Manly knew they were in for a tough game when they came to Lidcombe Oval to take on the Western Suburbs Magpies in 1978. I am not sure they expected it to be this tough however.
No. I do as well. The country was free a Holden or falcon on every drive proper scrums and the players still worked for a living which made them more like us. Working class. I was only a kid but if they're is a heaven it would be 1970s Australia complete with the old school NSW Rugby League
Listen to John Gray (0.30) “we weren’t the style of people who went around doing that type of thing”. Exactly why people from the west hate Manly! Go the Magpies!!
Les Boyd was a cheat, a thug and an idiot. I was embarrassed that Manly bought him from Wests. I would take Randall over Donnelly for toughness any day. Tommy was great as a 7th forward. A true legend. Would have him in my team any day.
3 of the dirtiest too. Still remember Boyd playing for Manly when Dallas ripped his knee into Boyd's head and got sent off. Turns out Boyd bit him first.
I've followed the Tigers since way back in the Balmain days. But I'm a dead set Westie who grew up about five miles west of Lidcombe and I couldn't wait for these games. Wayne Smith went to our school. I missed playing first grade league with him at school by about a year. Growing up I knew that we were looked down on and the news pumped up any crime news and made us look worse. But on the footy field, there was a bit of the get square. If Balmain had to amalgamate with another club, I'm glad it was Wests. Two honest teams that some players took the short money to play for. Two clubs that deserved a bit more luck in the Finals when the "glamour" clubs knocked us out. Maybe I'm getting old, but the game ain't what it used to be. Seems bloody sterile now. Roach and Donnelly would have had their measure. Cheers to all you Westies. (Anyone ever go to Lidcombe Dancers Club back in the day? I went a number of times and one night about six of the Magpies showed up half shot and they were up for a scrap, was the impression I got. Wild boys.) Years after Wests left Lidcombe I was in a sports comp at Lidcombe Oval and we used the Wests changing room. You could feel the old aggro in the air. And I just remembered: I think the first First Grade game I ever saw was Balmain vs. Wests at Lidcombe with my Dad. We stood on the hill at what I think was the western end, but my directions have faded with my memory. Keith Barnes was still playing. Great memories of the game, and of going to the footy with my Dad.
I played cricket with him as a kid. Hr was a bloody good cricketer. I got a surprise to see him in league. I used to play " Touch " against Dallas. Touch ?...yeah right !
@@JG-bw6lu Go put your shin-pads on oi,, Men like John Donnelly and Olsen fillipaina were far too alpha to play a beta sport like soccer . Just saying...
@M If you understood how the RL and the ARL have stuffed up their marketing over the last 120 or so years you be in a state of absolute wonderment that the code still survives at all.
@M Soccer hasn’t been no 1 in Australia’s 120 year existence. Can’t see it happening ever now. Stop targeting League videos to put your unwanted comments. Rugby League is Australia’s sporting landscape. League is also called football here. Such is its influence it’s wiped the name Soccer from its radar. Suck it.
YES Bob Cooper ran about 70 Or 80 metres down field to belt a couple of THEM from Illawarra and I think he got a record suspension at the time Of about 15 months
Footy for a different era. They’re pros today. Back then two weeks suspension, you’re going fishing, now you’ve lost thousands in salary and match fees.
Manly won the competition that year but it was there for the taking for Wests and Roy Masters knew that for a fact.Such a shame because I believe Wests had a better team that year.
The young Western Suburbs Magpies still play at Lidcombe Oval in 2024. You should look up their fixture list and get back there with your support....its a great day out.
manly in the 1970's were a side that dominated and bashed most teams in the comp-except wests who belted them and belted them and west belted all of them and were the most feared team in the comp-these were the great days of club rivalry and will never be repeated as the game now resembles volleyball-soft as-I was there that day and could hear the insult exchange prior to kick off from the sidelines-no surprise the game went the way it did-lol
bro how you gonna say the game resembles volleyball i bet you these guys cant bring down 1.9m 117kg Jason Taumalolo running full speed the game now has harder players then ever however the game is more tightly reffed now which adjusted how the game is played but these players are still way more tougher and stronger then all these players if the game now was reffed how it was back in the day you wouldn't be saying that
@@chrisc6358 Forwards in the era of this clip were expected to play the full 80 minutes, there was no interchange back then. Modern forwards do it easier, sometimes averaging only 55 - 60 minutes of game time. This is why the game is dominated by Polynesians, the interchange is ideal for their 'impact' style of play.
I would go to Lidcombe all the time with my relatives, we were mad maggies supporters. I remember some Manly dude yell out to my Auntie “Why don’t you just go back to your westie homes?” To which Auntie replied “At least we own ours!” 🤣🤣
when footy was footy.. not like now.. souths fan but love watching the tough guys of old bash each other.. what happened to our great game... soft soft soft
As a graded coach - Gibbs so fat and slow , horrific hands He scored turning around in a confused state at dummy half . He just lunged and opportunistic try Rex Mossop has stated on air about Gibbs terrible hands . Easily can can be side stepped in defence . Wests reserves at the time were last . Masters once said he lacked forward depth . Forcing Gibbs into firsts He wouldn’t make park football today Being slow overweight isn’t intimidating
And from memory, Ray Brown and John Dorahy joined him at Manly. Masters had drilled into them his Silvertails legend, about how Manly players had all the luxuries and lifestyle that anyone could possibly want. Seems he convinced them so they joined Manly.
@@canwelook John Dorahy never got much of a go on when he was at Manly. Boyd was a rampaging bull when in form. I remember Manly came up with this idea of letting Boyd and Terry Randall run through the centres. Then later it was Boyd and Cleal. They just carved through the defensive lines back then... it must have been in the early / mid 1980s.
Wayne Smith was a teacher at my primary school. He was an arrogant prick. When he got knocked out by Steve Knight it was awesome. And on Monday we let him know. We all ended up on detention, but it was well worth it.
The "commentator" is the actor Chris Haywood. This video is an excerpt from a longer documentary about the Wests vs Manly (Fibros vs Silvertails) rivalry in the 1978 season. For some reason they dubbed Chris Haywood's commentary over Rex Mossop's call of the match, telecast by Channel 7.
Back in the day they used to have a sign up at Lidcombe Oval advertising the next home game. Before a match against the Silvertails they'd have: Wests v Manly - War And it was.
Wayne Smith kind of ruined their legacy as tough guys when he admitted that he stayed down to milk it so that Steve Knight could get sent off. Sorry Mugpies, tough guys don't do that.
The video of the Wayne Smith incident shows that initially, Tommy wasn't even close enough to Smith to whisper anything in his ear. Two Wests players, number eight and another player, get to Smith first and are bending over him, but it takes Tommy a while to stop gloating over the penalty and the send off, to get to Smith. The funniest thing in the whole video is how bad Manly's defence was that day. Let's face it, on his best day, Bruce Gibbs couldn't run out of sight on a dark night, yet from dummy half and a standing start, he split the Manly defence like cheap kindling and scored. I bet the big bugger is still bludging free beers for that effort. lol
every side should have put the bif on manly. the eagles would have taken out spoon after spoon as they always went limp after a belting. look what happened in 1981. broadhurst gets belted, manly played like pussies and lost the game
You still hurt about this ay? And it was the tigers who won in 2005. Face it, the magpies smashed the shit out of the Silver tails. And not just once either.
Dan Lamb but was that because they bought most of the magpies's best players of years past?!! Les boyd, John dorahy, Ray Brown, John Ribot, Terry Hill, just to name a few. Yes, I agree Manly had a better head to head record. But that was mostly because of Manly getting all of those players and being a team with more money to spend. I think we can both agree that the Eagles vs Magpies rivalry was great and there will never be anything like it ever again. Especially the shit rugby league we see these days. Man, how much better was league. Better and more exciting than it is nowadays. For me, rugby league is slowly dieing and it's a shame because I loved watching it in the past. NRL is a good cure for my insomnia now.
