| I remember as a young kid watching
a game at Jubilee Oval, Kogarah, home shall I say
it,(hand over my mouth) the mighty St George Dragons.
Cough, shit that was hard to say.
It must of been in the early 70's, perhaps one of
the saints fans can correct me on this. I believe
the Dragons were playing against my beloved Cronulla
Sharks.
At the time Saint George had a man mountain of a
forward named Apisia Toga in their player ranks.
Big Apisia was a real crowd favorite, whether you
followed bloody Saints or not. Everyone loved big
apisia, except I guess the poor bastard that he
was running at.
pics courtesy of the St George/Illawarra History
Website.
Apisai Toga in full flight eyeing off Bob Fulton
(I think it is Ken Maddison in support)
The game sticks in my mind as poor Apisia snapped
his leg during the game and was right in the middle
of the paddock. His leg snapped and it sounded like
a wip cracking. Play was stopped immediately and
the zambuck was called into the centre of the field.
In those days the "zambucks" were members of the
St Johns Amublance society, all volunteers, wearing
their St Johns Uniforms and all usually carrying
a bloody big wooden first aid box with a big red
cross on it. None of this converted golf buggy crap
with flashing revolving lights, it was all straight
out of WW11.
As the game stalled and more and more Zambucks attended
poor Apisia, some of the crowd were getting a bit
restless.
As one of the more senior Zambucks jogged off the
the field to get a rigid canvas stretcher, the crowd
"gave" him a bit of curry.
He emerged from under the stand with the stretcher
and was just about to run out on the field when
some of the hecklers started up again.
"Come on will ya, we come to watch the footy" or
words to that effect, one of the wags yelled out.
The senior Zambuck never missed a beat, he turned
to the crowd and yelled as he headed off towards
the centre, "It's alright for you, you bastard,
I've gotta carry the big bastard".
It broke all up who heard. Ridicule turned to Sympathy
as the Zambucks struggled to carry poor Apisia past
us. He was one big forward.
FOOTNOTE:
A popular player, Apisai Toga came to Saints from
Fiji and also played with Lancashire club Rochdale
(UK) in the late 1960s.
In 1973, Toga collapsed during a training session
and later tragically died of tetanus poisoning;
an injury sustained while diving amongst coral in
Fiji in the off season
Apisia's points for Saints - 1968-72, 60 games +
5 repl., 9 tries (27pts)
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