So, I can't explain why, but I was inspired by a few things that happened as well as Super's blog on Our Colonel Jack.
1954 Steve McKenzie, (Eels 1981-82) is 68 today. He is the forgotten man and fullback of the Eels' 1981 grand final winning team. Can you find him in the dressing room? 1
1990 The great Eric Grothe, The Guru hangs up his boots. At 30, after suffering one too many knee injuries, he calls it a day. He scored 78 tries in 158 games for Parramatta (1979 - 1990). 2
2003 Nathan "Oscar-Smith" Brown slaps Trent Barrett at WIN Stadium in his 4th game as the Saint's coach. "I gave him a bit of a clip," Brown said later. "That was me showing how poor I was under pressure. I’m no different." 3
2004 Once a proud Eels coach, Ricky Stuart, fined $10,000 for the third time; for abusing a ref and touch judge. Has he mellowed over the last few decades? 4
2021 Cronulla head coach John Morris is axed. Josh Hannay was the interim coach, and later Craig Fitzgibbon is announced as the new coach for 2022. Two weeks earlier the Sharks lost to the Eels 28-4 (round three) 5
And in the non-footy related world.
1997Tiger Woods wins the Masters - as the first African American golfer and the youngest ever player to win (21 years, three months and 14 days). 6
Sources:
1. https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/seasons/nrl-2003/round-5/parramatta-vs-canberra/summary.html
2-5 https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/04/13/april-13--browny-slaps-baz-enoughs-enough-for-guru/
Replies
I would love to see Brown slap Barrett after a Warriors Bulldogs game.
I'm still shocked at how subdued the celebrations were in the sheds after winning the clubs first ever premiership, you would think they just won a trial game lol.
One of the great days/nights of my life. After all the years of being the brunt of jokes and the boof head sitting in front of us in The Sheridan Stand constantly yelling that "O'Reilly is a has been", the moment when The Bear took 2 steps down the blind to set up the Atkins try was euphoric. The team bus couldn't get to within a kilometre of the Leagues Club due to the crowds in the street and when O'Reilly got off the bus he was crowd surfed from the bus to the club. So then we thought, we can't get into the club so maybe there is an overflow event at Cumberland Oval, so we went to have a look......there certainly was an event
Great point HFK. Look how casual Bert looks. What's your take on that?
Great memories, PT, you're spot on.
I was only 13 bur I remember watching the game on TV then running up and down the street in my jersey woo hooing after the win. I re-watched the entire game just last year, what a game the Bear had, played like a half-back, easily the best player on the day.
I only go back to 1980 as far as getting into rugby league but Grothe and Semi have to be the 2 best wingers I have ever seen for strength and speed combined and we were luck to have them at the eels
Yeah me too Jason; I only started watching it in 1980 as well. We're young ones. LOL
Do you think the Nathan Brown slap on Barrett has:
1) Inspired the Will Smith slap
2) Affected Barrett's abilities as a coach?
LOL. ParraTrooper47 . The thing about Barrett is he does his best to look composed; even in the slap saga (if you look at the video) . There's this blank face of sorts.
But, if you study his body language (a hobby of mine) in pressors especially, he does a whole cluster of self-soothing gestures (to ease the stress). I suspect he's under quite a bit of pressure.
No doubt Gus is on his side, for now. The media's attack on Barrett over Flanagan helped IMO. Flanagan is Gus' special project. And Gus got awfully defensive and protective over Baz and the club. Spurred Gus' paternal, Godfather protectiveness.