THERE were plenty of old rivalries and friendships rekindled at the recent Men of League luncheon commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1973 grand final between Cronulla and Manly.
It was the first of three grand finals Cronulla have played in, and is still regarded as one of toughest and roughest grand finals ever.
Special guest players included the complete Cronulla forward pack: Grahame Bowen, Ron Turner, Cliff Watson, Ken Maddison, John Maguire and Greg Pierce, along with captain/coach Tommy Bishop, Warren Fisher, Ray Corcoran, Chris Wellman, Eric Archer, Barry Andrews and Gary Stewart.
Manly players included Fred Jones, Max Brown, Terry Randall and Peter Peters.
One star of the afternoon was Tommy Bishop.
Asked to comment on what he thought of the two-referee system, he quipped: "Not much . . . I didn't think much of one referee when I played".
Manly Warringah defended their title which they won for the first time in 1972 when they defeated Parramatta.
It took international Bobby Fulton, brilliant and unpredictable, to bob up for two tries to secure Manly's narrow 10-7 victory.
Manly v Cronulla 1973
Fullback 1 Graham EADIE
1 Warren FISHER
Wing 2 Ken IRVINE
2 Ray CORCORAN
Centre 3 Ray BRANIGHAN
3 Steve ROGERS
Centre 4 Bob FULTON
4 Eric ARCHER
Wing 5 Max BROWN
5 Bob WEAR
Five-eighth 6 Ian MARTIN
6 Chris WELLMAN
Halfback 7. Johnny MAYES
7 Tommy BISHOP (c)
Lock 8 Bill HAMILTON
8 Cliff WATSON
Second row 9 Fred JONES (c)
9 Ron TURNER
Second row 10 John O’NEILL
10 Grahame BOWEN
Front row 11 Peter PETERS
11 Ken MADDISON
Hooker 12 Terry RANDALL
12 John MAGUIRE
Front row 13 Malcolm REILLY
13 Greg PIERCE
Bench 14 John BUCKNALL
19 Rick BOURKE
Coach Ron WILLEY, Tommy BISHOP
