wires beat rabbitohs

[Sandgroper]

We seem to be happy to 'forget' that this was a Rabbitohs team a month short of their league games!!!!!

[mick george]

That'll be two weeks after wire then

[werty]

We do Canberra 1989, and a damn more meaning to the game

Interesting comment that, i'm too young to remember but back then was the World Club Championship as meaningless to the aussies as it is now? Im not saying the aussies dont rate it but it seems to me like we take a lot more from it than they do and was this the case back in 89?

Im not trying to pee on our great clubs bonfire here im just curious as to what it was like back then? Also did we win the first ever WCC or were we the first british winners?

[rayvon]

Interesting comment that, i'm too young to remember but back then was the World Club Championship as meaningless to the aussies as it is now? Im not saying the aussies dont rate it but it seems to me like we take a lot more from it than they do and was this the case back in 89?

Im not trying to pee on our great clubs bonfire here im just curious as to what it was like back then? Also did we win the first ever WCC or were we the first british winners?

Wigan beat Manly 8-2 in the first unofficial game, which IIR was 2 years before we played Canberra in the first official WCC

[own brain]

hard to tell.. the current WCC is used by the aussies as a pre season warm up... and to be fair our sides our only a couple of games into the season too.

when we beat canberra it was a week after their gf win and two months or so into our season. as they romped into a lead against us it certainly appeared they were taking it seriously... however until the money for winning it is equal to or more than that for a Grand final win i guess the effort from both sides will never be the same.

[johnf]

To be fair Manly have one pre-season game scheduled (for this weekend) as the only warm up match prior to the WWC game in a couple of weeks or so. I think that is eleoquent enough in terms of how important the game is (these days) particularly from an australian perspective. I'm not knocking the game or the teams that take part in any way, but it seems that the game is treated as a diversion rather than a serious objective. 

[werty]

To be fair Manly have one pre-season game scheduled (for this weekend) as the only warm up match prior to the WWC game in a couple of weeks or so. I think that is eleoquent enough in terms of how important the game is (these days) particularly from an australian perspective. I'm not knocking the game or the teams that take part in any way, but it seems that the game is treated as a diversion rather than a serious objective. 

Yes exactly my thoughts too, that's why I was asking what it was like back in 89. It seems as though in terms if timing i.e  the week after canberras grand final win and a month or so into our season it would have been more meaningful  back then.

[johnf]

Yes exactly my thoughts too, that's why I was asking what it was like back in 89. It seems as though in terms if timing i.e  the week after canberras grand final win and a month or so into our season it would have been more meaningful  back then.

It was more meaningful - but I was in my first stint out in Oz at the time and the match was treated (certainly after Canberra got back) ad  at least by the Canberra boys as a bit of a reward (all expenses paid holiday / booze up) for winning the Grand Final. Again, that's not to say that they weren't trying when the match was played - indeed they were - but again I don't think it would have meant as much to them to win the WCC as it had to win the GF the week before.

That said, if they had been playing at the top of their form - in the middle of an Oz season and the game had been played in sydney they still wouldn't have beaten that Widnes team - a truly great team.