Roy Masters

[prattenparkchild]

Boy, do I remember those days- catching the train from Croydon (and later Blue Mtns) to Lidcombe with dad and enjoying a great day out. They talk about recreating the siege mentality at manly now- well it was there at lidcombe with Wests Magpies in those years. Everyone knew they were in for a game on the day. Forwards who didn't take a backwards step, gave as good as they got and weren't afraid of the biff and a pretty good backline with Raudonikas, O'Grady /Rowles in the halves. Still got the DVD fibros vs silvertails. Balmain were equally good with their forwards and you always knew you had a game on your hands.

The new team certainly can and should build on the toughness and tradition of our 2 foundation clubs.

Days gone bye now, and the games changed, but could do with that siege mentality at WT and,defending our ground-but too many home grounds at the moment for it to establish itself.

Edit - P.S. we still remain at the mercy of refs and the admin and powerful. Not much changed eh?

 

[Magpie_Magic]

I feel this period etched the way I see things. That Manly game on the highlights reel was my first watching the Magpies as an 11 yo with mum. Sat behind the posts on the scoreboard end 11000 that day May school holidays. What an initiation. Was an idealist and one could sense RL was a bit of a club with the same teams up there and Wests came from nowhere in 78\. I followed the club from 75 and from TV games it felt they were middle of the road but when Masters took over it felt like we were out to address some type of injustice for the little guy and this appealed to me and boy they delivered. Never let you down none of those soft performances you see today from time to time. We won all 11 home games, It was promised and they delivered.
The violence and aggression even though over the top was evident throughout all teams and society, fights after school every day etc. But for me I just saw it as passion to deliver Sadly injustice won out in the end with a huge rort during PF against Manly where we had 3 fair tries disallowed and basically Manly had to rort everyone to win it
Anyway it felt real and was and was never the same again from early 80s on.
Really gave me something to look forward to.

Reckon For sees a little of Wests in Melbourne difference being that Melbourne is important to NRL.

As a footnote.
Of the players that left Wests under Roy including himself nobody won a competition from memory. If some stayed on they may have done it with us.

 

[Spartan117]

This is an interesting read, Before my time.

I always enjoy reading Roy. Has a very insightful outlook at the game.

My take out though is in and around the exodus…. The Club / employer needs to be more than the highest $$$ offer.

Its the culture, the environment, the perceived future

The WTs need to get the facilities up to scratch, the personnel sorted asap we will continue to pay overs for 2nd quality players for a long time

Yes and that is a big point in regards the highest offer

Players want to be a chance of winning premierships when push comes to shove in their primes

For many players winning a premiership will always be more the most important thing the dollars on offer is a bonus

Just ask Teddy if he regrets his Movement to the Chooks