What rugby league looked like back in 2002

BY JAMES SMITH

This magnificent beast is the official 2002 Rugby League Album, as issued by The Daily and Sunday Telegraphs two decades ago.

Not exactly considered retro yet by any stretch, it is still a fantastic time capsule, and an interesting look back at who was gracing the fields of the NRL in just fifth season since the ARL and Super League got back together to form a unified competition.

The papers would have released a coupon or token of some sort so that you could score the folder initially, along with a starter set of cards, and then the reader (in this case, your author's dad) had to wait patiently as each player in the set was available to pick up at your local servo or newsagent.


The 2002 Rugby League Album, as published by The Daily and Sunday Telegraphs. 

As you can see, and speaking of things unified, this folder contains representatives from the great Northern Eagles, who were in action 20 years ago.

There were some truly horrific NRL logos back in the day - Parra and Penrith's were very ordinary, for example, as well as that Bulldogs one - still don't know what that was all about ...

It can be interesting with this type of memorabilia to scan it for rookies or would-be coaches of the day to see where they ended up.

Ivan Cleary and Todd Payten seemed to go okay post their playing days, so did Noddy Kimmorley, who was able to learn some valuable lessons in his time mentoring the Wests Tigers in the back half of 2022.


The Northern Eagles and North Queensland Cowboys' cards.  

We'll leave the final word to another Sharks great, Preston Campbell, who had a message on the inside front cover of the folder back in 2002.

"The 2002 season is already one to remember. The return of South Sydney has mobilised a new wave of support for the Telstra Premiership," the reigning Dally M Medal winner said.

"They said last season the footy had never been as exciting, but from my point of view, it is still getting better."


The Bulldogs, Panthers and Eels logos back in the day. 


Popular posts from this blog

Demolition Derby at end of 1986 Kangaroo Tour

Image
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. 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 C
Read more

Footy emblem cards the greatest prize of all

Image
BY JAMES SMITH In the playground back in the olden days, forget money - these pieces of cardboard with pictures of footy players on one side and a bunch of stats on the back and quirky quotes where what really made the school yard tick at recess and lunch. Occasionally you’d come across somebody who knew someone else, whose older brother had almost collected an entire set of these distracting pieces of memorabilia.   Mostly though it was left to us mere mortals to try to collect as many as possible before either the footy season ended, or your school banned them because they were, as said, proving too distracting.   Not sure how popular they are with kids today, but the banning of footy cards at schools actually happened. Imagine having that problem as a sporting code; trading cards featuring your game are that distracting that they are taken off kids. Amazing.     Rugby league club emblem cards from the late 1980s.   The cards featured in the image in this article were what used to be
Read more

Follow Gary Belcher on the 1990 Kangaroo Tour

Image
BY JAMES SMITH There are a lot of great rugby league books from the 1980s and 1990s which are often discussed in the various corners of social media chat and in nerdy rugby league circles – Arko’s and Junior Pearce’s books quickly come to mind. So it’s about time we paid homage to one of the less-talked about but still great works of league literature from that same era – Gary Belcher’s “Kangaroo Confidential – The Inside story of a sensational Tour”. The sensational tour he refers to is the Roo Tour of 1990.  If you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during one of these glorious sojourns from back in the day, this book will answer all your questions. Gary Belcher's magnificent book from 1990.  Badge takes the reader along for the wild ride which was the 1990 Kangaroo Tour, introducing us to his team-mates and allowing us to get to know them along the way. There are several narratives Badge follows throughout this day by day account, which makes for a fresh change from me
Read more