Trevor Reardon (left) and George Piggins
South Sydney Rabbitohs’ lock Trevor Reardon was sensationally sent off for ‘manhandling’ referee Ian Smith in an Amco Cup match against their Brisbane counterparts Souths Magpies at Lang Park. Reardon, a former New South Wales Combined High Schools rugby union rep., was found guilty by a judiciary panel which convened soon after the Sydney club’s 17-8 win.
The Courier-Mail’s Jack Reardon (no relation) wrote that the incident occurred when the Magpies were in the midst of a movement which could have put them in front. Test star John Grant had shattered the defence and served a great pass to Townsville product Pat Phelan who passed way too early with flying winger Mitch Brennan unmarked outside him.
Reardon doesn’t describe the exact details of the manhandling but one can only assume the Rabbitohs’ forward pushed Smith out of the way in a bid to get to Phelan or Brennan. Unfortunately we can’t look through Youtube for the incident as tapes of virtually all the Amco Cup games from the era were taped over or destroyed.
South Sydney in 1976 were a shadow of the great premiership winning sides of 1967, 68, 1970 and ’71 but still boasted Australian Test stars Paul Sait, Gary Stevens and George Piggins and Kiwi international Bernie Lowther as well as future Australian winger, Terry Fahey. The club also had recruited Irish born back John Berne who had represented the Wallabies against Scotland in 1975.
Brisbane Souths suffered a major blow before kick-off when Test prop Greg Veivers withdrew through injury. But they still had the likes of Grant, Brennan and Bruce Astill and led 4-0 at halftime thanks to two penalty goals by Tom Gillogly, a winger from Wingham in the Manning Valley area of New South Wales.
The Magpies’ forwards tackled magnificently in the first half with second rower Doug Drew and prop John Unicombe leading the way.
The Rabbitohs’ fortunes changed when Sait pressed the go button in the second half, setting up the first try of the match for centre Steve Little, and always commanding the attention of three or four defenders. He had great support from halfback Bob McMillan; prop David Grant; Fahey and Stevens with skipper Stevens scoring tries from support play.
But the Magpies fought to the end and only trailed 10-8 at three quarter time with Gillogly kicking two more goals. The Magpies’ fullback Dale Graham was arguably the best player on the field. Souths fielded twins Allan and Geoff Nunan who were originally from Murwillumbah with Geoff playing five eighth and Allan hooker. Allan had played finals football for Norths earlier in the decade.
Englishman Tom Berry from Wigan coached the Magpies while former Australian winger Johnny King was in charge of South Sydney.
In the curtain raiser Kedron High beat Caboolture 30-0 in a first round Amco Shield match.
Earlier that day Jack Reardon had been made a Life Member of the Queensland Rugby League along with Jim Slaughter from Brisbane and Frank McNamara from Rockhampton. Reardon, a former Queensland captain and Australian vice-captain, had been The Courier-Mail’s chief league writer for 28 years.
Slaughter was the retiring president of the QRL, a position he had held for 10 years. McNamara had been a member of the Rockhampton and Central Queensland Rugby Leagues for more than 20 years.
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