CROWE WARNS OF THE STRANGE MOUNTAIN FOLK
RUSSELL Crowe’s fabled Book of Feuds is ready to ignite Sunday’s NRL grand final, accusing Penrith players of being “like those strange hillbillies in Deliverance”.
The book also claims South Sydney people don’t trust the Panthers, who were once known as “Chocolate Soldiers” and “perennial losers”.
Commissioned in 2008 by Crowe, co-owner of Souths, and written and updated by author Mark Courtney, the book offers brutal and harsh critiques of the Rabbitohs’ opponents. The irreverent tome won’t be popular at the foot of the mountains.
“They (Penrith) might seem like gentle, country folk from the Blue Mountains but, like those strange hillbillies in Deliverance, they lie in wait and cannot be trusted,” it says.
“We have to be always wary of them, and we must show them, each and every time we face them, that we will never
let our guard slip. When we have been riding high, they have been able to ambush us.”
Told about Souths’ distrust of his club, Panthers chief executive Brain Fletcher said: “This is the largest-growing area in Sydney so the right people trust the Penrith community.”
The argy-bargy will add another layer of tension between the clubs. The Book of Feuds also took aim at Penrith’s formative years and the much-maligned playing strip used in the late 1960s and early 1970s when they were dubbed the “Chocolate Soldiers”.
The rivalry between these two massive clubs has been bubbling in recent weeks.
Coaches Wayne Bennett and Ivan Cleary clashed in the media about rule interpretations before the week one finals while Souths wrote to the NRL complaining about the excessive time Panthers trainer Hayden Knowles spent on the field in the lead up to the decider.