In 1980, Bob McCarthy took his clipboard to West End and with it came a premiership in 1981 that the Dolphins still can’t watch, and Mick Reardon is still being shouted beers at Davies Park.
How do you reflect on Mick Reardon’s match-winning try in the 1981 Grand Final?
It took a lot longer to win in 1981 than I would have liked, I was getting ready to go shake Arthur Beetson’s hand and congratulate him, but then Mick Reardon and Mal pulled it out with seconds to go.
It was a great day; I can vividly remember it.
We got beaten by Redcliffe in the finals 21-10, we got written off after that effort.
We had to beat Wynnum, and we did that to get another shot at Redcliffe.
We weren’t the sentimental favourite, everyone was on the Beetson, Bunny Pearce, Peter Leis and Tony Obst train.
I remember it was hot too; Billy Johnstone was outstanding — Greg Veivers had helped him during the week and he was sensational.
Redcliffe won the two other grades that day, so they only just missed out on winning all three premierships that day.
How did you end up at Souths Magpies?
I was a rep at the time and was up in Brisbane working.
I dropped into Gary Balkin’s Bonaparte’s Hotel in the Valley to say hello and all the Magpies boys were there after getting a terrible touch up by Valleys in the Grand Final back in 1979.
Wayne Bennett had gone to Brothers, so the Magpies needed a coach.
Tony Testa, the boss of Souths at the time, asked me if I was Bob McCarthy, and if I could coach his team.
I said I only retired two years ago, so I was unsure.
They only offered me two years initially, and I told them that if they gave me a three-year deal I’d come up to coach.
You made the Grand Final in each of those three years; how much fun were those years?
We came second in 1980 and lost the Grand Final by two points, won the minor premiership in 1981 and then took out the Premiership with seconds to go and in 1982 we lost the Grand Final to Wynnum, and we came third in 1983
It was a great time.
Is it true you were offered the Queensland coaching job?
Ron McAuliffe came into my Army Disposal shop and offered me the Queensland Origin role, but I told him I’m a blue, and I couldn’t do that job.
I coached the Combined Brisbane side, and we won the Panasonic Cup in 1984, and the Sydney Queensland side in 1987 against the Residents side to pick the Queensland Origin team.
That Brisbane v Roosters must be one of the all-time defensive displays?
I don’t know what the stats were, but Brisbane was just tremendous.
The big guns Miles and Lewis scored, and then they held on to win by a point.
It seemed like we defended for the whole second half.
Who is your favourite Magpie?
Mal, who else could you pick.
I remember looking at him at Bonaparte’s Hotel that day in 1979 and thinking I could coach him.
Chris Phelan mustn’t have been too far behind?
Chris Phelan won the Rothmans Medal in 1981 and won two competitions with Parramatta.
He told me one day that he knew of a centre up in Townsville, who he said was better than Mal.
I looked at him and thought he might need some time off because of a head injury — better than Mal?
He was talking about Gene Miles, we missed out there, I wouldn’t have minded having Mal and Miles in my Souths side.
Chris was just a winner no matter where he went, he played Grand Finals in 1980, 1981, then goes to the Eels and plays in more Grand Finals in 1982, 1983, 1984 and comes back to Souths for 1985.
Six Grand Finals in a row.
Souths were always working class and got by on spirit and heart, didn’t they?
I was getting paid in dollar bills from Souths, so I went and saw the boss and said, ‘you guys are broke, aren’t you?’
He said we didn’t bank on winning so many grades and we have had to give out too many bonuses.
I think we won 11 competitions across all the grades over that period.
What happened with the Broncos job?
I was promised the Broncos job, Gary Balkin asked me how I would handle Wally and Geno and I said there’d be no problems at all.
He said, ‘OK you’ve got it’.
I had the same manager as Wayne Bennett, and Bruce Hatcher rang me and said are you sure you’re coaching the Broncos, and I said yes.
He said I have just been given a contract from the Broncos with Wayne’s name on it.
I then rang Gary and he said Porky wants Wayne sorry.
