ThePedigree
Blue Ribbon
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2006
- Messages
- 3,204
- Reaction score
- 596
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/lhq...r-the-enforcers/2009/09/22/1253384994719.html
If this story doesn't get the blood pumping nothing will!
DOGS v PARRA - GREATEST HITS
'The beauty of playing here was that we'd grown up loving cricket too, and you'd come into the dressing rooms and think, 'Don Bradman's been here,''' recalled Paul Langmack, a teenage hardman forward for Canterbury-Bankstown in the 1984 grand final.
True enough, only Bradman never conjured thoughts such as theirs.
Rugby league might be a game of tactics but at heart it is - or most especially was in the 1980s - a game of brute force. Bulldogs captain Steve Mortimer stood up to address his troops before they ran out. ''I'm a proud c---,'' he told them, ''I'm a winner, I wish myself a good game, I wish everyone a good game. Let's get out there and f---ing bash them.''
At half-time ''Turvey'' got to his feet to talk again. Another inspirational vignette - only to be cut short by prop Peter Kelly.
''He went off his head at half-time,'' Langmack recalls. ''At half-time, Turvey was talking and 'Kel' said, 'Look, will you shut the f--- up.'
''Just give me the f---ing ball.''
Warren Ryan, the coach of the Canterbury side that had ditched The Entertainers label to become The Enforcers, sided with prop against halfback. ''Just follow him - he'll lead you to victory,'' he said.
The Bulldogs needed something. Up against a Parramatta side that had won the past three titles and was built on the rock of Ray Price and a back line to rate among the best ever assembled in club football, Canterbury trailed 4-0 at the break after a typical Mick Cronin try.
History has been cruel to Neville Glover, Parramatta's bearded winger of an earlier vintage, but Eric Grothe has escaped torment for bombing a try in the first half.
The Bulldogs only try of the game was claimed by hooker Mark Bugden. Price, who kept the medical teams busy stemming the occasional flesh wound, went down with a wrist injury. Bugden caught the marker asleep and dashed through from 25 metres out. The converted try put the Bulldogs ahead 6-4, and four minutes later they nearly put the match away when Peter Tunks was held up over the line. But the Eels rallied.
Rookie winger Steve O'Brien pulled off an intercept to deny the Eels when Cronin threatened to put Grothe away.
Herald league writer Alan Clarkson saluted O'Brien's effort. ''With the awesome assignment of marking Eric Grothe, O'Brien did not flinch from a task which has caused more experienced players to think about early retirements,'' he wrote.
Ultimately, the match turned on Cronin's legendary boot. Minutes from full-time, referee Kevin Roberts penalised Greg Mullane. Cronin lined up the shot from a close position - only for the ball to topple from the mound of sand. When he finally took the shot, the ball sailed left, a replay of his missed kick that would have given the Eels victory in the 1977 grand final against St George.
''I have tried to forget about 1977 but what happened out there jolts my memory a bit,'' Cronin admits. ''I don't know what happened. I expect to kick them all, and it was a fairly simple one although it was a bit windy.''
Price survived the match like the Black Knight of Monty Python fame, absorbing incredible physical punishment yet always getting up with the same leer on his face.
''What we used to do with each other … if we could catch them, it wasn't pretty,'' Tunks says. ''Ray Price was phenomenal. You've no idea how good he was. He's probably the toughest player I ever played against, the punishment we used to give to him. And he just used to keep getting up. There were some terrible things we did to him.
''We had plenty of stinks but nobody got killed.''
If this story doesn't get the blood pumping nothing will!
DOGS v PARRA - GREATEST HITS
'The beauty of playing here was that we'd grown up loving cricket too, and you'd come into the dressing rooms and think, 'Don Bradman's been here,''' recalled Paul Langmack, a teenage hardman forward for Canterbury-Bankstown in the 1984 grand final.
True enough, only Bradman never conjured thoughts such as theirs.
Rugby league might be a game of tactics but at heart it is - or most especially was in the 1980s - a game of brute force. Bulldogs captain Steve Mortimer stood up to address his troops before they ran out. ''I'm a proud c---,'' he told them, ''I'm a winner, I wish myself a good game, I wish everyone a good game. Let's get out there and f---ing bash them.''
At half-time ''Turvey'' got to his feet to talk again. Another inspirational vignette - only to be cut short by prop Peter Kelly.
''He went off his head at half-time,'' Langmack recalls. ''At half-time, Turvey was talking and 'Kel' said, 'Look, will you shut the f--- up.'
''Just give me the f---ing ball.''
Warren Ryan, the coach of the Canterbury side that had ditched The Entertainers label to become The Enforcers, sided with prop against halfback. ''Just follow him - he'll lead you to victory,'' he said.
The Bulldogs needed something. Up against a Parramatta side that had won the past three titles and was built on the rock of Ray Price and a back line to rate among the best ever assembled in club football, Canterbury trailed 4-0 at the break after a typical Mick Cronin try.
History has been cruel to Neville Glover, Parramatta's bearded winger of an earlier vintage, but Eric Grothe has escaped torment for bombing a try in the first half.
The Bulldogs only try of the game was claimed by hooker Mark Bugden. Price, who kept the medical teams busy stemming the occasional flesh wound, went down with a wrist injury. Bugden caught the marker asleep and dashed through from 25 metres out. The converted try put the Bulldogs ahead 6-4, and four minutes later they nearly put the match away when Peter Tunks was held up over the line. But the Eels rallied.
Rookie winger Steve O'Brien pulled off an intercept to deny the Eels when Cronin threatened to put Grothe away.
Herald league writer Alan Clarkson saluted O'Brien's effort. ''With the awesome assignment of marking Eric Grothe, O'Brien did not flinch from a task which has caused more experienced players to think about early retirements,'' he wrote.
Ultimately, the match turned on Cronin's legendary boot. Minutes from full-time, referee Kevin Roberts penalised Greg Mullane. Cronin lined up the shot from a close position - only for the ball to topple from the mound of sand. When he finally took the shot, the ball sailed left, a replay of his missed kick that would have given the Eels victory in the 1977 grand final against St George.
''I have tried to forget about 1977 but what happened out there jolts my memory a bit,'' Cronin admits. ''I don't know what happened. I expect to kick them all, and it was a fairly simple one although it was a bit windy.''
Price survived the match like the Black Knight of Monty Python fame, absorbing incredible physical punishment yet always getting up with the same leer on his face.
''What we used to do with each other … if we could catch them, it wasn't pretty,'' Tunks says. ''Ray Price was phenomenal. You've no idea how good he was. He's probably the toughest player I ever played against, the punishment we used to give to him. And he just used to keep getting up. There were some terrible things we did to him.
''We had plenty of stinks but nobody got killed.''
) and FIRE UP!!!! That only gonna make our backs shine and score plenty of tries!
