Today, I watched this 1968 GF replay.* Manly won the semi final well against Souths 2 weeks earlier, but in the GF it was more the case of Manly losing it, rather than Souths winning it. Sadly, it was 'one that got away'. Batty missed 5 kicks at goal, three of which were virtually in front of the posts. Simms also missed a couple of relatively easy goals and both sides made several poor field goal attempts. Batty also threw a poor pass to Hanigan which went to ground & was picked up by Cleary who ran away to score a long range try - Souths only try.
It was a frenetic affair with continual dropped ball from both sides throughout. Very interesting to see a four tackle game again - almost no bash & barge up the middle with the ball regularly being swung wide - centres & wingers seeing plenty of ball. Even the front rowers were running wide at times. The forwards all seemed to have offload skills and some had very good passing games. There were numerous line breaks from broken play, but somehow the movements kept breaking down. Compared to today, there appeared to be little structured play, apart from a few runarounds and some inside passes. It was nearly all playing what was in front of the eyes. The halfbacks & dummy halves didn't really control play. From scrums & rucks, back lines were mostly set deep with players running on to the ball. I am not sure, but it appeared Stanton was playing outside centre & Tennant inside centre - or maybe he was playing right & Tennant left? Interesting to see scrums being won against the feed by both sides. Many collapsed scrums weren't penalized & many knock ons were missed. Col Pearce was the referee. There was a lot of niggle in the game. I think Coote threw an early punch - Fulton gave away two points when he threw punches in front of the posts. Compared with modern times, it was amazing to see 80 minute performances from all players. In the first half Bradstreet was injured (playing well at the time) and was replaced by Cameron who also played very well. Not sure if any Souths players went off injured.
I thought 'Pogo' Morgan was best on ground - great ball skills and tireless in defence & attack. Perhaps, Bob Moses was South's best player. Fulton didn't stand out in this game. He made one or two line breaks and defended well, but his short kicking game (mostly chip & chase) was not effective. Stanton was probably Manly's most dangerous back - next best Ward & Hanigan. All the forwards played well. The ABC commentators Norman May & Trevor Allan were very 'proper', but sometimes their analysis of the play didn't seem on point.
Overall, this four tackle match appeared untidy - would need to see more games to judge properly. Over time, six tackle sets have become too predictable - maybe five tackles would have produced more spontaneous football?
* Resolution only 480p, so best viewed on a smaller screen such as a phone or tablet.