Just watched NRL 360, they promoted the 1973 GF as the toughest ever, and had the Englishman Cliff Watson, on their show He WAS tough. Another Englishman, Tommy Bishop, was halfback for Cronulla, one of the best league players to lace on a boot. Watson said, when asked about how tough the game was, said it was normal to have a 15 minute softening up period, but in this game, it lasted for 80 minutes. Some great footballers played in this game, for Manly;

1 Graham Eadie
2 Ken Irvine
3 Ray Branighan
4 Bob Fulton
5Max Brown
6 Ian Martin
7 John Mayes
8 Malcom Reilly
9 Terry Randall
10 Peter Peters
11John O'Neill
12 Fred Jones
13Bill Hamilton

Cronulla

1 Warren Fisher
2 Ray Corcoran
3 Steve Rogers
4 Eric Archer
5 Bob Wear
6 Chris Wellman
7 Tommy Bishop
8 Greg Pierce
9 John Maguire
10 Ken Maddison
11Graham Bowen
12 Ron Turner
13 Cliff Watson

My connection with this is I was part of a Navy Rugby team that provided a warm up game for the NSW police Rugby team before a tour of NZ, and Bill Hamilton & Steve Rogers , plus the Newtown full back , whose name escapes me, were part of the NSW Police side. I feel privileged to have been on the same field as Steve Rogers, watching him display his magic was just magic, and believe me, all we could do was watch. A class act. Bob