Fryer has a claim to a rare piece of rugby league history
Continuing Ballina Info’s profiles of local people. Here we look at former rugby league player Greg Fryer, pictured …
It’s a long way from the Sydney Cricket Ground and the 1969 Sydney rugby league grand final to Chicken Mania in River Street, Ballina, but that’s the path that Greg Fryer’s life has taken.
In between have been league player-coaching stints at Oberon, Toronto and Ballina, a job as the inaugural secretary-manager (and chief cook and bottle washer — even toilet cleaner) at the Ballina Seagulls Leagues Club, and even a stint as league columnist for The Northern Star.
Sydney born-and-bred, Fryer started his working life as a copyboy on the Sydney Morning Herald. Then he was a greenkeeper, working on bowling greens in Balmain and cricket pitches in Glebe.
But his major calling was on the rugby league field, playing for Balmain in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
In fact, Fryer will probably go down in league history as the only player to miss the chance to play in two grand finals on the same day.
It happened thus:
Fryer, a forward, spent the 1969 season switching between first and second grade with Balmain.
The club qualified for both grand finals, with the first-graders overwhelming underdogs against the mighty South Sydney team which had won the previous two grand finals.
Balmain coach Leo Nosworthy hit upon an innovative plan which is commonplace in league these days: He decided to keep two reserve graders fresh for the first-grade decider, rather than use two who already had played (in that era, only two replacements were allowed, and injury replacements could only be made in the first half; if you lost players in the second half, tough luck — they could not be replaced).
Fryer and Sid Williams were the two replacements chosen by Nosworthy, so they sat out the reserve grade grand final.
Williams was called on to the field in the first half and scored the only try.
“At half-time I knew I was gone, that I wouldn’t get on,” Fryer said.
Soothing his disappointment was the fact that Balmain upset Souths, winning 11-2.
Ironically, that Saturday upset was followed the next day by one in local league: Ballina, the club Fryer would eventually coach, upset the highly-favoured Casino RSM to win the Group One grand final.
So how did he get into the chicken business?
After turning 50 and feeling burnt out after the leagues club job, he and wife Margaret looked for a business venture.
With Bob and Toni Lansom they bought into Chicken Mania. It went well and they decided to open another business in Byron Bay.
That went well but the workload increased again, so that business was sold to concentrate on the Ballina shop.
Now there are two additional partners, Steve and Debbie Gasbaronni.
What it means is that each couple works two or three days a week — perfect for taking in the coastal lifestyle … and, for Fryer, reflecting on being a part, albeit an unusual one, of rugby league history.
January 9th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
[…] Click here to read the Greg Fryer profile. […]