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What is rugby league’s greatest/most famous moment? Don Fox’s missed kick?


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22 hours ago, Dunbar said:

The Don Fox miss is just as much about the iconic commentary as the incident itself.  Of course missing a kick in front of the sticks to win a final would be a big story but nowhere near as memorable over 50 years later without Eddie Waring's "He's a poor lad".

Just shows the power of personality in sport.

Was also there to witness that moment. Everything about it in respect to the significance of the miss makes it a truly remarkable event

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Jonathan Davies against the Kangaroos was a big one for me. 

That, and Offiah against Leeds at Wembley.

Both are from that golden era of RL in the early/mid 90s. You'd be struggling to nominate something "iconic" from the English game in the last 20 years. 

The fact that the moment nominated was a missed conversion on black and white TV pretty much sums up the popular perception of the sport, unfortunately.

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5 minutes ago, The Frying Scotsman said:

Jonathan Davies against the Kangaroos was a big one for me. 

That, and Offiah against Leeds at Wembley.

Both are from that golden era of RL in the early/mid 90s. You'd be struggling to nominate something "iconic" from the English game in the last 20 years. 

The fact that the moment nominated was a missed conversion on black and white TV pretty much sums up the popular perception of the sport, unfortunately.

There are plenty of iconic moments from RL over the last 20 years, but as viewing habits have changed they won't necessarily getainstream attention and therefore coverage and votes. 

Ryan Hall LLS-winning try is beautiful and features extensively on Sky Sports. 

Wide to West has already been mentioned. 

Jamie Peacock vs Willie Mason

Shaun Johnson breaking English hearts in the last second

That tackle on Currie at Wembley. The replays of that on the BBC are not going away :kolobok_sad:

And there are all sorts of great plays like the Burrow try at Old Trafford, Hall at Wembley versus the Kangaroos

The moments are there, its all around awareness and perception. 

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3 hours ago, M j M said:

Yes the last couple of decades have had some amazing, legendary moments. It would take someone really desperate to pretend otherwise. The Burrow and Hall tries stand out for me but I'm incurably biased.

It could make a decent off-season thread, creating our own top 50 or similar. 

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Rangi Chase's juggle/dummy got plenty of social media reaction at the time, from both codes and beyond.

 

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The Queensland miracle try, for the beautiful handling as much as the last-second nature of the match-winner. Every pass looks pre-destined to hit the mark.

 

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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9 hours ago, The Frying Scotsman said:

The fact that the moment nominated was a missed conversion on black and white TV pretty much sums up the popular perception of the sport, unfortunately.

The poll was taken almost 20 years ago, most of the people who voted for it (if anyone ever did) are probably now either dead or geriatric so it does not in any way sum up the popular perception of the sport in 2021 and is these days only trundled out by the BBC whenever Wakefield are in a televised CC game, which is as rare as hen's teeth.

For comparison, the most iconic moment by far in English soccer happened in black and white 55 years ago, that doesnt sum up the perception of soccer any more than the Fox's missed conversion does. It is a sign of modern society and does not reflect on the game, the last 20 years have been packed with incredible iconic RL moments, many listed earlier in this thread.

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9 hours ago, Dave T said:

There are plenty of iconic moments from RL over the last 20 years, but as viewing habits have changed they won't necessarily getainstream attention and therefore coverage and votes. 

Ryan Hall LLS-winning try is beautiful and features extensively on Sky Sports. 

Wide to West has already been mentioned. 

Jamie Peacock vs Willie Mason

Shaun Johnson breaking English hearts in the last second

That tackle on Currie at Wembley. The replays of that on the BBC are not going away :kolobok_sad:

And there are all sorts of great plays like the Burrow try at Old Trafford, Hall at Wembley versus the Kangaroos

The moments are there, its all around awareness and perception. 

Dave, these are all great examples of the strong points of Rugby League.

However nobody knows about them. For that very reason I can't really call them iconic. 

They get virtually no mainstream attention, so don't get talked about in later years etc, other than on niche rugby league channels like this one. Hardly any sports fans other than dedicated RL supporters will know what "wide to West" even means. 

For something to be "iconic", people have to know about it. 

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5 hours ago, The Frying Scotsman said:

Dave, these are all great examples of the strong points of Rugby League.

However nobody knows about them. For that very reason I can't really call them iconic. 

They get virtually no mainstream attention, so don't get talked about in later years etc, other than on niche rugby league channels like this one. Hardly any sports fans other than dedicated RL supporters will know what "wide to West" even means. 

For something to be "iconic", people have to know about it. 

That is a slightly different thing though isn't it. In reality a sport like RL is never gonna get much coverage in lists like this, we all know that, but even the couple of things we have mentioned like Offiah and Davies tries don't get a mention. 

The list in question is a bit weird, there are some things there that I have never heard of, and it will always be dominated by the likes of football. 

I don't think it should come as a surprise, or be used as a criticism that RL doesn't feature heavily in lists like this. 

But the things we are talking about are iconic within the RL world. 

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9 hours ago, Futtocks said:

The Queensland miracle try, for the beautiful handling as much as the last-second nature of the match-winner. Every pass looks pre-destined to hit the mark.

 

Hearing the radio commentary on that is interesting, not seen that before. 

Still I think it's better with Ray Warren.

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The other sad thing about the Don Fox kick always being brought up is that the try he was attempting to convert was a highlight in itself; cheeky, opportunist and brilliantly executed.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If we are sticking with iconic RL moments (accepting that nothing really breaks into the general public consciousness) using the terms of the original list there are events like:

Sheffield Eagles downing Cup Kings Wigan at Wembley

Kiwis nilling the Aussies at Elland Road in 4N final - first Aussie series loss for years. 

Catalans winning the Challenge Cup at Wembley

Super League opener in Paris

Catalans beating Wigan at Camp Nou

That Tonga v England rlwc semi final

Tonga beating the Aussies

And even last year - The Covid Grand Final - the most dramatic finish ever. 

There are loads more. The stories are being created, but just like in 2002 only 1 event from our whole history made the list, we still don't have the public consciousness, and I'm not sure that will change. But we should never stop celebrating what a brilliant sport, fill of drama and stories that RL is. 

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2 hours ago, Futtocks said:

The other sad thing about the Don Fox kick always being brought up is that the try he was attempting to convert was a highlight in itself; cheeky, opportunist and brilliantly executed.

Very true but both those incidents masked that iconic penalty try given to Leeds and protected that shocker from being used as our Grandstand chosen moment from then on.

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1 hour ago, Dave T said:

If we are sticking with iconic RL moments (accepting that nothing really breaks into the general public consciousness) using the terms of the original list there are events like:

Sheffield Eagles downing Cup Kings Wigan at Wembley

Kiwis nilling the Aussies at Elland Road in 4N final - first Aussie series loss for years. 

Catalans winning the Challenge Cup at Wembley

Super League opener in Paris

Catalans beating Wigan at Camp Nou

That Tonga v England rlwc semi final

Tonga beating the Aussies

And even last year - The Covid Grand Final - the most dramatic finish ever. 

There are loads more. The stories are being created, but just like in 2002 only 1 event from our whole history made the list, we still don't have the public consciousness, and I'm not sure that will change. But we should never stop celebrating what a brilliant sport, fill of drama and stories that RL is. 

The fact that I almost forgot about the Grand Final ending until you brought it up shows how little we put effort into keeping these moments in the public consciousness.

Saying that, how we watch TV and sport these days has completely changed in the last 5 years. I only stream things these days. Got rid of Sky, occasionally buy NOWTV, use Netflix, Prime and Disney+. I don't even have a TV aerial.

Sure I'm not the only one.

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6 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

The fact that I almost forgot about the Grand Final ending until you brought it up shows how little we put effort into keeping these moments in the public consciousness.

Saying that, how we watch TV and sport these days has completely changed in the last 5 years. I only stream things these days. Got rid of Sky, occasionally buy NOWTV, use Netflix, Prime and Disney+. I don't even have a TV aerial.

Sure I'm not the only one.

There is also the fact that it is less than a year old. We'll no doubt see it replayed a lot over the next few weeks, and over time it will become a bigger thing. 

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On 18/09/2021 at 15:18, M j M said:

Yes the last couple of decades have had some amazing, legendary moments. It would take someone really desperate to pretend otherwise. The Burrow and Hall tries stand out for me but I'm incurably biased.

On the bias perspective I thought the Mcquire saving tackle of a "certain" try against Castleford in GF was up their too.

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4 hours ago, Dave T said:

There is also the fact that it is less than a year old. We'll no doubt see it replayed a lot over the next few weeks, and over time it will become a bigger thing. 

Think the empty stadium doesn’t help. So many performances over the past 18 months that have been watched by nobody in the stands will have prevented them from being remembered as fondly. The Norwegian fella that smashed the 400 hurdles world record at the Olympics in total silence, it looked like a training session not an Olympic final. 

Without the backdrop (crowd, its reaction/noise, response of the players etc.) the performance loses something.

 

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