To Ray Brown, the Lachlan Galvin walkout on Wests Tigers and subsequent vitriol from the young half’s teammates is, as Rex Mossop might have said, deja vu all over again.
Brown, a hooker who came to the Magpies from Griffith in 1979, was quickly selected for Australia, but then departed Wests after just one season – joining Magpies teammates Les Boyd and John Dorahy in leaving for the riches of Manly.
When he returned to Lidcombe Oval in Sea Eagles colours for Wests’ first home game in 1980, Brown was brutally sledged.
Early in the game, he walked over to check on a former teammate injured in a tackle and Wests half Alan Neil said: “F— off, Brownie.”
So after learning how Wests Tigers co-captains Jarome Luai and Api Koroisau fronted coach Benji Marshall this week and asked for Galvin to be demoted to NSW Cup, Brown said: “Sounds like me.”
Ray Brown making a break for Wests in 1979.Credit: Bob (Robert) Rice/Fairfax Media
Brown understands the vitriol of the current Wests Tigers senior players and disputes accusations they are being hypocritical, having accepted big money to leave a club that helped propel them to stardom.
Luai, 28, played in five successive grand finals for the Panthers before leaving. Koroisau, 32, played four seasons for the Panthers, winning two premierships with them. Galvin is 19.
“He hasn’t done his time at the club,” Brown said.
As Wests coach in 1979, I had no problem with Boyd and Dorahy leaving, nor with Tom Raudonikis and Graeme O’Grady also departing the same year for John Singleton’s riches at Newtown.
All had spent a minimum of four years (Boyd) with the Magpies, while Raudonikis had been at Lidcombe 11 years, half of them as captain.
“The big difference between Galvin and the senior Wests Tigers players criticising him is the stage of their careers and the time they have spent in the game, compared to him,” Brown said, arguing his former Magpie teammates had earned the right to leave Lidcombe.
Ray Brown and Max Krilich shake hands after a Manly game in 1982.Credit: Pearce/Fairfax Media
However, he defended his circumstances, compared to Galvin.
“I was 22. I had played for NSW Country the year before. I was a Griffith Waratahs junior, not a Wests junior, like Galvin.”
(Galvin, although born at Campbelltown, represented Parramatta in Harold Matthews Cup before being released and joining the Magpies junior league).
“I was good mates with Les Boyd and I was going to go wherever he went, which was first Wests and then Manly,” Brown added, conceding that the football identity closest to Galvin would appear to be his manager, Isaac Moses.
“Money was also a big difference. Clubs like Canterbury, Manly and Easts had the big money back then, whereas Wests were always struggling for money from their leagues club.”
(All NRL clubs are now well funded by headquarters and must allegedly abide by the same salary cap).
Ray Brown copping a high shot for the Sea Eagles against Easts.Credit: Peter Morris; Steven Holland/Fairfax Media
Brown, a regular at Wests reunions, has been watching the joint venture’s matches and is impressed with Galvin. “The kid has a lot of vision,” he said. “He can read a game.”
Galvin, like Brown, would have been a future captain of the club. Brown acknowledged this. “I definitely should have stayed at Wests for another couple of years,” he said. “Wests had good teams in 1980 and 1981 with Terry Lamb, Jim Leis, John Ribot, Bob Cooper and Paul Merlo coming up, joining the older guys like Dallas and Sloth.”
Manly finished seventh in 1980.
“In hindsight, I probably should never have gone to Manly, where Max Krilich was a hooker and captain,” Brown said. “At Wests, in a round two match against Parramatta, you put me in the second row. It was the first time I ever played in the position. That year (1979), I got picked on the bench for Australia versus New Zealand.”
His versatility, he said, “got me on the 1982 Kangaroo tour”.
With Canterbury’s George Peponis captain of Australia in 1979, there were plenty of top-class hookers.
“The coach, Cranky Frankie (Frank Stanton) didn’t put me on in the 1979 Test,” Brown lamented, pointing out Stanton was again his coach on the 1982 tour.
Of all factors in Brown’s decision to join Manly, the coach would not appear to be significant, yet Galvin’s management has indicated disenchantment with Marshall’s mentoring is the prime reason for the decision of the 19-year-old to leave.
Galvin is three years younger than Brown when he left Wests.
While we like to believe we can do everything better than our forebears, sometimes the best decision is the one you don’t make.
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