I love old balls.

No, Bert hasn't just outed himself as the next Caitlyn Jenner.

I'm talking about the old school footballs. I was watching a reply of an 80's SOO match and the memories came flooding back about me hounding my old man to buy me a football that had the white stripes on the brown leather ball.

My hero, my old man, did end up buying me the striped steeden I wanted, but in between balls I wrapped white electrical tape around the one I had. All the kids in my street did the same.

Maybe that's the problem with the modern day players, they have smooth, synthetic balls not good old fashion leather ones with some hair on them. 

What was your favourite ball?

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  • I loved em too bert, we had similar two stripped adidas union balls, a tan leather with green stripes, they were the ducks guts but they put on about .5-1kg in weight in the wet, man they would get slimy and you could squeeze the water out of the buffalo hide.

    I recon the new balls are good but i recon they slip off these slippery nylon tight jumpers, some of them have iron on grip on the front but it doesnt seem to do much, certainly doesnt work on our jerseys if we have any.

  • Yeah loved the old Adidas ball with stripes, easy to kick a long way and great for torpedoes.
    I remember the old balls which would get waterlogged, heavy as Fark and even a bit of a sliminess to them.
    Man, they were tough to convert.
  • Great blog and memories Bert. My old man bought me one for my 11th birthday from Johnny Peard sports at Liverpool and he hid the Kookaburra signed by Johnny Peard in my new Parra bag; they were the best footys. They were unpredictable at times with their bounce; tough to kick in the wet as mentioned by Snake and Grunta, but they were terrific to kick goals with that sand mound. They were the days; my brother and I would play forcemans back, a game in our side street with punt kicks and grubbers and we'd get points for catching the ball on the full and kicking the ball down the other end of the side street; great memories and these players have missed the chance to play with real footballs; the NRL has made the game less predictable; even with not having sand anymore; and kids using kicking tees....anyway I'll get off my high horse.

    One thing Cricket has not changed is the ball; and its a shame the bats over dominated ball in recent years.

  • Love balls too Bert.
    Fark those leather balls were heavy when wet.
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