Punt Club’ get together with mates, at Brisbane’s Newmarket Hotel.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6
Learn of the passing of Tweed Valley identity, John O’Reilly, 82, from Fernvale, who, from memory, played rugby league for South Murwillumbah, and was a real gentleman.
My former Courier-Mail colleague, Grantlee Kieza’s latest book is the biography of Hudson Fysh, the World War I hero who founded Qantas. Great to see Grantley producing bios about people that have been such a big part of our history. I sincerely hope they are part of school and university libraries.
There is a horse racing at Armidale called ‘Easy Boomer’. I have had that said to me.
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