Eastern Suburbs glamour boy Russell Fairfax and St George legend Graeme Langlands should have been the opposing No.1s in the 1975 grand final.
But former Wallaby Fairfax suffered a broken leg in a midweek AMCO Cup semi-final late in the season, ruling him out of the Easts juggernaut’s charge to a second straight premiership. The Roosters’ record-shattering 38-0 grand final rout of the Dragons is arguably most remembered for Langlands’ tragic performance.
Wearing a pair of then-unique white boots that would become the most notorious apparel in rugby league history, ‘Changa’ was struggling with a groin injury and a misguided painkilling injection left his leg virtually useless. The Saints’ skipper was a passenger as Easts ran in seven second-half tries.
Fairfax, a NSW rep in 1974, missed out on a likely Australian call-up for the end-of-year World Championship Series campaign, while incumbent Test fullback and captain-coach Langlands was restricted to the role of non-playing coach of the national side.
“I can’t see any reason why I won’t be the same,” Fairfax told Big League confidently ahead of his competitive return.
“I think I proved that [in the trial match] at Queanbeyan. I was happy with the way I finished the match. Of course I’m not match fit yet, but I felt good.”
Fairfax made a successful Round 1 comeback featuring a few familiar flashes of class, though Easts – who had won 21 of their past 22 premiership games – were rolled 8-5 at Lidcombe Oval by a Wests outfit panned for their pre-season form.
Langlands also came into the opening round off a limited build-up, but the 34-year-old took the first step towards putting the ‘white boots’ saga behind him by scoring a try in St George’s resounding 31-10 defeat of Souths.
The most memorable fixture of Round 1 saw Canterbury-Bankstown claw back from 15-2 and 24-12 down to edge Balmain 25-24, with ex-Rabbitohs great Bob McCarthy scoring a key try in his first game for the Berries and Wagga Wagga halfback Steve Mortimer shining on top-grade debut.
But the Big League Player of the Week was Manly fullback Graham Eadie, who terrorised Cronulla with a try and six goals in a superb all-round display as the Sea Eagles prevailed 27-15 at Endeavour Field.
“I think Graham has proven he is the best fullback in Australia and he will certainly strengthen claims on it this year,” Manly secretary Ken Arthurson said.
“He’s started this year on a sensational note it should be his best yet.”
With Langlands and Fairfax out of the picture, Eadie reclaimed the Australian fullback spot at the end of 1975 – and he would hold it unchallenged until the end of the decade. ‘Wombat’ was later awarded a retrospective Clive Churchill Medal as best on ground in Manly’s 1976 grand final victory over Parramatta.
Fairfax never regained the top-tier form of his first two seasons after switching codes – nor did he scale the expected representative heights, retiring in 1981 following one year with Souths.
Meanwhile, the incomparable Langlands made only three more appearances for the Dragons before calling time on a career that would see him inducted as a rugby league Immortal.
