A great moment in Northern Territory rugby league history- the l984 grand final win by Brothers - was recently relived in Darwin at a special function . During the evening a Cinemascope-like video, nearly as big and exciting as the epic movie Ben Hur , made for the event , attended by several footie warriors from interstate , was screened . The captain of the winning team 35 years ago , Dave Smith, now an innovative local manufacturer, prepared to even build space ships , was present . We have it on good advice that he seriously discussed the possibility of fabricating a flying saucer for a North Queensland tourist resort .
During production of the stunning video, in Townsville, the wheels unexpectedly fell off the racing chariots , the exciting saga disappeared from the screen in a cloud of dust and Italian exclamations . Hollywood type producer Peter Simon ll, turned grey , frantically bribed the computer through a loudhailer to spit out the footage , which it did , partly.
Back in Darwin last week , a few days before the major event , the sweaty Mango Madness Season evident , he toiled away on the production with help from a beret wearing technician recently back from Paris .
Eureka !!! Between them they kicked a last minute winning goal for the Saturday evening screening . Phew !!!
Somebody who would have liked to have attended the reunion was the late journalist Keith Willey, who worked on the Northern Territory News . He had been a member of the first Brothers team, as was this writer, back in the late l950s and early l960s . Keith , who had been a great swimmer , loved rugby league so much that he got a visiting hypnotist to work on him in a bid to be turned into a better player .
A session took part in the old Tin Bank newspaper office , Keith aware of distracting outside noise and people talking while the hypnotist intoned his messaged to go out , run like a rabbit , score like mad . While Keith did not become a super player after the session , he did go on to be a champion writer of the sport in Sydney at The Sun newspaper .
In his book , Ghosts of the Big Country , Keith pointed out rugby league was played during the torrid summer months in Darwin when it was hoped the wet season rains would soften the oval, which was usually rock-hard.
A doctor estimated that each player lost a stone in weight during play due to the heat and humidity . He even suggested each player drink four large bottles of beer afterwards to replace essential juices. A well known player who collapsed from dehydration was carted off to hospital and he was described as being like a person brought in from the Sahara .
Coach of the first Brothers side was Jack Loth, from Brisbane , who ran the Hotel Darwin public bar. Another early Brothers player , Frank Geddes, became secretary of the NT Rugby League .
During a visit back to Darwin , Keith Willey and Geddes , close friends, discussed the progress of rugby league in Darwin , including the now soft , watered turf . They agreed it would be a pleasure to be tackled on such a surface , unlike the bone jarring past .
Discussing former members of Brothers, Willey said a bizarre fate had claimed the life of one-time captain coach,George Killen, a former first grade player from the north of England , killed while fighting as a mercenary in the Congo .
On the spur of the moment , he had left Darwin , and went to Africa where he joined the " White Giants", led by Major "Mad" Mike Hoare , and was killed six weeks after he arrived in a fight with rebel tribesmen . Geddes had bought Hoare's book , Mercenary , and showed him the reference to his death . Hoare had himself read the burial service
