This is just a wonderful journey through time with such lucid and wonderful memories about the various characters and experiences of the game in that era. I’m 70 now and live in Australia. Vince Karalius and the various players he talks about were retired or coming to end of the their playing careers when I started to watch the game as a young boy in St Helens. Funny thing is, all the adults I knew at the time were full of these same kind of mad stories (watered down a bit for our young ears!) I think harsh industrial environments everywhere tend to produce a kind of character rich humour that makes fun of the hardships of everyday life in such environments. Certainly, as a boy I remember an important definition of a man was how ‘hard’ he was. Sounds a bit crazy now after all these years but then we were also supposed to grow up to be men of honour, possess a strong work ethic, to be honest, reliable and to possess a humble dignity. Makes me wonder when I look around me now in 2023! (Duggie Greenhall’s heart weighed 11 stone 9!) All products of our environments, I suppose. The other funny thing is, the next generation of mad devils was all around me at school and later, at work in the 1960/70’s 😊 they didn’t disappear straight away! Thank you for filming this interview. It’s a fantastic living record of a great man’s story and an important piece of our cultural history, both in Rugby League and the society that surrounds the game in all our countries.
Vince used to do church classes with me and some of my mates. What a top bloke really humble to go with it. He had hands like dinner plates. God bless you big man.
My Oldman spoke highly of Vince ..The poms have always been hard tough bastards ,can't believe Samoa were favourites to beat England in the world cup match ,I cleaned up on sportsbet .
