Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Manly, Blues and Kangaroos legend Max Krilich on Fox League at 7:30pm AEDT on Tuesday!
Wests v Manly. Fibros v Silvertails.
It is remembered as the most vicious and brutal era in rugby league – and now former Manly captain Max Krilich has given fans of the game a front-row seat to the action.
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In an all-encompassing chat with Fox League’s Yvonne Sampson airing on Tuesday night, the former Manly captain, NSW and Australian hooker talks about the rivalry between his side and the Roy Masters-coached Western Magpies through the late 1970s – and the class warfare that underpinned it.
“It was enjoyable,” smiled Krilich, now 75. “You’ve got to understand: Brookvale Oval and Lidcombe Oval were packed: you couldn’t get any more people on it. People loved it!
“It was vicious, but you had to be able to play football as well.
“There was a lot of thuggery on both sides, by the way. There were no shrinking violets.”
Krilich grew up in Manly as the son of Croatian migrants, and said his dream from a young age was to play for the Sea Eagles, and one day Australia.
He came through the ranks during a seminal time for rugby league, where on-field thuggery and gamesmanship gave rise to an almost tribal following among fans.
Back in an era where scrums were properly contested, referees allowed more indiscretions and the bunker was something you’d affiliate with the Vietnam War, Krilich said it wasn’t uncommon for ‘get squares’ against an opposing player to be overlooked.
“I kept score,” he said. “The referees would always say, ‘You can get square, you know’. After that, though, no: if someone went the extra mile, then you were off.
“I used to love those games. The soft games, I was probably the worst player on the field, the tough games I was one of the better players.
“They were a ferocious bunch: Roy Masters had steam coming out their ears: Tommy there, beating the drum. John Donnelly. Beautiful.”
Manly legend Max Krilich appears on Fox League’s Face to Face.Source: FOX SPORTS
Some of Krilich’s most famous stinks came against the Western Suburbs top men including Donnelly and Raudonikis. At the heart of the rivalry was a class warfare that was perpetuated by the players and their coaches.
In many respects, Manly got the last laugh – winning four premierships through the 1970s, along with a runner-up finish, nine successive final appearances, and four minor premierships.
The run of form led Krilich – a devout one-club man with Manly – to captain his country, including the highly prized team of ‘Invincibles’ that toured the UK in 1982.
“It give me goosebumps thinking about those players,” said Krilich.
“We had Mal, Wally, Brett Kenny, Sterlo, Steve Rogers, Wayne Pearce – how lucky was I to be captain?”
On captaining his country, Krilich said: “It was unbelievable. I tell you, it makes me cry.
“The national anthem, I still have a tear in my eye. Here I am, the kid of a tomato farmer from Croatia, that came to Australia.”
Krilich was named captain of NSW in the inaugural State of Origin Series in 1982 and 1983, before ultimately retiring shortly after.
He admitted that NSW didn’t ‘get’ Origin in the same way as his Queensland opponents during those formative years – but they certainly do now.
“We didn’t care about playing for NSW in those days, truly. I give credit to all the Queenslanders who did. We were just worried about getting picked for the Australian side,” he said.
Krilich also discusses the lengths he went to avoid conscription for the Vietnam War, winning grand finals and playing through nasty injuries.
Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Manly, Blues and Kangaroos legend Max Krilich on Fox League at 7:30pm AEDT on Tuesday!