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THE SYDNEY CRICKET GROUND has been the home of sport in Australia’s premier city since the 1870s, providing the backdrop for some extraordinary moments across a wide range of sports. Andrew Webster is Sydney’s No. 1 sports writer.
If These Walls Could Talk brings together the great ground and the great scribe, for a very personal look at what sets such a venue — and sport at the highest level — apart.
The books begins with a recent lunch in the home dressing room in the Members Pavilion, as Webster recalls some famous days with two legends of Australian sport, the late Alan Davidson and Neil Harvey. Many celebrated sporting names jump from the pages, including Sir Donald Bradman and Kerry Packer, Steve Waugh, Tony Lockett, Mark Loane and Steve Mortimer, and Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett makes an appearance, too. There is controversy, and the overwhelming sadness of the death of Phillip Hughes.
Webster focuses on ten moments that hugely impacted on him, as a journalist and fan, in a way that will resonate with everyone who cherishes their own special memories of the SCG.
'Whenever you bring people together in common cause, when the tribes come together on the hallowed turf of the SCG, it's always something special.' — Peter Garrett
If These Walls Could Talk brings together the great ground and the great scribe, for a very personal look at what sets such a venue — and sport at the highest level — apart.
The books begins with a recent lunch in the home dressing room in the Members Pavilion, as Webster recalls some famous days with two legends of Australian sport, the late Alan Davidson and Neil Harvey. Many celebrated sporting names jump from the pages, including Sir Donald Bradman and Kerry Packer, Steve Waugh, Tony Lockett, Mark Loane and Steve Mortimer, and Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett makes an appearance, too. There is controversy, and the overwhelming sadness of the death of Phillip Hughes.
Webster focuses on ten moments that hugely impacted on him, as a journalist and fan, in a way that will resonate with everyone who cherishes their own special memories of the SCG.
'Whenever you bring people together in common cause, when the tribes come together on the hallowed turf of the SCG, it's always something special.' — Peter Garrett
ON 23 APRIL 1921, the St George rugby league club made their premiership debut. They were, said the papers of the day, the ‘pride of the Illawarra district’.
Over the next 100 years, the mighty Dragons built a record of excellence unmatched in league history. St George were perennial finalists from the 1920s to the ’80s. They won 11 straight grand finals from 1956 to 1966.
The Red V jersey is one of Australian sport’s most iconic symbols of excellence. It is known across the world. No team has more passionate fans. Five League Immortals — Frank Burge, Norm Provan, Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper and Graeme Langlands — played for the club.
THIS JUST RELEASED CENTENARY HISTORY of the St George rugby league club was not meant to be two volumes. However, as author Geoff Armstrong, the publisher at Stoke Hill Press and a diehard Dragons fan, delved ever deeper into the club’s unique story, he realised that a definitive account of the club’s first 100 years requires ‘extra time’. So many champions have worn the Red V. Famous matches and fierce controversies abound. It is important that those who ‘dug the well’ are not forgotten.
‘The success of various Dragons line-ups over the years has a common thread,’ Armstrong says. ‘It was built on a strong junior league, teamwork, great discipline and supreme fitness. Their great captain-coach Ken Kearney reckoned Saints had “the best spirit in the comp”. The results proved him right.’
In part, this book is about setting the record straight. Why did it take the NSW Rugby League 13 years to accept St George into its competition? Did the League bring in the four-tackle rule in 1967 just to stop the Dragons’ incredible winning streak? Why is Frank Burge, who played just a solitary season in the red and white, such a giant figure in the Dragons’ story? Was the 1963 Grand Final fixed? Is it true the club was originally reluctant to wear its now revered Red V jersey? How crucial was the ‘Taj Mahal’ (St George Leagues Club) to the team’s success? Did Saints prop Bill McRitchie really have his ear bitten off by a high-profile policeman in a game in 1945? The League’s attempts to cover up this atrocity were shameful.
In contrast, the story of Lieutenant Gordon Hart’s midnight train ride from his commando base in country Victoria to reach the SCG in time for the 1941 final is the stuff of legend. Hart was man of the match as the Dragons won their first premiership. Quickly, he was back on the overnight train to return to camp on time.
Gordon Hart was a local junior, one of many. For years, the working-class and middle-class suburbs of the St George district formed a perfect football nursery. The parklands in winter were dotted with goalposts. Today, the club’s territory has expanded but the Spirit of the Red V proudly lives on in the St George Illawarra Dragons. The fans’ love for the Red V, its history and all it represents has not changed, and the lessons of a glorious past offer hope for a prosperous future.
Over the next 100 years, the mighty Dragons built a record of excellence unmatched in league history. St George were perennial finalists from the 1920s to the ’80s. They won 11 straight grand finals from 1956 to 1966.
The Red V jersey is one of Australian sport’s most iconic symbols of excellence. It is known across the world. No team has more passionate fans. Five League Immortals — Frank Burge, Norm Provan, Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper and Graeme Langlands — played for the club.
THIS JUST RELEASED CENTENARY HISTORY of the St George rugby league club was not meant to be two volumes. However, as author Geoff Armstrong, the publisher at Stoke Hill Press and a diehard Dragons fan, delved ever deeper into the club’s unique story, he realised that a definitive account of the club’s first 100 years requires ‘extra time’. So many champions have worn the Red V. Famous matches and fierce controversies abound. It is important that those who ‘dug the well’ are not forgotten.
‘The success of various Dragons line-ups over the years has a common thread,’ Armstrong says. ‘It was built on a strong junior league, teamwork, great discipline and supreme fitness. Their great captain-coach Ken Kearney reckoned Saints had “the best spirit in the comp”. The results proved him right.’
In part, this book is about setting the record straight. Why did it take the NSW Rugby League 13 years to accept St George into its competition? Did the League bring in the four-tackle rule in 1967 just to stop the Dragons’ incredible winning streak? Why is Frank Burge, who played just a solitary season in the red and white, such a giant figure in the Dragons’ story? Was the 1963 Grand Final fixed? Is it true the club was originally reluctant to wear its now revered Red V jersey? How crucial was the ‘Taj Mahal’ (St George Leagues Club) to the team’s success? Did Saints prop Bill McRitchie really have his ear bitten off by a high-profile policeman in a game in 1945? The League’s attempts to cover up this atrocity were shameful.
In contrast, the story of Lieutenant Gordon Hart’s midnight train ride from his commando base in country Victoria to reach the SCG in time for the 1941 final is the stuff of legend. Hart was man of the match as the Dragons won their first premiership. Quickly, he was back on the overnight train to return to camp on time.
Gordon Hart was a local junior, one of many. For years, the working-class and middle-class suburbs of the St George district formed a perfect football nursery. The parklands in winter were dotted with goalposts. Today, the club’s territory has expanded but the Spirit of the Red V proudly lives on in the St George Illawarra Dragons. The fans’ love for the Red V, its history and all it represents has not changed, and the lessons of a glorious past offer hope for a prosperous future.