Soem

Legendary South Sydney forward Bob McCarthy broke the second-rowers’ mould, running much wider than players in his position were traditionally supposed to do. However there were practical reasons why McCarthy ran wide, as revealed in the game’s official history, A Centenary of Rugby League, 1908-2008. The following is an edited excerpt from the outstanding history compiled for the game’s Centenary by Ian Heads and David Middleton:

It didn’t take South Sydney coach Clive Churchill long to work out that having six forwards in the middle of the field under the four-tackle rule did not make sense. It meant that in any given set of possession one or two forwards would be lucky if they got their hands on the ball.

Churchill suggested to his young second-rower Bob McCarthy that he shift wide where he had the pace and the strength to punch holes in opposing defences, and despite some initial misgivings from many observers, McCarthy developed into one of the most dangerous running forwards in the game’s history. He was a tryscoring specialist, running in exactly 100 tries over 14 seasons for South Sydney and another 19 in two years at Canterbury. The game had not seen such a prolific scoring forward since the days of Frank Burge.

On grand final day 1967, McCarthy scored the most famous try of his career, snapping up an intercept pass from Canterbury hooker Col Brown and running 80 metres to score. Test winger Ken Irvine, who was commentating, suggested that McCarthy had run his way into the Kangaroo touring squad. However, the selectors saw it differently, preferring Canterbury back-rower Kevin Goldspink, whose performance in the match was far less conspicuous.

It was said that McCarthy was not viewed as a ‘Test match type’ more likely the selectors of the time did not agree with McCarthy’s style of play. Second-rowers had always played it ‘tight’ in the middle of the field. As it turned out, Goldspink did not play a Test on tour and in the following years McCarthy made the selectors and other critics eat their words. When he finally broke into the Test team in 1969, his Souths team-mate Ron Coote said ‘I’m happy for Bobby. He should have been in top football years ago’.

McCarthy played 10 Tests and five World Cup matches before he stepped out of the representative spotlight in 1975. His finest performances were in the brutal World Cup final of 1970, where he produced a monumental defensive effort in tight, and in the second Test of 1973 when he captained his country in the absence of injured leader Graeme Langlands and scored a crucial try.

His superb physique led to his nickname ‘The Body’. At Souths, alongside internationals such as Coote, John O’Neill, John Sattler, Gary Stevens, Elwyn Walters, Paul Sait, Bobby Grant, Ray Branighan, Mike Cleary and Eric Simms, he figured in one of the great club sides of all time, playing in three winning grand final teams. Afterwards he turned to coaching, predominantly in Brisbane, where he achieved premiership success with Souths and watched young stars such as Mal Meninga, Gary Belcher and Peter Jackson develop into Test footballers.
 
Excerpt from: A Centenary of Rugby League, 1908-2008 – The Definitive Story of the Game in Australia, by Ian Heads and David Middleton. Published by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd.