Found this today and thought it was worth a share . Quick top line on what it's about , Queensland had lost the series 3-0 for the first ever clean sweep in origin , Bennett was a nobody , Bennett nor the team wanted Alfie in the team cause they had bugger all idea who he even was , all thought he was too small and won't be able to tackle , and Bob Linder had publicly said he didn't want Alfie in his team .
Of all people I didn't realise that behind the scenes it was tommy raudonikis who pushed for Alfie's inclusion in the QLD origin team and he'd gone over Wayne Bennett's head to get Alfie in the team . It's well worth this watch , and man doesn't it make you realise how far Origin has fallen when you see the footage from these games . Never will we see two teams jam packed with such legends . These days it's just here today gone tomorrow names . Why this is I guess is another topic .
Can you imagine what was going through Alfie's head coming into this series knowing that nobody wanted him in the team.
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Nice write up, Wiz. Loved the video.
The game seemed more brutal, tougher or more charged in those days. Or maybe that's just distorted sentimentality talking.
There was certainly more pride in their state . It was all out war and one big hit could lift the next ten minutes to a level of intensity I domt think we will ever see in the modern game . Players throwing themselves at the line , defenders willing to break their limbs to stop a try . And then players that were not superstars of the team would find they could lift another level , who then returned to their club teams differnt players .
In my humble opinion that's why all the names you hear amongst these squads all seemed to be superstars , because they were turned into stars by playing in these games and finding that next level .
you don't get that now because the origin war mentality concept is no longer . Hence why they always have to go back 20 yeats to find decent footage to show pre game . Now that Tommy's gone for his usual pre game , and they won't be showing Hayne twinkle toeing down the touchline , they're going to be a bit lost for somthing to pump the viewers up .
Langer was champion player, especially at first grade and Origin level and it amazes me that he doesn't get many mentions in Immortal discussions.
He was an instant superstar from the moment he was first selected for Origin when I'm pretty sure he was still playing in Ipswich under Tommy's coaching. Tommy really talked him up for that even though he was only 18 and 70 odd kilos and he played very well in that game. I remember Wally's picking him up off the ground and giving him a big kiss.
He was always in great form and who can forget the game he had when he called him back from the UK for that Origin and he had an absolute blinder. I know I've tried to forget it but I can't. Only thing I ever held against him was when he drunkenly sang "St George can't play" after one of the GF wins over the Dragons, even though it was only Saints. It wasn't very sportsmanlike.
I hated he was a Queeslander though, he would have been one of my favourite players had he been born south of the border.
I was actually going to say that Langer shoud've been before John's in the Immortal queue , but didn't want to divert my post into the whole , " but what about Sterlo " and end up with a wall of text .
but yeah , Alfie is what an immortal should look like 100%