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  One of the truly fantastic corners of the rugby league world is the Dragons "Legends Walk" at Kogarah Oval in Carlton, Sydney. Opened back in March 2004, it currently recognises the footy heroics of 18 of the greatest and most famous players to have ever adorned the Red V, be that in the St George era or since the club's joint venture with Illawarra. This place is magic. Simple in design, the Walk stretches from the corner of Jubilee Ave and Park Street, right up to the main admin entrance of the famous old suburban ground. I didn't go for this reason, but when your author last rocked up to the monument, Norm "Sticks" Provan had just departed the world and the roses had begun piling up on his particular part of the display. "The Finisher" immortalised at Kogarah Oval.  I've always been fascinated by the names of the great players who were wowing crowds in the decades before I arrived on planet Earth. One player whose nam...