THEY’RE forever etched in Pirates’ folklore and on Saturday the 1985 side is celebrating 30 years since their historic premiership.
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They were pioneers for the club with their 18-15 win over Moree securing Pirates the Heath Shield for the first time.
They came from near and far to reminisce and cheer on the Pirates current premiership hopefuls as they did battle with Scone.
Murray Hartin and Charlie Auld came back from Sydney while grand final hero Stu McFarlane travelled down from Brisbane.
It was on his boot that Pirates got the win with the fullback kicking all 18 points.
“We even had one of the Moree players from that day,” current zone president Tony Byrnes said.
“He came along with Mark Jenson.”
It was a 100 minute epic with scores locked at 15-all at the end of regular time.
McFarlane put them ahead about five minutes into extra time and they held on to win by three. “The difference on the day might have been tactics,” Byrnes recalled.
“Barry Everingham – our master technician – spent a lot of time working out how to disrupt Moree’s established pattern.”
“We broke their pattern and I think we probably rattled them.
“They couldn’t use their normal game plan.”
“They were a very good side.”
Watching on Saturday, he said a lot of the players commented on how the game has changed.
“In our day it was very much around a pattern of forward play,” he said.
They set up the play and then gave it to what they referred to as the “Phantom comic reading” and “comb in the pocket” excuses for backs to finish off their hard work and take the glory.
These days not only is the game a lot faster, but to be a good rugby player, you’ve got to be able to play anywhere, he said.