SCRUMTOWN

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...

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 fr...

BY JAMES SMITH As far as explosive news articles are concerned, this one has to be right up there in terms of issues covered, news announced and the effects thereof. This is the front page of the Penrith Press – Tuesday, May 16, 1995. Penrith had just officially jumped across to “the Super League” and the proverbial had hit the fan. I remember as a kid being told by lots of adults to be very angry with the Panthers’ disgraceful decision, but sinking away into a corner later on, I’d be thinking – why, because our club would now be safe forever? I forgot, as this article screams, that the Super League jump would likely mean the club would likely now be called the Western Sydney Panthers going forward. Maybe I’d forgotten this was a thing because deep down at the time, I knew it wouldn’t ever really be a chance of happening. Which in the end, thankfully, it didn’t, and still hasn’t. The front page of the Penrith Press - Tuesday, May 16, 1995.  The new Super Stadium thing has a...

BY JAMES SMITH The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs’ Steve Mortimer and the Parramatta Eels’ Peter Sterling were without doubt the two dominant halfbacks of the 1980s in Australia. Throughout that period, their teams were either in grand finals, had just played in them or were on their way towards yet another. Yes, they played behind two firesome packs of forwards and had magical outside backs whom helped make them look extra-clever, but regardless, these two legends were the dominant No.7s. It can be fun to look through old rugby league books and find out what players said about each other at the heights of their playing careers, so let’s do that. In chapter 10 of his 1998 book “Top Dog – The Steve Mortimer Story”, Turvey remembers playing against Sterlo long before either of them had cracked into the bigtime Sydney comp. The Covers of Peter Sterling's and Steve Mortimer's respective books, released back in the 1980s. “As far back as 1971, when I was playing with the Tu...

BY JAMES SMITH Like a lot of league people out there, I have an absolute trove of 1980s and 1990s rugby league books at home, which can be fun to explore in search for forgotten stories told by some of rugby league's most interesting characters. I have in my possession the holy trinity - for Balmain Tigers fans at least - that being books written by the great Wayne Pearce, Paul Sironen and "Backdoor" Benny Elias.  With the Australian national side currently in the UK taking on the rest of the planet in the latest iteration of the Rugby League World Cup, I got nosy and looked up each of our three legends' memories of being told they'd be donning the green and gold for the first time. In his 1990 book  Local Hero,  written with the help of the legendary Ian Heads, Balmain god Wayne "Junior" Pearce recalls doing things differently to most players as far as the selection food chain is concerned. "I became a Kangaroo, and then a Test player, before I had...