Written by David Pyke

I have the pleasure of giving you an appraisal of the seventies.

It is fair to say the 70s are remembered for success off the field and the lack of such on the field (except for 1976 and the great grand final win of 1977).

On occasions like this, it is substantially more appropriate to dwell on the success. Before I do that, a short review of rugby in 1970 and 1971 is important. I’m sure a few stats won’t go astray.

In those two years we scored 30 points and 39 respectively for the entire seasons. The least important part of 1970 was the inglorious defeat of Waratahs by City and, of course, only to be mentioned in a small gathering like this. Score 60 – blot. The records show I did not play in that game. Obviously, not many others did either. One might draw the conclusion that there were some very strong Rugby Clubs around at that time. I will go along with that hypothesis.

After the 1970 and 1971 debacle, there was an induction to Waratahs of a Lancastrian named Mike Ashby. This boy could play Rugby and although he ran around with pockets in his shorts and his hankie in that pocket, he lifted Waratahs to win their first game in almost four years. Mike also introduced us to the ’round the corner style kicking’.

Mike took the coaching role in 1973, which also saw the fortunate arrival of a large number of Hawkesbury Ag graduates. The players included Lyndon Taylor, Bob Sampson, Milton Kennedy, Trevor May and Chris Barnett. Suddenly, the club had sufficient players to field another side. Imagine having to buy a second set of jumpers! Strong rumour surrounded their arrival. The boys had breached the Ag graduation ceremony guidelines and were sent to Wagga as punishment. Good on them we said.

Brian Mansfield joined the Tahs ranks during this year and went on to be a Wallaby. This was the commencement of the club rebuild.

The 1974 and 1975 seasons saw not many wins; however, two teams were fielded on a regular basis. This was excellent groundwork and in 1976, under the coaching of Naish Storman, Tahs played a grand final only to be pipped in the last minute of the game by a penalty goal. Tahs lost the grand final to Wagga City, 7-6.

After all those lean years, 1977 was the Waratahs year under the helm of great club stalwart Dave Paton as coach. Both 3rd XV and Ist XV played in the grand final. 3rd XV went down to Yanco by the smallest margin 3 – nil, whilst 1st XV thumped Ag College 12-10. In a great team effort, Richard Eldershaw and Don Hillam stood out whilst the true boot of Eldershaw scored all the points. Although my memory is a little short on detail, the goals would have been set up directly in front and 10 metres out. Richard could probably embellish that scenario.

In 1978 and 1979 the club faced another crisis as the ’77 premiership players took their boots and went home. After forfeiting the first game of the season, the club called a meeting to address the crisis. We had a total of 13 registered players. Fortunately, after many phone calls, the moth balls were thrown out and we gathered strength.

The Rugby summary: the 70s were historically pretty terrible after the bonanza of the 60s and the huge successes in subsequent decades.

However, success is measured in many ways. Highlighting a few other achievements during this decade seems appropriate.

Very common today is the warming up, warming down procedure. Well, Tahs were right into that. It did however have a slightly different bent. Warming up was something like Billy Hayes and Justin O’Brien driving the Ardlethan/Wagga, 100km trip, in 38 minutes to arrive at the game before the whistle blew. Warming down was drinking two VB cans in the lukewarm showers at the Cricket Ground.

We were fortunate to have a hotel/motel/bottle shop at our disposal after Romanos closed. That establishment was the home of Greg and Gail Laird in Kooringal Road which became the extended club house. Thirst was a common problem about midnight, so the full fridge was always welcome. Jimmy Ross and John Palmer spent more time there than at their respective farms, as did many other Waratahs who lead shocking lifestyles.

Brain damage was common.

Very few Waratahs were sent off, although Steve Donelan spent more time off the field than on. For the sake of getting out alive tonight I must say you were very unfairly treated by referees, Steve.

Residual brain damage kicked in the 1970s for at least three other players. Peter Billing and Warwick Grant both forgot to bin their boots after the statutory 25 years. Get your head around this little statistic. Warwick played his first game for Waratahs on 28 April 1973 and 35 years later he’s still pulling on the boots. That is serious brain damage.

Our sporting prowess moved outside rugby to the annual cricket matches against Riverine Club and Narrandera. A Dave Paton newsletter describes the fine achievement of Vern Kurrle at Narrandera. He got a hat trick – three wides in a row.

A relatively new description for the male gender is SNAGS. Well the Tahs boys were ahead of their time again as we had sensitive new age guys around in the seventies. An extract from a Waratahs newsletter: Geoff Paton has a new baby, a falcon ute. Both father and baby doing well.

A brief summary of the 70s is pretty easy. Bob Jacka mastered the art of the go-anywhere kick and the go-anywhere pass – designed to confuse both opposition and Tahs. Bob’s other skill was party tricks of which eating whole raw eggs was one. Bob would eat anything, so much so that partying hosts were warned to hide the goldfish.

For many Tahs players training was something considered optional. One cold winter evening the excuse presented itself for an early completion of training. In the course of creating a new move, Greg Craig, who was deaf, was given the task of calling the new move which was tram tracks. Greg responded beautifully at the appropriate moment and screamed out, ‘Tampax’. That was sufficient to call off training and head to Romanos. 

That’s the 70s and to sum up – the rugby was forgettable and the fellowship unforgettable.

Sandy Harris reminisces about the 1970s:
The always popular and hugely enjoyable bush, as in out in a paddock, events. There were not many facilities but always lots of trees! and a few of these events come to mind. One was a day at a place Vern Kurrle owned at the time. From memory there was a shearing shed and a cottage. The barbeque plate was the frame of a steel single bed with a wire base. You had to be very careful when turning sausages lest they ended up in the fire. Again, at the Kurrle’s, this time at Sunbury Park, and close to the house for a change. In those days we were fortunate in that Bob Jacka worked with Sport and Recreation so we always had a full softball kit. The game would start off in the normal manner but as more drinks were consumed the girls retired because the tags on base become full blown tackles. A few items of clothing were destroyed and a fair bit of skin came off.

Another good time was had at Bullenbong, courtesy of Steve Donelan, again out in the middle of nowhere where in the evening we sat around a fire, as was the case on many occasions, which was the only source of light. Finally at a pretty location at Innisfail which is near the Murrumbidgee River, courtesy of John Mahon, where the softball kit came out again and John Lockett pitched up a half set cow pat which hit me on the thigh. I couldn’t stop laughing, and I wore the green stain for the rest of the day. These outings lasted until all hours of the night and then we all got into vehicles and went home! Thank you to all of the people who made their properties available; we really looked forward to those days.

Source: A History of the Wagga Wagga Waratahs Rugby Club 1959 – 2015

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