1981 1982 1983 1986 
Post by Electric Eel on May 14, 2020 19:06:04 GMT 10
1981 Craven Mild Cup Final: Easts 12 d Parramatta 3
Rugby League Week
March 26, 1981
Ian Heads
Royce Ayliffe and his Roosters last Saturday night grabbed themselves a slice of history to add to Easts' already long list of Rugby League achievements.
Easts' 12-3 win over Parramatta at the Sydney Cricket Ground brought down the curtain on the pre-season competition, a League fixture since 1962.
With the move up to 14 teams in 1982 there will no longer be room for a pre-season comp.
So Easts go down in the record books as the last - and worthy - winners.
They also went home with $26,000 prizemoney after cleaning up the Eels in convincing fashion. Easts have won three of the last five Craven Mild Cups, and Saturday night's victory confirmed the Roosters as the best-prepared early-season team in the business.
Mistakes
Their ability to play the percentage game a whole lot better than Parramatta was the key factor on Saturday night.
Against Manly the previous week Parramatta made a bundle of handling mistakes and got away with it.
Against Easts they didn't get away with it.
In a disappointing final Parramatta's play fell away alarmingly after a period of real promise in the first half.
Jack Gibson, who has made a habit of winning pre-season competitions, must of been close to despair as he watched his players fumble time and time again.
'Coughing it up' Jack calls it and there was an epidemic on Saturday night.
The fierce body contact which punctuated the match caused some of the errors.
But there were plenty of unforced errors too.
Easts made their share as well - more than Bobby Fulton would have wished.
But the Roosters were altogether a more professional outfit, taking their chances and building the foundation for victory with a stern, hard hitting defence.
A mistake-plagued final still produced some thrills for the 16,000 fans.
There were three exciting tries - Price, Giteau and Cleal - and several near misses.
And there was some spectacular running by big Eric Grothe on the left wing and some equally spectacular tackling by Kerry Boustead to chop him down.
News of Grothe's broken wrist was a devastating blow to Parramatta.
He was clearly their most penetrative player.
The key performances for Easts came from halfback Kevin Hastings, five-eighth 'Rocky' Laurie, centre Noel Cleal, fullback Boustead and hooker Jeff Masterman.
Masterman broke square 11-all in the scrums and Easts' rugged forward pack made the most of it.
Masterman was a winner in the loose, too, wrestling away from tackles to throw the pass from which Rocky Laurie set up the first Easts try, scored by Ron Giteau.
Halfback Hastings had a particularly clever game, driving Parramatta back with his left-foot line kicks.
Noel Cleal was stronger than ever in the centres, scoring a kick-and-chase try at a key moment in the second half to seal the win.
Parramatta's finest moment came 22 minutes into the match when Bob O'Reilly put Ray Price through a gap.
Price passed to Eric Grothe and then brilliantly caught the return pass near the line to dive over.
Parramatta led 3-2 for eight minutes.
After surrending the lead to the Giteau try five minutes before halftime, they never looked like getting it back.
The SCG hoodoo had struck again.
Rugby League Week
March 26, 1981
Ian Heads
Royce Ayliffe and his Roosters last Saturday night grabbed themselves a slice of history to add to Easts' already long list of Rugby League achievements.
Easts' 12-3 win over Parramatta at the Sydney Cricket Ground brought down the curtain on the pre-season competition, a League fixture since 1962.
With the move up to 14 teams in 1982 there will no longer be room for a pre-season comp.
So Easts go down in the record books as the last - and worthy - winners.
They also went home with $26,000 prizemoney after cleaning up the Eels in convincing fashion. Easts have won three of the last five Craven Mild Cups, and Saturday night's victory confirmed the Roosters as the best-prepared early-season team in the business.
Mistakes
Their ability to play the percentage game a whole lot better than Parramatta was the key factor on Saturday night.
Against Manly the previous week Parramatta made a bundle of handling mistakes and got away with it.
Against Easts they didn't get away with it.
In a disappointing final Parramatta's play fell away alarmingly after a period of real promise in the first half.
Jack Gibson, who has made a habit of winning pre-season competitions, must of been close to despair as he watched his players fumble time and time again.
'Coughing it up' Jack calls it and there was an epidemic on Saturday night.
The fierce body contact which punctuated the match caused some of the errors.
But there were plenty of unforced errors too.
Easts made their share as well - more than Bobby Fulton would have wished.
But the Roosters were altogether a more professional outfit, taking their chances and building the foundation for victory with a stern, hard hitting defence.
A mistake-plagued final still produced some thrills for the 16,000 fans.
There were three exciting tries - Price, Giteau and Cleal - and several near misses.
And there was some spectacular running by big Eric Grothe on the left wing and some equally spectacular tackling by Kerry Boustead to chop him down.
News of Grothe's broken wrist was a devastating blow to Parramatta.
He was clearly their most penetrative player.
The key performances for Easts came from halfback Kevin Hastings, five-eighth 'Rocky' Laurie, centre Noel Cleal, fullback Boustead and hooker Jeff Masterman.
Masterman broke square 11-all in the scrums and Easts' rugged forward pack made the most of it.
Masterman was a winner in the loose, too, wrestling away from tackles to throw the pass from which Rocky Laurie set up the first Easts try, scored by Ron Giteau.
Halfback Hastings had a particularly clever game, driving Parramatta back with his left-foot line kicks.
Noel Cleal was stronger than ever in the centres, scoring a kick-and-chase try at a key moment in the second half to seal the win.
Parramatta's finest moment came 22 minutes into the match when Bob O'Reilly put Ray Price through a gap.
Price passed to Eric Grothe and then brilliantly caught the return pass near the line to dive over.
Parramatta led 3-2 for eight minutes.
After surrending the lead to the Giteau try five minutes before halftime, they never looked like getting it back.
The SCG hoodoo had struck again.
