Eels Blogs

Courtesy of Rugby League Week and Electric Eel

Paul Taylor

An unsung hero of the Eels' 1980s dynasty, 'Taz' brought crazy and quality in equal quantity

You played at 71kg and never did weights. How did you survive?

I remember they wanted us to do weights one year at Ashcroft as a junior, but they didn't stipulate how heavy. So I was in there bench pressing two-and-a-half kilos. They caught me and I got a three-week suspension!

You made what was then a Parramatta club record 52 tackles in the mud at Cumberland in 1981. Where did that thirst for defence come from? When I was back in school I used to tackle an old rolling blow-up tube, so I continued with that over the years. I used to do a one-hour session before we played a game. People thought I was mad but that was just my preparation.

Is it true you almost missed a game once because of that tackling ritual? I was living on the Central Coast and I found a park down in Woy Woy to do my hour of tackling. But I locked my keys in the car, so on top of the tackling session, I had to run home 5km to get my spare keys, and then run back to the car. It must have been another hour of work but I ended up getting man of the match. After that I thought maybe I should continue that routine, but my career would have been a lot shorter!

Did it worry you that people suggested you weren't big enough to make it at No.1?
It didn't really affect me. A lot of the time we never had a fullback. I remember one day Sterlo was at marker and he was screaming out, 'Where's Taz?' and I was standing right behind him. But I have to give Sterlo a lot of credit for going back to fullback in the later years, around '86. I just knew as soon as he kicked that ball down field, I could get there before he could. So by the time I got down there I had four or five tackles to defend and Sterlo could sit back and work out what he wanted to do in attack.

You went from an extremely slack trainer to a dedicated one. What changed? It hit me when I saw the calibre of players at the club. I always thought that I was under par in talent compared to some other blokes. I looked at it like, 'Some have the talent, and others have the endurance'. So I had to work out how to fit in once I got in there. Looking at the speed and ability of the side, I just tried to be the fittest bloke at the club and in the end it worked out well.

Peter Sterling won the inaugural Clive Churchill Medal in 1986, but said it should have gone to you. Then he said you should have gone on the Kangaroo tour. Was that humbling or frustrating? It was very humbling, especially coming from him. (Missing the tour) didn't really bother me because I was quite comfortable playing for Parramatta and I wasn't worried about playing under another coach in an Australian side. It would be very hard to mimic what Sterlo, Kenny and I did on the football field for Parramatta. I knew where I could go, and it was done. Nothing was said - we just did what we did. But going to another side, I don't think the mechanics of it would have worked.

You had two stints with Oldham in England...fond memories from your time there? I remember it was snowing before one game. They put out on the radio to the fans that if they wanted the game to go ahead then they had to come down and shovel the snow off the field. So they came down, shovelled all the snow off the field and we had to play. The ground was rock hard, so if I could have found a shovel I'd have shovelled all the snow back on!

What are your memories of your first game there? As I was walking down the tunnel I saw all these scratch marks along the wall. I couldn't understand what it was. Then when half-time came around they put two bottles of port on the table. Everyone started drinking port to warm themselves up. I didn't know these blokes, so I'm thinking, 'I've got to get in with them', so I had about four or five ports. Comming down the tunnel, I'm blind. My hands are against the side of the walls and that's where the scratches on the wall came from - blokes stumbling down the tunnel pissed and scratching the walls. And they consistently did it. Obviously, they wouldn't do it in today's world, but they did it in Oldham!

How'd you perform after that? It was a strange feeling, playing drunk like that. In saying that, I probably played a few games at Parramatta after getting home at 4am, and I was probably in the same boat then.

You were always known as a player who partied as hard as you played... That's just the way I was, but as soon as the whistle went I was ready to go. It didn't matter if I did something the night before. I always used to go up to the Mt Pritchard Community Club with Dad for a few beers...even before all my grand finals we'd knock over eight to ten beers.

Why did you leave Parramatta? Well I got sacked really. (Club secretary) Denis Fitzgerald said to me, 'We're not going to extend your contract'. That's all he said, so I just went home.

You could have made a grand final with Penrith in 1990 had you not broken your arm? The ironic thing about that was that I injured it playing against Parramatta. I think I was actually trying to tackle Sterlo. It was disappointing because I went into hooker and put Royce Simmons into reserve grade. There was a big shitfight over it and Royce kept going to the papers.

What are you up to these days?
I maintain 15 villas overlooking Ayers Rock. I work at the Longitude 131 which is luxury accomodation based at Yulara. I'm 53, but I still go for 12km runs. It gets up to around 44 degrees most days up here, so I usually go early mornings if I can...but you get used to the heat out here.