Fibros V Silvertails

[leftlegger]

Any one else see this?
Mildly Interesting doco about late 70s Rugby league rivalry between Manly & Wests.
Roy Masters firing up the whole western suburbs.

Tommy Raudonikis! ....what a classic

Reminded me a bit of the old Port v Glenelg rivalry around the same time.

[Pseudo]

yeah, I caught the last 2/3 of it.

Sat there with my laptop on, looking up RL history while I watched the telly, to better appreciate the context.

Well worth watching, even tho' I can't stand RL. A great look into a bit of Aussie sporting history. Things weren't so different in the SANFL during the '70s!

Top effort by Manly to eventually walk away with the premiership after losing their first final that year, especially considering that two of their remaining finals were drawn and had to be replayed mid-week!

[am Bays]

Was going to post something about this documentary but didn't know where to put it, the history section, General discussion, entertainment or even in the politics forum.

This is more than just a documentary if you look at the main players in it: Kevin Humpreys, Roy Masters, Ken Arthurson. One could even say this battle was the first salvo in exposing the corruption within the NSW Big End of town and how sport is in-explicably linked to politics and corruption.

The whole us vs them, workers v big end of town debate raged below the surface in Sydney following that year - 1978.
And whilst West were unceremonously raped of their players in the next two years - Boyd, O' Grady, Radonukis, Dorahy, LAmb and Masters were all poached by other clubs. The resentment felt by the Masters family towards the NSWRFL (Humphrys) and MAnly following the Fibros v Silvertails season culminated in ABC's Four Corners in 1983 doing an expose on the Judicial Corruption in NSW. The report was called Big League and exposed judicial corruption linked to rugby Leage. The Street Royal Commission was instigated and one of the main casulties - charged and forced to resign was Kevin Humpries. The journalist Chris MAsters - Roy's brother.

These are some excerpts from an article Chris Masters did with Rugby League week in 1985:

"But Masters revealed the program, which began as an investigation of corruption of sport but dramatically changed to an investigation of corruption in the administration of justice in NSW, was only the tip of the iceberg.

"And he confirmed strong rumours that there was much, much more material on corruption within the game in the late 1970s. Film which will stay in the ABC Archives, almost certainly never to be seen by the public.

"The ABC had more than eight hours of footage which dealt with refereeing, further corruption in officialdom, links with organised crime and the payola, or 'kickbacks' as Masters described them, within the sports media.

"He and Manning had on-the-record interviews with two former referees and a touch judge who had grave doubts about the refereeing of certain matches."

So is it unreasonable that discussions around teh MAsters kitchen table in the laste 70s-early 80s sparked an investigation into RL corruption than then grew into judical corruption...

AS I said this is a fascinating little insight into Australian society and politics 1978-1982...

Masters went onto to do teh Moonlighting State that led to teh FitzGerald Royal Commisssion and brought down Joh.

Ken Arthurson ran teh NSWRL (repalced Humphrys) and ARL up until the the Super League war.

All this from the Fibros and Silvertails...

[Magpiespower]

Saw it at the SFF earlier this year.

Bit repetitive - says the same thing over and over again.

Definitely works better on the small screen.

BRING BACK THE BIFF!

[cripple]

saw it in its entirety and a good watch. just unbelievable to see what the "us vs them" menatality can do and how contagious it is. also had some real good archival footage in there as well.

[Mr66]

I caught the last 5 minutes of this.
Does anyone know if it will be repeated?

[leftlegger]

A bit more info here for those interested.
http://www.fibrosandsilvertails.com.au/

[FlyingHigh]

Only caught the last 15 minutes.

Thanks for the info 80TM, interesting stuff.

I enjoy watching league, and to compare the cultures of the game with those of Aussie Rules, especially back then when it was club vc club

[Strawb]

Watch the movie the final winter it will explain alot of what happened around then as well.

[am Bays]

What is also interesting is how the basic skills in league have changed especially the passing. The basic pass used to be much deeper (backwards on teh 45)and the whole technique of passing flicking the ball end over end (like a drop punt trajectory). No other sport has probably evolved as much spiral passes (thanks wally lewis) and they are much flatter (to gain maximum advantage).

The game is so much faster now. It has arguably speeded up more than what Australian football has in the same 30 yar epoch.
Doesn't matter though, League is still half the sport that what Australian Football is...

[FlyingHigh]

May only be half the game that Aussie Rules is, but still miles ahead of soccer and basketball

[Wedgie]

Thanks for putting me onto that fellas, had no idea it was on, now downloading it from diwana.org.
I was a Manly fan up until the late 80s so will enjoy this!
Thanks again!

[am Bays]

May only be half the game that Aussie Rules is, but still miles ahead of soccer and basketball

Amen brother, testify...

[Wedgie]

Great show, enjoyed that, thanks again folks for putting me onto it.
Its just a shame peanuts like Tommy Raudanakis are allowed to breed.
Thank Christ Manly won the premiership that year, it would have been a travesty if Wests had made it and and won.

[GWW]

May only be half the game that Aussie Rules is, but still miles ahead of soccer and basketball

Soccer maybe, but personally i much prefer basketball.

[Mr66]

A bit more info here for those interested.
http://www.fibrosandsilvertails.com.au/

U Legend Lefty.
Thanks for this link.
Just ordered a copy with the extras such as the preliminary final
which I didn't see (IIRC I was at the VFL Semi finals).