NRL Hard bastards of rugby league

[Bruce]

Russian hackers stole the original thread. So here we go.:

Three South Sydney and Kangaroo forwards from the 60s and 70s. Bob McCarthy, George Piggins and John Sattler.
They were genuine tough bastards and outstanding players.
George Piggins was one of the most stubborn bastards in the game. One of the reasons people love South Sydney still.

 

[Beastmode]

Pls add that skinny leg photo so I can comment and laugh at it

 

[Bruce]

Pls add that skinny leg photo so I can comment and laugh at it

Cliff Watson belting Peter Peters. I don't think I would laugh at Cliff Watson even today .

 

[Bruce]

You will see Gus playing in this game, or fight.

and here is Gus talking about it

 

[Bruce]

This is the weirdest photo ever

You got a guy protecting his groan when he’s getting punched in the face

The guy punching him has probably never boxed in his life

You punch with the knuckles not your palm

Like I said previously - skipping leg day at the gym is a sin

Tell me someone in the NRL with legs like those ???

And don’t get me started on that merve hughs stash…

Other than that, yeah real hard bastards

I’m just kidding mate

Read this.You are safe now Cliff has sadly passed.
He was a genuine Pommy hard bastard. Coalminers didn't go to the gym but they trained on cinder tracks near the ground and were very fast for big men.

Cliff Watson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Beastmode]

Read this.You are safe now Cliff has sadly passed.
He was a genuine Pommy hard bastard. Coalminers didn't go to the gym but they trained on cinder tracks near the ground and were very fast for big men.

Cliff Watson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Shit i didn’t know he passed

That was disrespectful of me

Post deleted

 

[Bruce]

Mark Broadhurst was typical of the tough bastards from Canterbury and the West Coast. He got badly injured in a head butt in the Newton brawl.
He now has CTE. Wonderful guy.

 

[Wah's Up]

Mark Broadhurst was typical of the tough bastards from Canterbury and the West Coast. He got badly injured in a head butt in the Newton brawl.
He now had CTW. Wondeeful guy.

Broadhurst was a real tough ombre, met him on a plane flying to Los Angeles back in the seventies.
Boyd from Manly was also in that scrap and he was really tough, got shafted big time by NRL

 

[John Nick]

Mark Broadhurst was typical of the tough bastards from Canterbury and the West Coast. He got badly injured in a head butt in the Newton brawl.
He now had CTW. Wondeeful guy.

Yes mate. Played against Mark once.
Good guy to have a beer with after.
He was headbutted by the Newton guy Steve Bowden

 

[Bruce]

Colin O'Neill was a genuine hooker.



He played in the famous 24-3 win over the Kangaroos at Carlaw Park.in 1971

Piggins and Sattler and O'Reilly were the Kangaroo front row. They were genuine hard bastards.

Back then the hooker won all the ball. So if you managed to beat the hooker,you got all the ball. It was that simple.

Colin wasn't a swaggering tough guy. He was a quietly spoken, Wellingtonian. An absolute gentleman.

He was typical of hookers back then, long arms and long legs, and immensely quick reflexes to strike for the ball.

I had the pleasure of speaking to him a few years after he retired. The stories he told me about that game were mind boggling.

George Piggins was the best hooker in Australia. The Kiwis were way ahead on the scoreboard and O'Neiil,was still winning the scrums.

So the Kangaroo front row got as nasty as you could imagine. I mean really nasty, not to be repeated here. Of course the Kiwi front row were no slouches either and the physicality was way up there.

However O'Neill just kept on hooking...the quietest, most polite hard bastard I can remember meeting.

 

[John Nick]

Colin O'Neill was a genuine hooker.

View attachment 525

He played in the famous 24-3 win over the Kangaroos at Carlaw Park.in 1971

Piggins and Sattler and O'Reilly were the Kangaroo front row. They were genuine hard bastards.

Back then the hooker won all the ball. So if you managed to beat the hooker,you got all the ball. It was that simple.

Colin wasn't a swaggering tough guy. He was a quietly spoken, Wellingtonian. An absolute gentleman.

He was typical of hookers back then, long arms and long legs, and immensely quick reflexes to strike for the ball.

I had the pleasure of speaking to him a few years after he retired. The stories he told me about that game were mind boggling.

George Piggins was the best hooker in Australia. The Kiwis were way ahead on the scoreboard and O'Neiil,was still winning the scrums.

So the Kangaroo front row got as nasty as you could imagine. I mean really nasty, not to be repeated here. Of course the Kiwi front row were no slouches either and the physicality was way up there.

However O'Neill just kept on hooking...the quietest, most polite hard bastard I can remember meeting.

Iirc Colin was a smoker throughout his career.
Might be wrong

 

[Bruce]

Iirc Colin was a smoker throughout his career.
Might be wrong

He was a chain smoker , and from all accounts was no RTS on the training paddock. I didn't want to say it though.
Just gotta say though if you are in a team where your hooker is winning all the ball, your mates think you are just great, so they don't care if you take a breather to catch your breath.
He is still a deeply loved guy in the game.

 

[John Nick]

He was a chain smoker , and from all accounts was no RTS on the training paddock. I didn't want to say it though.
Just gotta say though if you are in a team where your hooker is winning all the ball, your mates think you are just great, so they don't care if you take a breather to catch your breath.
He is still a deeply loved guy in the game.

Yeah mate. Tough guy but they all were those days

 

[Bruce]

Yeah mate. Tough guy but they all were those days

I think the only guy of the recent era to match those guys would have been Monty Betham.
Steve Reardon was out of the game after that.

 

[Inruin]

I think the only guy of the recent era to match those guys would have been Monty Betham.
Steve Reardon was out of the game after that.

Cheap, not tough.

 

[John Nick]

I think the only guy of the recent era to match those guys would have been Monty Betham.
Steve Reardon was out of the game after that.

From my days Bill Woolsey could throw a few.
Frank Bruno from Marist was a tough nut for his size

 

[mtsmart]

Kevin Tamati, a genuine hard man. Never forget his infamous punch-up against Greg Dowling both on-and off the field.

 

[sup42]

`

 

[John Nick]

That incident was very formative in my growing up in South Auckland and then Australia,. it weaved a web of connections in my life that kept coming back at me for my whole life.

It starts in Papakura watching on telly, I get into an argument with my wrestler older brother about who was at fault, and we have a fight that goes from the lounge into the dinning room and my brother picks me up and throws me on top of the dinning room table, the table collapses in pieces and my Step father enters and proceeds to punch us both out while yelling "fighting is not allowed in this house"

The next day I brought the Truth News Paper because the cover page was Dowling in hospital with full face bandaging, literally like a Marvell comic Mummy.

My Dad was at that game, he was right by the bin, he said after the Cameras were cut (because Tamati was committing murder on national television and the Aussies were loving it when Dowling started with two head buts. Dowling after all was the hardest man in Australia at the time, but as you will see from the video Kevin goes full Jake on him and they cut the footage.

Dad told me that Dowling went in an Ambulance because Kevin Tamati was rocking Dowlings head on the bench seats.

Unfortunately my Dad was Jake the Muss and nearly killed my mum when I was a little fellah so I had a lot of anger towards him, but I never forget the way the old bastard talked about that night. It was like hearing Tem Morrison say 'I just saw most violent human being unleash that ever was'

The Queensland Police stopped that fight, and lucky they did, Kevin was going to kill him. Dad said four cops jumped in and bounced off, they looked scared then they went again and subdued Kevin raging like an animal.

So why did Kevin go full Berserk mode? A racial slur about Kevins mother set that off, I first heard that story from Kevins Nephew who was my fishing buddy for years and years, but Kevin himself confirmed to me that Dowling called him a black son of a bitch as they walked from the field.
Dowling kept putting his hands on Kevin and Kevin said that immortal line in all the worst brawls 'don't touch me' Dowling of course ignored him and went there.

The rest is history Tamati went full Jake.

1987 I went to live with my old man in Sydney, I tried to enroll in a good highschool in my district. I had a decent academic record from NZ. I was turned down by all the schools and referred to the shittest school in Sydney, Dunheved High the worst school at the time in the West and a long way from where I lived, but like the Aussie woman at the education center said 'they take all the kiwis'.

My Dad had warned me not to get into fights in Australia at school because I would get ganged up on and slaughtered.

Day one at lunch time I am in the main courtyard, a Turkish Gangsta and his brother plus three white Australian cling ons approach me and demand my lunch money.

The guys name was Jihan Tukka he had farking gold chain and a hairy chest.

I told them to go you know what themselves,

They attacked me, and burst my ear drum with a punch that hit my head on those red brick Ausssie walls.

I snapped eh, partly because of pain, and partly because their punches were nothing compared to my own hori brothers giving me weekly hidings.

I smacked over all five of them and I will never forget hearing the kids cheering and some Aussies yelling he fights like Howie Tamati (wrong Tamati, but hey, a detail like that is too real to be a made up story).

The kid meant Kevin Tamati,. and that is why Aussies to this day do not want to fight Kiwis.



`

Great story Sup.
Yeah Kiwis reputations are respected around the world.
I remember going to Singapore in the 70's for a holiday with a friend.
We got into a cab one night and the cabbie thought we were Aussies.
When we told him that we were actually Kiwis he said.
"OH Kiwis. Good fuck good fight.
Never forget it

 

[Beastmode]

Kevin Tamati, a genuine hard man. Never forget his infamous punch-up against Greg Dowling both on-and off the field.

Shades of the Adam Blair dust up against Manly when he was at the Storm