Smashed windows, bloody hearts and 944 points: The last flight of the Western Suburbs Magpies

It was once Western Suburbs’ ultimate hour within the fat future and so they sought after to create it particular.

A win was once more than likely all the time getting to be just a little a lot to invite — the ’99 Magpies didn’t get a lot of them. There’s extra to the tale than the numbers however while you have a look at 3 wins, 21 losses and 944 issues conceded, it does say a dozen.

Auckland was once operating up every other rating on Wests in what can be their ultimate first grade competition as a standalone membership. It was once an emotional hour at Campbelltown and plethora of crisp males reduce tears.

A merger with Balmain and an unsure past beckoned, however there was once nonetheless future to attempt one thing. Whilst you’re signing off on 91 years of historical past there’s no longer an entire dozen left to lose.

“Andrew Leeds had been one of our best players for years, earlier that season he’d retired as a player and stayed on as a trainer,” Wests prop John Skandalis mentioned.

“He wanted to score the last try for Wests Magpies, even though he was running the water, so we had a scrum play where we’d throw him the ball. We probably would have gotten in trouble, but that didn’t matter.

In the end, the Magpies went down 60-16 on their last day. A century of history and over 1,600 matches in the top grade was over. Georgallis, the club’s last captain, gets reminded of it all the time but not in the way you might think.

“I nonetheless listen about it,” Georgallis mentioned.

“To this hour, Leedsy thinks he would have scored.”

ABC Game is are living running a blog each spherical of the AFL and NRL seasons in 2024.

‘The Magpies have been our id’ 

There were plenty of times in their long history where it wasn’t easy to be a Western Suburbs Magpie, but times were never tougher than the late 1990s.

By the time peace was declared in the Super League war, there were 22 professional clubs across the two leagues and the newly minted NRL put a clock on the survival of those least able to cut it in the new world.

Come hell or high water, those 22 would be whittled down to 14 by the time the 2000 season kicked off. The league called it “rationalisation” — a bloodless word for an ugly business — and it was merciless.

The outposts — like the Perth Reds and the Adelaide Rams — and the outcasts — like the South Queensland Crushers and Hunter Mariners — went dark first.

They have been merchandise of rugby league’s decadent pre-Tremendous League years and had deny park within the leaner past the game was once looking to assemble.

After trimming the fat, the NRL started hooking into the meat. A set of criteria based around crowd numbers, gate receipts, profitability and on-field performance were set before the 17 remaining NRL sides for the 1999 season.

Those who qualified would survive into the future. If you didn’t, it was merge or die.

Wests, the perennial underdogs and no strangers to fighting for their own existence, were pitched into a battle they never really had a chance of winning.

Despite their jerseys, such a black and white approach was never going to be kind to the Magpies because since 1908 they had rarely been a bottom-line organisation.

Money was rarely plentiful and the good times were especially prized because of the hard years that often came between them. Big-name recruits were a rarity, because who could afford them?

When success did come, like it did in 1996 when they fought their way to an unlikely finals berth, it was on the back of local boys and battlers who came good, hard-nosed types who saw something of themselves in the club’s Macarthur base.

The Magpies were the kind of club where the players still went to the Court Tavern in Campbelltown on Thursday nights for the meat raffle, rubbing shoulders with the people they represented on the weekend.

When the club needed a new gym in the mid-90s, it was coach Tommy Raudonikis himself and a couple of volunteers who did the job, to try and save a bit of coin.

They have been blue-collar to a fault and were given through on a can-do perspective and a dozen of crisp paintings.

Kevin McGuiness was one of the club’s best in their later years and as a fast and skilful five-eighth or centre, there were plenty of times he could have left for richer, more successful teams.

The Bulldogs chased him and his brother Ken hard, so did Melbourne ahead of their inaugural 1998 season, and Wayne Bennett tried to get him to the Broncos at one point. But the Campbelltown junior never could give the Magpie up.

“Enjoying for the Magpies was once particular as a result of rising up all I sought after to do was once play games for Wests. They have been my crew, who performed in my the city,” McGuiness mentioned.

“Getting to do this, despite the fact that we weren’t successful, intended the whole lot to me.

“The Magpies were our identity. I didn’t want to be anything else. I love this community, I’ve lived here since I was a baby, our family is here.

Wests were a club in the best sense of the word, a community organisation run by and for its own people, and as far away from a franchise as any NRL team could ever be.

That must have felt like a weakness early in the 1999 season when what many already knew to be true was confirmed — the Magpies had no choice but to merge.

However because the season went on and the losses piled up, it become a energy. Whilst you’re a useless membership strolling and love isn’t plenty to secure the lighting fixtures on, all you will have is one every other.

A season at the breaking point 

By the time a ball was kicked in 1999 it was clear the Magpies were nearing the end. They finished near the bottom of the NRL’s criteria and were looking for a club to merge with from the start. Going it alone was not an option.

Coming off a wooden spoon season in 1998, expectations were low. Several pundits tipped them to go winless through the season.

The off-field issues early in the year turned what already would have been a tough year into a disaster.

Renovations to Campbelltown Stadium intended they performed at the street for the primary 14 weeks of the time and hypothesis over a possible merger spouse — which early on looked as if it would rotate between Parramatta, Penrith and Canterbury through the era — was once consistent.

Wests’ worst losses of 1999

60-6 vs Penrith in Spherical 650-0 vs Brisbane in Spherical 1368-10 vs Parramatta in Spherical 2056-16 vs Canterbury in Spherical 2164-16 vs Canberra in Spherical 2246-0 vs Cronulla in Spherical 2360-16 vs Auckland in Spherical 26

“A dozen of the ones more youthful avid gamers have been from Campbelltown or they lived within the department and it was once crisp on them. ‘A merger? What does that heartless? The place will we walk? Will there be a crew right here nearest time?’,” Georgallis mentioned.

“It was once crisp to trade in with as a senior participant since you attempt and manage the way in which and inform them issues will paintings themselves out.

“Hard work gets you everywhere, so keep trying and keep playing and you’ll get an opportunity. But that can be a hard thing to learn.

“We knew Tommy wouldn’t be the schoolteacher of the merged membership and we didn’t understand how many avid gamers they’d jerk.

“So we had to try and play for each other, play for the Magpie, play for Tommy. That’s all we could do.”

Probably the most losses have been brutal. Penrith beat them 60-6 early within the time, the primary of 5 instances that time the opposition would rating 60 or extra towards Wests.

The 944 issues the Magpies conceded within the 1999 season was once an all-time premiership document, a complete 132 issues greater than the used tally, and one that may most likely by no means be damaged.

Just one crew, the 2002 Rabbitohs, have conceded greater than 800 issues within the intervening 25 years.

“It was a tough year but we had a connected group. Nobody pointed the finger. We were behind the eight-ball before the season even started and we went through almost 40 players,” Georgallis mentioned.

“We didn’t have the celebs of alternative golf equipment, we had employees, public who sought after to play games for the Magpies, a dozen of yongsters who have been simply getting began.

“We had a dozen of avid gamers who didn’t play games first grade once more upcoming that time, a dozen of fellows who possibly were given thrown in just a little ahead of their future.

“We never stropped trying and a lot of it was based around trying to prove people wrong. Plenty of people said we wouldn’t win a game, but we did get a couple. Whenever we get a chance to get together we always talk about those wins, even if we just got three of them.”

Amid all of the obese losses, the ones victories have been utility greater than gold as a result of you’ll be able to’t in reality understand how excellent successful feels till you’ve misplaced a couple of instances.

There was once a 7-6 win over those self same Panthers courtesy of a Leo Dynover farmland function. They beat Souths, who have been prepared for their very own fight for survival, through two issues courtesy of a McGuiness double.

And highest of all, on go back to Campbelltown halfway throughout the time in entrance of 16,605 enthusiasts — the second-biggest population Wests ever were given there — they snuck house 18-12 towards Balmain, with McGuinness scoring the match-winner.

The membership legend that become a schoolteacher and a father determine

Serving to to store the membership in combination within the face of unthinkable odds was once Raudonikis. A hyperlink to the crew’s ultimate glory days within the past due 70s, he returned as schoolteacher in 1995 to persuade the Magpies thru their darkest hours.

“He was an inspirational man and he meant so much to me. He was devastated with that season, but he’s always the first thing I think of,” McGuinness mentioned.

“I was blessed to be able to play for him. I debuted when I was still at high school, Tommy gave me that opportunity. Ken and I didn’t grow up with a father, having that strong male figure believe in us at that young age, he filled that void.

“He was once a no-nonsense roughly man who may convey the most productive out of you in my view, he become a father determine to me.

“As a coach, he was very honest. He expected a lot from you as a person and from your attitude, he hated short cuts and you had to play with your heart on your sleeve.

“He wasn’t essentially the most technical, simply play games crisp, play games to your mate nearest to you and be fair with one every other.”

It’s essential to fill a retain with tales concerning the past due Raudonikis — and plethora of public have.

Georgallis still remembers the day at North Sydney Oval when Raudonikis brought an ox heart into the sheds, a favourite ploy of his from time to time.

“He informed us all to jerk a chunk of it. We did it, as a result of Tommy informed us to. We ran out with ox blood all on our jerseys, he was once looking to get us going,” Georgallis mentioned.

Even as the losses piled up and club’s time ran out, Raudonikis never stopped taking the defeats to heart.

He was all emotion, all the time and while that might not have been the way of the modern coach, it was what the Magpies needed — winning might not have been possible, so they needed someone to care.

“There was once a sport after we performed Canberra at Campbelltown, we have been indisposed 40-0 at half-time,” McGuinness mentioned.

“We’re sitting within the sheds looking ahead to him to us, however he walks in with a shovel and begins smashing all of the home windows.

“It freaked us all out, but that was Tommy, his heart and soul was always for the Magpies and he was devastated that we’d put in a performance like that.”

Raudonikis may additionally combat for Wests every now and then no one else may. As a former Check captain who was once a familiar on TV and as just lately as 1998 had coached the Unutilized South Wales Atmosphere of Starting place aspect, he had a profile few on the membership may competition.

That got here thru in tactics immense and tiny.

Whether or not it was once proposing swapping jobs with Balmain schoolteacher Wayne Pearce for a moment — as he did in July in an attempt to drum up passion in a possible merger (Pearce respectfully declined) — or protecting his avid gamers from what he noticed as affordable pictures.

“There was one game, we lost by 40 or 50, and we went to the leagues club afterwards and a supporter was really giving it to us about how poor we were,” Georgallis mentioned.

“Tommy wouldn’t stand for it, he gave it to the bloke – ‘don’t you talk about my players like that’.

“He by no means put any people indisposed, he was once a kind of public you need to play games for, you sought after to create him proud, his center was once all the time in the best park.

“He always wanted to know about you, about how your life was going, he had a caring nature that not everybody knew about. He always wanted the best for you.”

Via July, the merger with Balmain was once showed. Avid gamers from each golf equipment gave it their blessing and individuals voted for it overwhelmingly.

The ultimate stretch of the season was once the toughest. Of their ultimate six video games, the Magpies’ narrowest misplaced was once through 22 issues. Each participant was once looking to turn out they deserved a roster spot on the merged membership, however the ravages of the toughest of seasons in spite of everything informed.

No one anticipated a amaze on that ultimate hour at Campbelltown towards the Warriors, despite the fact that the play games for Leeds had come off, however to the top they caught in combination.

The entire used Magpie legends have been there to look the membership off into it’s unsure past. Georgallis has the jersey from that hour framed along a photograph. It’s of Raudonikis embracing a fan, any individual he would possibly no longer have even recognized. They’re each crying.

Later the Magpies got here off the farmland for the ultimate future as a standalone membership, Raudonikis was once circumspect.

“I’m not worried about the game of football, mate. Truly, not worried about it at all,” Raudonikis mentioned on the future to Greg Pritchard of the Sydney Morning Bring in.

“I just hope the boys who got picked in the joint venture all have success and that all the other kids who missed out, I wish they have success in life and whatever they do as well.

“I don’t aid concerning the end result, I haven’t were given a unholy promise to mention concerning the avid gamers. A couple of boys were given very emotional upcoming the sport and that’s what game’s about. And if game ever loses that, neatly … however I don’t assume it is going to.”

McGuinness gave his jersey from that hour to Raudonikis proper there within the sheds. He signed it as neatly.

Wests Tigers’ past is going again to the moment 

Wests used 38 players in their final season and 23 of them never played in the NRL again after that season. In the end, only six Magpies made into the first Wests Tigers squad – Georgallis, Skandalis, the McGuiness brothers, Brenton Pomeroy and Cherry Mescia.

“It was once crisp for me to understand issues had modified. I used to be nonetheless a Magpie, however we had that first consultation at Leichhardt Oval and met everybody and put the pristine colors on and that’s when it accident me that the whole lot was once other,” McGuinness mentioned.

“The Balmain guys have been all splendid blokes, a few of them are my highest buddies, it was once simply other.”

Distilling two proud clubs into one wasn’t without its troubles, but eventually Wests Tigers delivered the kind of success Balmain and Wests had dreamed of for generations.

Via the future the three way partnership fused the cracks of the merger in combination en path to a premiership in a mystical 2005 season, Skandalis and Brett Hodgson – two Campbelltown boys — have been the ultimate two Magpies left.

Skandalis, who come out of retirement a couple of times before finally calling it a day in 2010, was the final Magpie to appear at the top level and it’ll almost certainly stay that way forever.

“I’ve a different park in my center for the Magpies, but it surely’s Wests Tigers now,” Skandalis mentioned.

“We recognize the place we come from as a membership and we all the time will, we’ll by no means lose that, we now have two bedrock golf equipment we constitute and that’s what makes us particular.

“It’s been 25 years of Wests Tigers and we have to make sure we create history for this club, just like Wests and Balmain did for so long. But Wests Magpies will be in my heart forever.”

Like their ancestor, Wests Tigers have hardly had it simple. Again-to-back wood spoons over the moment two years put the membership in the type of unlit park the Magpies needed to combat their approach out of again and again over their lengthy historical past.

For the three way partnership to do the similar, the way in which ahead is sunny. The membership’s past is within the used Wests area, in Campbelltown and past, into the remains of Macarthur.

Wests Tigers haven’t all the time tended to the department as they must’ve however the indicators are promising that it’s all about to modify.

The opened pristine places of work there simply ultimate era. Lachlan Galvin and Tallyn da Silva, two of the membership’s highest rising younger avid gamers, are each Campbelltown yongsters.

Western Suburbs are nonetheless lively in NSW Cup and on the young stage and this weekend their Below-17s crew will play games within the Harold Matthews Cup magnificent ultimate. The membership gained that very same pageant two years in the past. 

Two weeks in the past, the Tigers drew 17,141 enthusiasts for the competition towards the Dragons, the largest Campbelltown population since 2011 and the primary sell-out there since 2005. There are 5 video games scheduled there this season, together with one towards Brisbane on Saturday night time. It’ll be essentially the most video games on the venue in a non-COVID time since 2004.

The Macarthur pocket is without doubt one of the quickest rising and creating gardens within the nation and it’s at the verge of a public explosion. That’s the place the enthusiasts and the past avid gamers and the cash goes to return from. That’s the place Wests Tigers will to find the whole lot they’ve ever wanted.

“This is the local club, even if it hasn’t felt like that sometimes in the past few seasons because we’re based in Concord but having a presence here, having the office here, it adds that engagement with our partners, members and supporters,” Skandalis mentioned.

“To improve them we need to create everybody really feel like they’re a part of the membership, it’s no longer a token, we’re part of the Macarthur department.

“We wish to be a building membership, no longer a recruitment membership so for that to occur we need to discover a robust alignment with this crowd, particularly with all of the yongsters out right here.

“The opportunities we have out here are nothing like it was when I was growing up. What it represents is what I love about it, it’s a working-class area filled with good people, it’s home.”

For McGuinness, who nonetheless lives within the department, such visibility must simply be the beginning.

“If we can’t see it, we can’t be it. If you aren’t seeing the Tigers out in the community our kids won’t be able to see themselves in those colours,” McGuinness mentioned.

“Be here in the schools, at local games, be everywhere. Our community has grown massively since ’99, this is a huge area.

“There’s such a lot out right here, such a lot that may create Wests a success.”

If Wests Tigers do ever get it all back, it won’t look like it did for Wests. Even the poorest teams are multi-million dollar machines in the modern NRL. The Magpies as we knew them can’t exist in the top grade like they once did.

But there’s still room for what they represented — a spirit, a togetherness, a toughness that comes from fighting for everything you ever got.

Those are things that never disappear, they’ve still been a part of the Magpies in the years since Georgallis led them out for the last time. If they ever go away, rugby league’s got nothing left.

“It was once a fat a part of my day. Whilst you’re doing it tricky however you will have excellent public round you, excellent pals, you be told a dozen. It’s more than likely helped me in day, the teachings I discovered at Wests,” Georgallis mentioned.

“There’s all the time anyone worse off and if issues are unholy there’s all the time a chance to attempt and paintings crisp and pull out of it, to do your highest. That’s all you’ll be able to ever ask of your self, that’s the best way to don’t have any regrets.

“There was a lot of good people I met back then, players and fans and sponsors, who I still talk to all the time.

“They name Wests the battlers and the battlers tag is extra about how they’re all the time looking to higher themselves. They’ll by no means surrender. They nonetheless haven’t.”