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Back on our April 2015 Old Mates Day after I had been suggesting to Chris Devine for ages, we brought along a double sided framed set of the Scanlens Rugby League Cards issued post the 1969 season.

Chris collected these cards as a kid all those years ago and after having them framed they take pride of place on his wall so I really appreciated it when he decided to bring them on the day.

What really topped off the day was  that 3 blokes who were represented with cards from that issue were in attendance at the OMD and yarning over old times from the 60s and 70s.

Two regular OMD attendees Warren Thompson and Bobby Grant were joined by Roy Ferguson.

Born in 1948, Roy Ferguson was originally from Wyong on the Central Coast of NSW and played 196 first grade games in the Sydney competition during 13 seasons from 1964 to 1976 inclusive scoring 54 tries in the process.

His playing career was split between Western Suburbs from 1964 to 1971 inclusive, scoring 24 tries in his 96 appearances for the Magpies and playing 100 first grade games and scoring 30 tries with the St George Dragons for 5 seasons from the 1972 season and playing his last season for Saints in 1976.

Warren Thompson originally from Annandale was a specialist five eighth who later in his career played on the wing, being a Chelsea junior from 1957  to 1962 who then was graded with South Sydney in 1962 and played 12 first grade games in 1963 before a knee injury kept him out for the most part for the 1964 season. He played in the lower grades during 1965 for the Rabbitohs.

He played for  Norths Wollongong during  the 1966 and 1967 seasons being captain coach in 1966.

In 1968 Warren returned to the big smoke teaming up with the North Sydney Bears for 2 seasons which included being coached by Roy Francis and initially retiring after the 1969 season.

A chance meeting with Frank Facer saw Warren out of retirement and off to Kogarah for a stint with the St George Dragons for the 1970 season. Unfortunately Warren was forced into retirement for good from rugby league during the 1971 preseason after a a legitimate tackle from Nev Hornery and Ron Costello left him with a neck injury which has given him curry ever since.

During his career in the Sydney competition Warren played 47 first grade games and scored 11 tries.

Bobby Grant (born 1945) after playing in 5 first grade games with the Balmain Tigers in 1965, left them to join South Sydney in 1966 which coincided with the dawn of the last golden era for the Rabbitohs in the Sydney competition.

He played 10 seasons as a halfback with Souths scoring 20 tries and 4 field goals in his 136 appearances playing in 3 grand final winning sides along the way in 1968, 1970 and 1971, starring with two tries in Souths’  23–12 win over Manly in the 1970 decider. He also played in the 1969 South Sydney side that went down to Balmain and lost a bet with Hal (Harold) Browne that Browne wouldn’t make the field on the day due to injury with Hal managing to wear the Tigers Mascot costume onto the arena thus winning the bet.

Bob represented New South Wales once in 1971 scoring a try in the process and also played for Australia on 2 separate occasions firstly in 1971 and then another appearance in 1972.

It could easily be argued that during Bob’s playing days firstly Billy Smith from St George and later an emerging Tommy Raudonikis at the Magpies prevented Bob from wearing the sky blue and green and gold on a lot more occasions than he did.

He was voted Rugby League Week Player of the Year in 1971. In 2004 he was named in the South Sydney Dream Team, consisting of 17 players and a coach representing the club from 1908 through to 2004.

In closing it was great to be able to get the old foes together in the one spot again as old mates and have a laugh over the before and after shots.

Thanks for the memories

Scott TH

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