Paul Kent: How Bob Fulton changed rugby league forever

Bob Fulton was the single greatest presence in the history of the game, one of the great powerbrokers for going on four decades.

NRL legend Bob Fulton was a great presence in the game.

There was a morning we were driving to his farm at Quambone, which means face west and drive for about seven hours, and the talk drifted through what was happening at Manly and how well Melbourne was going and everything footy.

Bob Fulton did not talk much about his own career.

Whenever anything about his significant talent or achievements came up, Bozo always dismissed it.

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Generally he would make a joke, turn it on the inquisitor. He would claim he couldn’t remember much of his career, it was too long ago, which quietened the noise and avoided any cross-examination.

Few knew that the opposite was, in fact, true.

NRL legend Bob Fulton was a great presence in the game.

In the company of those he liked and trusted it became clear his recall of just about any game at any point in his career.

They would ask about certain games and he would walk through the lead-up, how the play was set up and how it unfolded.

His memory recall, combined with his high rugby league intellect, were gifts that were the equal of his physical talent.

So this morning the talk shifted and he began talking about his childhood, playing footy as a kid, and that memory reached all the way back to his junior days in Wollongong when he got picked to play for Country Seconds.

The day of the game the five-eighth in Country Firsts took ill and so the coach asked Fulton to step up.

He was a boy not only stepping up to take on the men, but did it at a time when the St George Dragons were nearing the end of their 11-year premiership streak and much of the City Firsts team carried Dragons on the rep trail to play for Australia.

He rattled off the names, like Raper and Clay and Provan and the rest.

Manly Sea Eagles players take a minute’s silence for Bob Fulton. Picture: Damian Shaw

BOZO & ME: Ray Hadley farewells his great mate

The City team started giving it to the Country guys early and Bozo realised fairly quickly that he and his teammates were out of their depth. The City team was giving it to the Country boys, dominating them not just with talent but with their physicality, too.

So what choice did he have but to manage a way out.

Opposite him at five-eighth Brian “Poppa” Clay was nearing the end of his career and so Bozo found his target.

He started hitting Clay late, hitting him high. He swung a forearm at him and clipped him on the chin.

Then there was a scrum and he took the ball from the half and tossed it to the centre and then — crash.

He hit the deck, taken down late, and laying on top of him was the great Johnny Raper.

“Son,” Raper said, “lay off the old bloke.”

“Well you lay off us and I’ll lay off him,” Fulton said.

“Done,” said Raper.

Country did not come back and win the game, but they didn’t get beat up anymore, either.

In many ways, that incident would come to define Bob Fulton.

Ray Hadley has just confirmed this news on @2GB873. “It’s a very sad day for the family and rugby league in general. This is the saddest thing I’ve ever said on radio.” @dailytelegraph

— David Riccio (@DaveRic1) May 23, 2021

Thoughts and prayers go out to the family and everyone that knew Bob Fulton. Legend player, legend bloke.

— Jamie Soward (@sowwowofficial6) May 23, 2021

Many love to hate manly for many reasons... Bob Fulton was NOT one of those reasons. Very sad 😞 Thoughts with his family. #legend

— The PMP (@theportmacpearl) May 23, 2021

The first definition of a footy superstar in the minds of young Sydney kids in the early ‘70s was Bob Fulton RIP #Fultonhttps://t.co/i0DLw4y9jT

— Jim Tucker (@HulaBulaJim) May 23, 2021

Sad to hear the news Bob Fulton has passed away. Bob played 16 games for NSW in the pre-origin days. Our condolences to The Fulton family. pic.twitter.com/bbPYo49tNm

— NSW Blues Brothers (@NSWBluesBrother) May 23, 2021

The quick read and the perception to find a way, if a little unorthodox, out of it. He was tough and ruthless and talented.

He would sign with Manly soon after, do some years in the national service during the Vietnam war, shipping troops back and forth. It was while in the service that he was chosen to play against the touring Great Britain team, who were as good as Australia and maybe tougher, and as a teenager against the Poms Bozo gave as good as he got.

Bozo was the first truly professional rugby league player.

When all the game did was train Tuesday and Thursday nights Bozo began training on his off days with George Daldry, spring sessions and weights and the early platform of what would become the modern player.

He was the fittest and most brilliant player in the competition which is why, just a few years after he retired he was named one of the four original Immortals.

By then, he had forced every player to undertake extra training sessions in a bid to keep up.

He slipped easily into coaching after that.

One afternoon in his first year as the non-paying coach at Easts, Bozo was walking to his office in the Easts Leagues Club when he saw Ron Massey in Ron Coote’s office.

Coote was the second grade coach.

“What are you doing here, Mass?” he asked.

“Just helping Cootey with the video,” Massey said.

A moment of silence for Sea Eagle #175 pic.twitter.com/0qxs1yhbHY

— Manly Warringah Sea Eagles (@SeaEagles) May 23, 2021

It didn’t take a second.

“When you’ve finished with Cootey come down to my office and have a look at my blokes.”

Massey was Jack Gibson’s off-sider and with their combined efforts they turned around the Roosters and took them all the way to the grand final, going down to Canterbury.

While many coaches were influenced by Gibson, Fulton had his own ideas and he would return to Manly as a coach and take them to the premiership in 1987 in his first stint at the club and then, when he returned in 1993, to another in 1996.

In times like these, when a legend falls, it is easy to fall into hyperbole.

The best, the greatest …

Bob Fulton was the single greatest presence in the history of the game. He captained his team to premierships, coached them to premierships, captained his country, coached his country.

He wielded influence and was one of the great powerbrokers for going on four decades.

On a personal note, people often say of people that to know him was to love him. That wasn’t true of Bozo.

The opposite was true.

To love him was to know him.