Remember when... against Penrith Panthers

[mountain_dog]

St George is our Enemy

Parra is our enemy.

 

[mountain_dog]

There is no team I love beating more than Saints. Although I must admit the Roosters are fast catching up to them.

I love beating the Saints, Sharkies, Parra & Easts. That's why 2 of the wins this season were so good

I also hate the racist Sharkies supporters.... I copped lotsa shit living down that way.

 

[gbrussell]

I love beating the Saints, Sharkies, Parra & Easts. That's why 2 of the wins this season were so good

I also hate the racist Sharkies supporters.... I copped lotsa shit living down that way.

I live in Bangor with my wife who is a Sharks supporter. Don't hold that against her.

 

[chisdog]

Yeah Saints were hated big time by all other clubs in those days, and as their winning run escalated their fans became more and more conceited.They were so good a team and I doubt we will ever see a team who dominates for that amount of time ever again.

Most of their players came from their own resources, either from their own juniors, or from Illawarra. There were a few exceptions.

There were residential qualifications in those days so most of the imports they recruited had their nominated address at the home of secretary Frank Facer.

While the game was a lot slower in those days with a 3 yard offside rule and unlimited tackles, I believe great players of any era would adapt to playing in another era if they had access to more modern methods of training and preparation. This is why I get very upset when clubs best ever teams are announced and there is no one on the judging panel who has been around the game long enough to have seen those old time players in action.

At one point the NSWRL put Saints in a mid week match with the Great Britain touring team.

It is highly unlikely in a salary cap era that any team could be that dominant for that long ever again.

It took the 4 tackle rule to bring their run to a stop.

Since that era they have won just 3 Premierships.

"There were residential qualifications in those days so most of the imports they recruited had their nominated address at the home of secretary Frank Facer."

That's where a lot of their good players were residentially registered. If David Gallop was fair, he would have gone back & taken those premierships off them & also Canberra's 1990 one as well. Perhaps if he had done that there would be a little less cheating.

 

[Berries]

Yeah Saints were hated big time by all other clubs in those days, and as their winning run escalated their fans became more and more conceited.They were so good a team and I doubt we will ever see a team who dominates for that amount of time ever again.

Most of their players came from their own resources, either from their own juniors, or from Illawarra. There were a few exceptions.

There were residential qualifications in those days so most of the imports they recruited had their nominated address at the home of secretary Frank Facer.

While the game was a lot slower in those days with a 3 yard offside rule and unlimited tackles, I believe great players of any era would adapt to playing in another era if they had access to more modern methods of training and preparation. This is why I get very upset when clubs best ever teams are announced and there is no one on the judging panel who has been around the game long enough to have seen those old time players in action.

At one point the NSWRL put Saints in a mid week match with the Great Britain touring team.

It is highly unlikely in a salary cap era that any team could be that dominant for that long ever again.

It took the 4 tackle rule to bring their run to a stop.

Since that era they have won just 3 Premierships.

Why did the 4 tackle rule not favour St George?

 

[gbrussell]

Why did the 4 tackle rule not favour St George?

In the unlimited tackle era Saints were masters of maintaining possession. Once they had control of the ball it was not uncommon for them, to hold onto it for an entire half. With a three yard offside rule, progress up the field could be slow, until their forwards got control brought outside defenders in and then they would swing it wide.

In those days the only slim chance you had of getting the ball back was to concede a penalty in their half. The rules were different in that when a penalty found touch, it was a scrum with a loose head and feed to the side kicking the ball out. Saints had the world's best hooked at the time Ian Walsh.

The other way was to tackle the dummy half which resulted in scrum loose and feed to the defending side. That didn't happen often though.

The 4 tackle rule introduced in 67 changed the game massively and it became harder for them to control the game as they did the previous 11 years. Most teams offloaded with no real purpose, so it became a faster game under the 5 yard rule.

When the six tackle rule came into the game in 1972 as a result of an initiative by the Sharks to stage the Endeavour Cup knockout about 1970 and 71 while the semis were on, for the 8 teams who did not make the top 4, it showed that 6 tackles was the right number.

I played the game under unlimited tackles, 4 and 6, and refereed under the latter 2. All different games.

 

[Berries]

In the unlimited tackle era Saints were masters of maintaining possession. Once they had control of the ball it was not uncommon for them, to hold onto it for an entire half. With a three yard offside rule, progress up the field could be slow, until their forwards got control brought outside defenders in and then they would swing it wide.

In those days the only slim chance you had of getting the ball back was to concede a penalty in their half. The rules were different in that when a penalty found touch, it was a scrum with a loose head and feed to the side kicking the ball out. Saints had the world's best hooked at the time Ian Walsh.

The other way was to tackle the dummy half which resulted in scrum loose and feed to the defending side. That didn't happen often though.

The 4 tackle rule introduced in 67 changed the game massively and it became harder for them to control the game as they did the previous 11 years. Most teams offloaded with no real purpose, so it became a faster game under the 5 yard rule.

When the six tackle rule came into the game in 1972 as a result of an initiative by the Sharks to stage the Endeavour Cup knockout about 1970 and 71 while the semis were on, for the 8 teams who did not make the top 4, it showed that 6 tackles was the right number.

I played the game under unlimited tackles, 4 and 6, and refereed under the latter 2. All different games.

Sounds very Union like the first rules but without the option of regaining possession, would have been very dour to watch at times.

 

[gbrussell]

Sounds very Union like the first rules but without the option of regaining possession, would have been very dour to watch at times.

Yes it was a dour game at times in that era.

Regaining posession was difficult for sure. The other thing you could do which I forgot to mention earlier, was that you could strike for the ball in the play the ball. The 2nd marker we see these days was there as a dummy half in those days if you could successfully strike for the ball.

The best exponents of that were George Piggins whose playing days overlapped the unlimited and 4 tackle eras. Later on both Mario Fenech and Ben Elias were the best exponents at it, even though they got pinged a bit for not being square.

George Peponis was our best exponent of it.

Personally I'm glad it got outlawed.