The beach at Casuarina
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7
The Samoa v Tonga World Cup Rugby League quarter final from Warrington in England is just like an NRL game. Most of the players come from the NRL, and the style of play is from the NRL. Some league administrators like to boast about the Pacific influence in international football, but it doesn’t necessarily deliver a different flavour of footy, unlike, say, the French, British and even the Kiwi sides of the halcyon days of international football in the 1950s and early 1960s. Samoa win 20-18 and Anthony Milford is man of the match.
New NRL franchise the Dolphins hold their first training run under coach, Wayne Bennett, with 15 contracted players present, Ray Stone the most notable. Bennett says there is no way the club will finish with the wooden spoon. Bennett reckons the Dolphins v Broncos games will become as ‘big’ as Manchester City v Manchester United.
My wife, Marie and I head to the Tweed Coast for a seven day break, at Mantra, Casuarina. We walk from the resort to Cudgera Creek bridge at Kingscliff, and then enjoy drinks at Salt Bar, back at Casuarina. Casuarina is a favourite holiday spot for former Broncos’ teammates, Matt Gillett and Jack Reed.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8
Top Gun 2 is showing at Kingscliff Cinema, which opened in 2009. There was a picture theatre there, back in the day. I went there a number of times in the late 60s, as a high school lad, on camping trips. Took a few lasses to the movies there – mainly other happy campers. Warren the usher, hated it when we rolled Jaffas down the aisle. The ambulance station is still in the main street. Greg ‘Boxhead’ Jackwitz and wife, Linda, have the local newsagency. I played alongside Greg at Brothers in Brisbane in 1976 and ’77, and he always looked after me when he was on duty at the Ansett desk and I was flying to league matches as a reporter. There is a Mexican food cart in front of Cudgen Headland Surf Club. A kid fishing on Cudgera Creek bridge wears ‘Always Was Always Will Be’ T-shirt. There is a bloke wearing an Australian rugby league Test jersey in Main Street. That’s more like it – more unifying than the kid’s t-shirt.
Back at Casuarina, the barman at Salt (pub) had surfed at Duranbah (D’bar) yesterday. He liked hearing about my time as a life saver at Cabarita Beach Surf Club, or at least, he seemed to. There was a lady beside me, who seemed engrossed as well, but she may have just been polite. But I do think
a lot of younger people like to learn about this stretch of coast, which was a sand mining wasteland when I was doing surf patrols. Illegal vegetation clearing is obviously a problem in some parts of the coast, with the Tweed Shire Council having to put up signs opposite residences near the sand dunes. I reckon those signs have been erected where the council suspects the (alleged) guilty home owners reside.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9
Penrith Panthers’ rugby league star, Dylan Edwards; his wife and two daughters are enjoying pool time as Marie and I arrive. He is one of the fittest men I have ever seen. He returns to training in a month. I comment that I admire his work, but I am a Roosters’ man. I think he takes it in the right spirit. Marie and I have lunch at HUSK Distillery, outside the Tweed River village of Tumbulgum, which, on the sporting front, is famous for its soccer team, the Rangers. I played cricket for Tumbulgum, and won the Norm Silley Trophy as best fieldsman, in 1972/73. The soccer players and cricketers drank at the Tumbulgum pub, which was behind the field. A ferry – across the Tweed River – operated opposite the pub, from 1880 to 1986. Back to our resort, via Eviron and Tropical Fruit World. A sign at Tropical Fruit World says: “You can pick your friends, but please don’t pick our fruit, off the trees, or on the ground.” A sign at HUSK warned visitors that snakes are active at this time of year. Guaranteed to frighten off English visitors. Barman at Salt Pub played rugby league for Bogangar based, Tweed Coast Raiders, the relocated South Murwillumbah club.
Learn of the passing of former Welsh Rugby League and Union International, Bobby Wanbon aged 78. Wanbon played club rugby union for Aberavon, and made his Test rugby union debut in 1968, in an 11-all draw with England at Twickenham, where he scored the try which put Wales back in the match after the home side led 11-3. Despite this, he was dropped for the next Test against Scotland, so he switched codes, signing with Merseyside club, St Helens. He made his league debut for Wales against England later that year, the first of eight caps in the 13-man code. Wanbon was part of Wales’ shock win over England in a 1975 World Series match at Brisbane’s Lang Park, a match which degenerated into a running brawl. I saw Wanbon play for Cheshire outfit, Warrington against Leeds at Wilderspool in 1977. He retired from football the following year, and became a popular publican in Warrington. Former Parramatta fullback, Brett Hodgson replaces another rugby league man, Anthony Siebold, as defence coach for English Rugby Union.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10
Lismore’s Metropol Hotel sponsors the 1989 movie ‘Heat’, on local TV. We dine at local Thai and a little lad seated near us knows all the NRL news, bless him. He was born at Bondi, but instead of supporting the mighty Roosters, goes for the Parramatta Eels. Blessing revoked. A fourth wave of Covid is here, evidently. England beat India in T20 World Cup cricket semi-final. Someone on FoxSports says the result means there will not be a fairytale final – India v Pakistan. That struck me as anything but a fairytale final. A England v Pakistan final means people in Melbourne will still be able to get a cab this weekend.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11
Marie and I enjoy morning tea at ‘Farm and Co’., Cudgen, set in remnant farmland of the rich, red soil plateau. Back at Mantra, the wedding of ‘Jeremy and Teemika’ takes place on the lawn in front of our apartment. The father of the bride looks like Kenny Rodgers. There is a CFMEU plaque in Watson Park, near Cudgera Creek, remembering the passing of a local chap in an industrial accident.
Players at Oldham Rugby League training in Oldham, Greater Manchester, pause at 11 a.m. to honour Remembrance Day. My 1990 Kangaroo Tour Supporters’ Group attended the Remembrance Day Service in Oldham, when we chose the town as our base for the Test at Old Trafford.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12
Australia defeats New Zealand 16-14 in the Rugby League World Cup semi-final at Elland Road, Leeds, but the Kiwis were the better side, in a great match. FoxSports’ commentator, Cooper Cronk, who is a positive person, says it is “not the greatest of spectacles”. On this occasion, I thought he was hard to please. BBC Sport’s dual British Rugby International, Jonathan Davies describes it as one of the best games he has seen, while the BBC’s news coverage rates it “an all-time classic”. Members of Great Britain’s 1972 World Cup winning side are guests at the game. The ’72 Tournament was played in France.
Marie and I have lunch with my brother, Jeff at the local Patisserie. Canberra Raiders’ halfback, Jamal Fogarty and Gold Coast Titans’ centre, Brian Kelly walk past.
A book covering the history of Rugby League in the Burdekin region of North Queensland is launched in Ayr. A labour of love by author, Martin Grandelis, the book is 756 pages and weighs 4kg. I love the breakouts on individuals, such as Edward ‘Ted’ Parravicini, who was born of an immigrant family from northern Italy, and started playing rugby league for Home Hill Colts in 1935, aged 17. World War II interrupted his promising league career and he spent three years in Papua New Guinea. He resumed his football career after the war and won a Home Hill premiership with Colts in 1947. In 1951 he played for North Queensland against the touring French side, which won the series against Australia. The following year he coached a Home Hill women’s side in a tri-series also involving Charters Towers and Ayr. Home Hill won.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13
Wake in time to see Stephen Chrichton’s winning field goal as Samoa break English hearts with a 27-26 win in the other World Cup semi-final, in London in front of a crowd of 40,489. It was the first golden point game in World Cup history. The bloody Poms! This was their chance to really showcase the game in the UK and they blew it. Trust them to stuff it up, but Australian referee, Gerard Sutton calling a forward pass in extra time, didn’t help. It wasn’t forward, in my humble opinion. But refs from the NRL invariably go for the ‘safe’ option. Then there was Victor Radley’s pass, which was intercepted by Chrichton, who ran 50 metres to score. Earlier in the tournament Radley said the Poms would win the Cup. As soon as he said that, I knew they wouldn’t. The Australian wheelchair side is beaten by France in the semi-finals.
Marie and I enjoy our last surf before heading to Burringbar’s Tweed Valley Farmhouse Cheese for lunch (via a honey stall at Wooyung). The Farmhouse proprietor is worried about the bio security impact of walkers from the proposed nearby rail trail. We head north via back roads, which take us past my Uncle Tom Dunne’s old dairy farm at Stokers Siding and our former family house at Bray Park, right beside the local store. The house looks so small, but seemed huge when I was a kid. In Murwillumbah proper, there is an ‘eco event’ in Knox Park, where I played many rugby league games; and live music at the Court House Hotel, in Main Street, a pub where I covered many Group 18 meetings and which boasted the best Tooths’ beer in town. Learn that Uki’s Holy Trinity Church has turned 100. The church contains a number of memorial gifts donated by the families of Australian soldiers, killed in action inf France and Belgium in the First World War.
As if to rub the rugby league boys’ noses in the manure, England’s cricketers beat Pakistan in the T20 cricket final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
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