Fifty Years Ago - Round 6, 1971

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Our weekly look back at how footy looked exactly fifty years ago, thanks to George Peterson!

Round 6 started on May 1st with Souths hosting Canterbury at Redfern Oval. Souths prodigal son Ron Coote signed on for one more year with the 'Bunnies', having waited on the sidelines for the High Court to complete its work.  The player and club could wait no longer. According to the Herald correspondent Alan Clarkson, Coote got $7000 as a sign-on fee and earns $80 for each win. It didn't take long for the Australian lock forward to collect his first win bonus!

Souths defeated Canterbury 36-19 but the match was marred by illegal and reckless defence. Souths captain John Sattler was sent off after just one minute for using a "deliberate foot to the face" of young Canterbury hooker Greg Purcell.  Purcell was given 5 stitches and returned to the match, only to be carried off on a stretcher after mis-timing an attempt to tackle souths front-rower John O'Neil. Canterbury's poor season continued as Rod Humphries wrote, they were beaten in the first half despite the one man advantage. Down 22-9 at ‘oranges', the Berries were never competitive.  

Just over 17,000 fans from southern Sydney attended the match of the round at the S.C.G. The match did not live up to its billing as both teams were poor in defence and ten tries were scored. St George defeated Cronulla 24-20 and as Alan Clarkson wrote, after 55 minutes the Dragons led 15-2 and only the closeness of the scores later on in the match kept the crowd interested. Ex referee and commentator Col Pearce was critical of the poor handling and added to the lacklustre defence, he like other purists left the S.C.G very disappointed.

Sunday's four matches were a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly.  

Manly 35-11 defeat of Balmain at Brookvale Oval included much of the good as the Sea Eagles' 2nd half added 25 points to their 10-6 half time lead.  The Tigers could only kick three penalty goals in the first stanza and could not keep up with a rampaging Manly backline that ran in five tries to one after the break. Bob Fulton and Ken Irvine continue to score three pointers, almost at will.

Penrith Park saw the home team (Panthers) grind down the visiting Bears, finishing with an ugly 10-7 victory. The 5,110 mostly local spectators watched as their team clung to a two-point lead for much of the match, until a try to captain Grahame Moran sealed the win. Norths won the scrums 11-5 (thus dominating possession) but they could not breach Penrith's defence. Goal kicking also let them down with just one goal from 5 attempts.

Eastern Suburbs Roosters put on a display of the "bad" in their first half against Wests Magpies to go into halftime trailing 12-3. Usually calm Roosters coach Don Furner was reported to have ‘torn strips' off his team, insulting them as he outlined their many failings in a first half he'd rather forget.  It had the desired effect, as the home team ran in six 2nd half tries.  

Over at Cumberland Oval, Parramatta 26-16 had a ten-point win over Newtown. The Eels were provided with a flood of possession as hooker John McMartin won the scrums 13-2, giving his backline plenty of opportunities to display their attacking abilities.  Graham Lye scored two tries while Ron Graham and Terry Scurfield grabbed a try each for Parramatta in a match that could have seen a much bigger margin, but for the scrambling defence of the visitors.

Next weeks' Match of the Round sees Clive Churchill's South Sydney take on Ron Wiley's Manly -Warringah.  Both are undefeated and on statistics alone Manly should be favourites.  They have scored 38 tries to Souths 33, while in defence they have conceded just 12 to the 'Bunnies' 19.