Rule Changes between 1973 and Now

[EagleFromMay1967]

Ok, just as an interesting mental excercise (?🙂 ) I started going over what the differences are between the game i knew as a teenager, and now.
Brings to mind Mal Reilly, Eadie, Bozo, Hamilton, etc

Some of them are:

* There were no forty-twenty kicks
* Shoulder charges were allowed
* punching was allowed - sort of 😉
* Penalties from scrums - you could take a pot for 2 points
* Scrums were actually contested - there was a whole raft of penalties that emanated from scrum infringements: This could be a whole post by an expert
* Interchanges / replacements: cant remember - very different : HELP !
* There was no golden point, Drawn was DRAWN.
* Tries were 3 points !
* There was no Sin Bin, you were either sent off or not
* If you were sent off you faced the Judiciary.
* There was no "Being put on Report" - there was no MRC.
* Held up over the line - you lost possession.
* It was the 5 metre rule for both attack side and defence side
* You were out if you touched the corner post.
* Stripping was allowed

I'm sure there are heaps more . . . . .

 

[The Who]

No video refs.
Only one on-field ref.
Corner posts were OUT.
Shoulder pads.
B&W coverage.
The Moose.
No salary cap.
North Sydney and Newtown.

 

[Alan]

back in the 70's, so I assume earlier there were no "fresh replacements"

A replacement had to have played a full game in a lower grade to qualify.

When men were men and the wingers nervous.

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

Scrums: its coming back to me:
* No feeding into the second row, no feeding it not square
* Props not binding properly
* No premature striking, No 'feet across the tunnel
* "Loose Arm"
* Failure to 'retire' behind the scrum
* feeding before the ref was ready

 

[Alan]

Biggest improvement is no North Sydney.

 

[RiverEagle]

Yeah I watched a game not long ago, and even from the 80's it really is like chalk and cheese. And very very different to the game I played as a kid and young man.
Some rules are certainly for the better, but at times I miss the old warrior mentality.

And now it just feels like a game for athletes a bit too much, rather than for ''footballers''.

 

[Shoe1]

The 70s half backs seemed to feed the scrums by doing some sort of weird netball pass.

When I watch a 70s game on video I can't work out whose feed it is going to be. Doesn't seem to matter who kicked it out, or who knocked on - maybe they took it in turns?

Backlines were deep, because of the 5 metre rule.

Halfbacks passed to 5/8s. Centres lined up alongside each other in a looong backline.

 

[Alan]

The 70s half backs seemed to feed the scrums by doing some sort of weird netball pass.

When I watch a 70s game on video I can't work out whose feed it is going to be. Doesn't seem to matter who kicked it out, or who knocked on - maybe they took it in turns?

Backlines were deep, because of the 5 metre rule.

Halfbacks passed to 5/8s. Centres lined up alongside each other in a looong backline.

The scrum feed went to the team either attacking or defending, can't remember which,

 

[Daddycool08]

The 70s half backs seemed to feed the scrums by doing some sort of weird netball pass.

When I watch a 70s game on video I can't work out whose feed it is going to be. Doesn't seem to matter who kicked it out, or who knocked on - maybe they took it in turns?

Backlines were deep, because of the 5 metre rule.

Halfbacks passed to 5/8s. Centres lined up alongside each other in a looong backline.

The scrum feed went to the team either attacking or defending, can't remember which,

The half-back fed the scrum in their own half.

If there was a knock-on on your 40 metre line you got the feed.

If there was a knock-on one meter the other side of the 50 yard line they got the feed.

There was Hollywood - a great ref in my opinion.

There were some great games between the Sharks & Manly and P/matta & Manly.

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

There was Hollywood - a great ref in my opinion.
There were some great games between the Sharks & Manly and P/matta & Manly.

Oh yes, There'll only ever be one Hollywood.
But as a referee, he made a great 2GB commentator ! He did 7 tackle tries all over, and each time he did it seemed to favour Manly. But I give him credit for Sending Price off when he kicked Eadie in the Face !

 

[HoldenV8]

It makes me laugh when I hear people like Peter Sterling talk about how disciplined Ray Price was on the field. I can't speak for everyone else but to me he was a thug who more often than not got away with it because the NSWRL thought the sun shined out of his butt. He was also a very selfish player too, but again that's my opinion.

Scrums in the 'good old days' were a lottery. Watch any of our GF wins from the 1970's and you never knew who was going to win a scrum or get a penalty from one. There was screwing the scrum, walking off the mark, not letting the Hooker get his head in. But through it all the ball was put into a tunnel that never actually seemed to be there.

And the strangest rule I saw was at one point in the `72 win over the Chooks. Bill Hamilton deliberately kicked the ball out on the full when Manly reached the end of a set of tackles. But because it was our own side of half way, Dennis Ward had the feed.

Edit: I also remember reading that in the 1973 GF, John Bucknall played a full game in the reserve grade GF, then actually had lunch (including a can of Coke) thinking he wouldn't be needed in the game against Cronulla. He had to come on mid-way through the first half to replace Mal Reilly after Rocky Turner targeted him (most likely on strict orders from Tommy Bishop) and virtually took him out with what can only be described as a very late hit.

 

[Shoe1]

Thanks Alan etc, yep price a thug. Look at highlights of the 78 semis. He is out of control.

 

[eagle66]

back in the 70's, so I assume earlier there were no "fresh replacements"

A replacement had to have played a full game in a lower grade to qualify.

When men were men and the wingers nervous.

Sometime in the the 70's, the replacement had to play at least half a lower grade game.

---

Line drop out from catching a ball in your own in goal and getting tackled!
Toss at the start of the match.
Teams facing up for the toss on half way to start the game.
2nd grade finishing 5 minutes before the main game.
Literally no live footy and you had enough time to get home from a game and watch Rex's game of the round, usually it was the match of the round. At least he explained his reasons for picking the game on the Monday night news.

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

Sometime in the the 70's, the replacement had to play at least half a lower grade game.

---

Line drop out from catching a ball in your own in goal and getting tackled!
Toss at the start of the match.
Teams facing up for the toss on half way to start the game.
2nd grade finishing 5 minutes before the main game.
Literally no live footy and you had enough time to get home from a game and watch Rex's game of the round, usually it was the match of the round. At least he explained his reasons for picking the game on the Monday night news.

---

Rex was great, a lot more 'flavour' than Ray effing Warren. Before Rex there was this guy called Ron Casey, not the one on Rex's Sunday morning League show, ANOTHER ONE. He wasnt bad, but Seven took it over, and Rex had the distinction of taking no bs from anyone, calling as it he saw it, he allowed himself to get incredibly excited whilst commentating, AND HE WAS A former MANLY Union and League international, and bled Maroon & White all his life. He was the King of tautology and he knew it, played up to it, didnt take himself so seriously. The current TV people have to be soooo PC, its such a restriction.

But there WAS live TV League on Saturday arvos. The ABC TV did it from the late 60's until the late 70s. Match of the Day. I can vaguely remember the introduction of their "Action Replay" an incredible revolution in technology.

 

[eagle66]

Sometime in the the 70's, the replacement had to play at least half a lower grade game.

---

Line drop out from catching a ball in your own in goal and getting tackled!
Toss at the start of the match.
Teams facing up for the toss on half way to start the game.
2nd grade finishing 5 minutes before the main game.
Literally no live footy and you had enough time to get home from a game and watch Rex's game of the round, usually it was the match of the round. At least he explained his reasons for picking the game on the Monday night news.

---

Rex was great, a lot more 'flavour' than Ray effing Warren. Before Rex there was this guy called Ron Casey, not the one on Rex's Sunday morning League show, ANOTHER ONE. He wasnt bad, but Seven took it over, and Rex had the distinction of taking no bs from anyone, calling as it he saw it, he allowed himself to get incredibly excited whilst commentating, AND HE WAS A former MANLY Union and League international, and bled Maroon & White all his life. He was the King of tautology and he knew it, played up to it, didnt take himself so seriously. The current TV people have to be soooo PC, its such a restriction.

But there WAS live TV League on Saturday arvos. The ABC TV did it from the late 60's until the late 70s. Match of the Day. I can vaguely remember the introduction of their "Action Replay" an incredible revolution in technology.

---

In the late 60's, Channel 9 did 2nd half live on Sundays with Ron Casey. No TV in 1971, great initiative from the League and Channel 2 had 2nd half live in 1973 before going to 55 minute coverage at 6pm on Saturdays in 1974. Somewhere around the mid 80's, Channel 2 went to live Saturdays in Sydney. Prior to that, they did some years live to the country areas, I recall trying to find friends who were able to get channel 5A.

 

[wedgetail eagle]

Markers could rake at the ball, when the opposition was playing it.
George Piggins was always at it, he would often kick at the ball as it was being played & send it well past the dummy-half.

 

[bones]

The scrum feed went to the team whose half of the field the scrum was packing down in.

 

[Dan]

there was a change where Manly were to be penalised under every conceivable infringement each game, not sure when it was introduced though

 

[wedgetail eagle]

I recall ABC had "Top Saturday League".
I think their commentators were John O'Reilly,
Kevin Ryan & Ian Marks.

Also, there was barely any sponsors around the ground, maybe a B&H sign, mostly white picket fence.

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

there was a change where Manly were to be penalised under every conceivable infringement each game, not sure when it was introduced though

As soon as Hartley was retired.

---

Did a change in the rules precipitate the sudden reliance on "the Bomb" ? Johnny Peard a Rooster I think, was it 1974 ? Ruined the game for a season or so.