Bob Fulton obit: Former top referee Bill Harrigan reveals the culprit in the infamous cement truck scandal
The current Manly coach was renowned for his brazen persona on the field. On one occasion, he went too far and provoked a scandal involving Bob Fulton that was the talk of 1987.
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The real villain in the infamous Bob Fulton-Bill Harrigan cement truck scandal can now be revealed – Des Hasler.
Harrigan, 61, recalled the legendary incident just a day after Fulton passed away from cancer.
In 1987 at the then Ronson Field, Fulton waited in the player’s tunnel to abuse Harrigan, who had earlier sin-binned Hasler during an 18-13 win to the Sharks.
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It came after Hasler, the Manly halfback, had been banished for repeated second-row feeds.
“The ball had to be put in the centre of the scrum in those days and I had penalised Des twice for putting it in the second row,” Harrigan remembered.
“I said: ‘Do that again Des and I will put you in the sin bin’. At the next scrum, he picked up the ball, turned around and smiled at me before putting the ball in the second row. It was like he was daring me. I said: ‘See you later’. When Manly was down to 12 men, Cronulla scored and won.”
The decision and loss saw Fulton explode in anger.
“As I came off the field, Bob was waiting at the end of the tunnel and said: ‘Harrigan, I hope you get run over by a truck and I hope it’s a cement truck,” Harrigan said.
“I just looked at him, smiled and kept walking. He ended up getting fined.
“I went into the referee’s room and said: ‘What about him saying that to me?’ I just mucked around and said I will have to look left and right before I cross the road.
“I had a bit of a laugh about it. I didn’t referee a Manly game that year for the next 14 weeks. And when I did finally control another Manly game it was a Brookvale and some smart Alec parked a cement truck in the top car park. True story.
“But on radio with Ray Hadley, Bozo was very supportive of me. He always used to say I was the best referee ever. But when he was a coach, we had our run-ins and disagreements. I was shocked to hear of his death. He is an Immortal and a legend of the game.”
Buzz, blood capsules and the legend of ‘Bozo’
- Phil Rothfield
Bob Fulton was the ultimate competitor.
It could be rugby league coaching, playing or recruiting, a social game of tennis, golf, cards or even The Daily Telegraph NRL tipping competition … he was always scheming to get some sort of competitive advantage.
That’s why he was an original Immortal and one of the greatest players of all time.
Winning was everything.
The best story was when administrators introduced a blood bin in the 1980s to stop the threat of infectious diseases spreading.
Bozo was coaching Manly and quickly took advantage.
He’d buy fake blood capsules from a magic shop on the northern beaches and leave them with the Sheriff, his long-time trainer Brian Hollis.
The next game the forwards were briefed of his plan.
The Sheriff would have the capsules in his medical bag on game day.
“If we were struggling and needed a breather the Sheriff would run onto the field,” recalls Noel ‘Crusher’ Cleal, one of Bozo’s all-time favourite players.
“The Sheriff would, discreetly as he could, break the capsule over your head or some other part of your body and this fake blood would be going everywhere.
“The ref would think it’s a bad cut. No-one had a clue what we were doing and we’d get a free replacement.”
Bozo could get away with it in those days because not all games were covered on television.
No rumour-mongering on social media or the internet.
Bozo was ahead of his time. Coaches are doing exactly the same thing 40 years later with the HIA rules.
He had a competitive streak like no other.
As Manly coach Bozo would have the groundsmen extend the in-goal area at Brookvale Oval if it would suit his kickers in a particular game.
Or shorten it if the opposition had a pin-point fifth tackle kicker that he wanted to nullify.
Even the length of the grass at Brookvale would often be mowed to a certain length depending on the opposition.
If Manly had a speed advantage against a certain team it would be cut short … or left long if the opposition had the quicker players.
This was not just restricted to his days at his beloved Manly Sea Eagles.
In 1977 in the biggest recruitment shock in rugby league history, Fulton joined the Eastern Suburbs Roosters at the request of Channel 9 owner and business tycoon Kerry Packer to become captain-coach.
He was on the Roosters books for only $100-a-season with Packer and Channel 9 paying the rest and giving Fulton’s family their own private suite at the Sydney Cricket Ground for 10 years.
A young sponsor called Nick Politis threw in a free car.
With Fulton in charge, the Roosters lost the 1980 grand final to Canterbury.
The next day Packer summonsed Fulton and Roosters boss Ron Jones to his Park Street office.
“What do we need to do to win the comp?” Packer asked.
Fulton said they had to sign champion centre Steve Rogers from the Cronulla Sharks and Kangaroos and premiership front-rower Craig Young from St George.
“Whatever it takes, get them,” Packer said, “I’ll pay.”
Ron Jones didn’t like being told what to do, even if it was Packer.
The Roosters missed out on both players.
As a result, Fulton rang Packer and got his blessing to leave and return to Manly.
Packer again funded him to take star players Noel Cleal, Kerry Boustead, Ian Schubert, Dave Brown and Paul McCabe with him.
It took the Roosters two decades to recover. They didn’t win another grand final until 2002.
Away from rugby league, Bozo was the same in everything he did.
In the newspaper tipping competition you’d rarely get his selections until the players were running out in a Thursday night game to start the round.
He would wait for the late team changes before submitting them as the referee was blowing his whistle for kick-off. Anything to get an advantage.
In recent weeks I have had non-stop text messages from Bozo about me running last in The Daily Telegraph tipping panel. “You’ve got no idea you old fool.” With a clown emoji on the end.
I’d remind him that he’d lost eight straight years to Queensland as an Origin selector and had no idea himself.
He was a legend on the 2GB Continuous Call team for decades, in and out of the studio.
After a shift on radio he’d be first out of the studio to beat other commentators to the fridge where the free Garlos Pies were kept.
He’d stash a dozen into his brief case to deliver them to his grand kids on the way home and be in the carpark by the time the remaining hosts were left to divvy up a handful of leftovers.
Personally and professionally, your columnist had the most treasured relationship with Bozo.
He had a great eye for football and even signed rising superstar John Schuster as a 14-year-old.
Schuster sent a text message to Fulton’s son Scott before taking the field against Parramatta on Sunday: “Hi Scotty, I’m sorry to hear about dad. He’s left a huge legacy and I’m going to play well for him. ” (with a heart at the end.)
Many of my biggest stories over 45 years were thanks to Bozo.
When he was an Australian and NSW selector in 2014, Jarryd Hayne’s manager Wayne Beavis rang Fulton to inform him the Parramatta Eels star would be unavailable for Kangaroos selection.
He was off to the NFL.
(Bozo wouldn’t mind me telling the story now.)
After taking the call from Beavis, he rang me with permission to break the story. An absolute bombshell.
He was a mate and mentor not just for rugby league players.
That’s why it was important that we were told privately in January that Bozo didn’t have long to go.
He would be lucky to make March but kept fighting and fighting.
Normally you’d go into journalism mode with the vision of breaking a front-page story.
LEAGUE IMMORTAL FIGHTS CANCER.
Not on this occasion.
Bozo was too good a mate. And he didn’t want a fuss.
Bozo and me: His greatest victory came off the field
- Ray Hadley
It was fitting Bob Fulton was named in 1981 as one of the original rugby league Immortals, along with Clive Churchill, Reg Gasnier and Johnny Raper.
To those of us who marvelled at his deeds on the football field it was a much deserved accolade.
My relationship with Bob started two years later, in 1983, when he took Manly to a grand final against Parramatta, only to lose 18-6 to the Jack Gibson-coached side.
When I say relationship, that’s overstating it.
I was sideline eye for broadcaster Col Pearce and had long admired Bozo.
He later told me he thought I was an extra from an X-rated movie with my droopy moustache and 1980’s hair style.
Four years later he joined me in the broadcast box as a founding member of the Continuous Call team.
We sat alongside each other for the next 33 years, for 17 of those with our great mate the late Peter Frilingos.
We talked about how long we’d go on for on radio and made a pact in 2004, after Peter passed away, that when we’d call it quits we’d go together and we did at the start of last season.
I felt, and so did he, that it just wouldn’t be the same if both of us weren’t there.
Bozo revolutionised league coaching.
He set in place methods of attack and defence that are still used in 2021.
When he started talking “serious” footy with other exponents of the game like “Blocker” Roach, Des Hasler, Craig Bellamy, Tim Sheens, Wayne Bennet and others you could only listen in wide-mouthed amazement at his knowledge of the game.
In 2000 when we lost the radio rights another side of Bozo emerged.
The side that gave him his nickname Bozo, as in Bozo the clown.
He had us in stitches on so many occasions with his antics, far removed from his serious footy talk.
As a club and national coach he guided many young men to reach their full potential. Those who got off the rails were offered a hand up.
They usually got a couple of chances but if they let him down they felt his gentle wrath. Sometimes it wasn’t so gentle.
Much of his life was dominated by rugby league but the centre of his universe was his family.
His wife, Anne, was his biggest fan and greatest supporter and he loved her more than life itself.
His children Scott, Brett and Kristie could not have a had a more loving dad and that love only increased when grand children started arriving.
I’ll miss him as will all who knew him, loved him and understood him and we’ll never forget him.
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