Demolition Derby at end of 1986 Kangaroo Tour
BY JAMES SMITH
How would something like this go down with the media and image-managers today, you reckon?
Brett Cochrane’s two magnificent photo essays of the 1986 and 1990 Kangaroos Tours, which he made into the books "Mud Sweat And Cheers” and “Twenty Eight Heroes” respectively, contain some of the most dramatic and haunting rugby league-related images ever captured.
But for silliness and tomfoolery and mug lairness-capturing, this spread of shots will never be beaten.
That’s Royce Simmons pretending to have been caught in the middle of a two-car prang on the ’86 Tour, and that’s Gene Miles looking on and Wally Lewis in the background shots.
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| Scenes from Brett Cochrane's book "Mud, Sweat And Cheers". |
Brett’s caption reads “a demolition derby at the end of the tour was the novel means by which players disposed of their cars”.
This checks out. I went looking for evidence of a Kangaroos “demolition derby” (which, incidentally, my Dead In Goal podcast partner Jeff Centenera thinks is the most awesome thing to have ever happened anywhere, ever).
I found a mention of it in the 1987 book “King Wally” by Adrian McGregor, published by Queensland University Press.
Adrian writes: “Wally, Gene Miles, Steve Roach and Royce Simmons had pooled their resources and bought an ancient yellow Saab. It cost them 200 pounds and Wally took a gang for a run to his old lodgings at Wakefield Trinity.
“The car seemed very sluggish, until Wally added up the weight of the seven players on board – Miles, Kenny, Kiss, Sironen, Simmons, Roach and Wally: around 660kg, two-thirds of a tonne of prime beef.”
There’s an actual tour diary entry of Wally’s in the book which mentions the fact that back in the day, players would go and buy their own bombs with which they’d get around in their spare time …
“23 October: ‘Trained twice. Dinner at Pizza Hut. Car wouldn’t start on way home. Had to push it. Picked up ‘Gorky Park’ video, but video wouldn’t work. Folkes cleaned the heads with aftershave lotion. Video chewed up 20 feet of tape. Alas no more videos. Down to the casino instead. Peter Sterling led the charge, won 1000 pounds. Geno won 750, Royce Simmons lost 20.’”
