Newtown Jets and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs play in Nil-ALT Draw in Henson Park in 1982
March 28, 1982 was like “a bad Halloween day”. He was “obsessed”. While the storm clouds descended to Henson Park as a scene of a horror movie, the Newtown Jets scattered on the field to face the Bulldog of Canterbury-Bankstown. They did not know they were about to play in one of the most iconic games of the rugby alloy of all time since, after 80 minutes of play, the score would read 0-0 when the referee Barry Goldsworthy sautéed the final whistle.
For the fans of the League, the game is part of the game tradition, with memories told and told by the Bluebags faithful while beers on the beers on the Henson Park Hill. To date, it is still the only 0-0 draw in the professional rugby League.
But while it could be part of the history of the Rugby League, as regards Newtown players – and 6716 fans who challenged that cold and miserable Sunday afternoon – are worried, the jets were robbed.
“We should have had a free kick from the referee at the end,” says Terry Rowney, a longtime director of Newtown, who clearly recalls the game.
“I remember it exactly, like a horror story. Kenny Wilson, who was my sales director and the highest marker ever for Newtown, did not kick each other (attempts to go to penalty) that day.
Phil Sigsworth and Kenny Wilson in the sheds after Newtown’s 0-0 draw with Canterbury.Credit: Fairfax Media
“I had some laugh in this regard. Peter Cassilles, with whom I went to school with … hit Kenny – about eight minutes from the end – around the helicopters right in front of the posts. And nobody could believe it. And the referee was missing.”
Time can often lead to an exaggerated story, but Rowney has the refueling point to ask Cassilles.
“It’s true,” says Cassilles. “The story says that we were on the 25 yard-church line was then I ran and I probably launched what would have been the first punch I had launched at any time against anyone, and I hit Kenny Wilson.”
Newtown Halfback Ken Wilson.Credit: Fairfax Media
Why? What was Wilson done to deserve the blow? “Nothing” admits Cassilles.
“He (Wilson) was an interesting character because when he ran off the pitch after full time, he didn’t care what time was, he always seemed the same as he ran-healing clean and tidy, and he was the kicker of the Goal.
“So I connected him, and then the referee called the linesman on the eastern side and said:” No. 9 for Canterbury he hit the number (7) for Newtown “. A struggle followed and, for any reason, he then escaped from the field and the other watches said:” No. (7) hit the n. 9 “. The struggle derives.
“Kenny Wilson, at this point in time, exploded and was continuing – a bit like I would continue if I had been accused of doing something … he (referee) said, shaking it … so this is one of the reasons why it is finished or for everything.”
Former Bulldogs player Peter Cassilles in Henson Park.Credit: Peeters Wolter
According to everyone, the game was far from extraordinary. The more both teams have tried to find the trial line, the more it has become.
John Lynch, a longtime enthusiast of Newtown who has been the presentator of Jets’ ground since 1995, remembers the day well.
“Due to the conditions, it was not a good game to look at, and that was a kind of Henson Park at the old days,” says Lynch.
The rain is scheduled for Saturday when the jets face the bulldogs there in the NSW Cup.
“Henson Park now, you could play Wimbledon now, is so beautiful and lush green. But the old days, the land in those days were not up to par … It was always a land that was not so bad on the wet – it was just like the slippery and sloppy conditions that day.”
Colin Murphy, Terry Rowney, Peter Cassilles and John Lynch in Henson Park for the 0-0 draw for the anniversary of Newtown and Canterbury.Credit: Peeters Wolter
The game and the conditions were so ordinary that the former Canterbury Player Graeme Hughes barely reminds him.
“I don’t remember almost anything in the game,” says Hughes. “People always ask me about this game, and I have to be honest. I remember vaguely, I think, of Kenny Wilson who was missing a goal. I thought we had a couple of possibilities that we bombed, but the details, I don’t remember anything in detail.”
The director of Jets Phil Sigsworth recalls the day and the game, due to another controversial call by Goldsworthy.
“It was a dark day. Time was terrible. It was like a bad Halloween day … the game was simply persecuted,” recalls Sigsworth.
Phil and Ron Sigsworth in Henson Park.Credit: Alan Gilbert Purcell/Fairfax Media
Unprecedented for what happens when the score is 0-0 full-time, Sigsworth says that the teams have been left to scratch their heads.
“Was it alone,” what do we do now “? Nobody has scored. We have to go back and kick the goals? Or do we have to shoot as in football … we have to go back out and play again, so someone has a point on the scoreboard”?
“But I lived an attempt in the first half. I was captured in the left corner of the southern end of the ground, and I was pulled back. It was a passage forward. In my eyes, it was a fantastic passage.”
If Sigsworth had marked, if Wilson had been assigned that penalty for the fist or had kicked any of the other rigor attempts that he had that day, Newtown would have lost a piece of history that has now become synonymous with the club.
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Even now, 43 years old, the game always arrives in a conversation, says Lynch: “It is incorporated into the thought of your rugby championship”.
And to all the-in-off people, Rowney, Sigsworth and the thousands of newtown-found fans still say that the jets should have won that day, Cassilles says: “They are exactly right. But being the only one in the first grade championship, I guess there is a little history there”.
Michael Chams and Andrew “Joey” Johns mark the next round nrl, as well as the latest news, results and Footy analysis.
