And who can blame him? After all, what price would a rusted on Balmain Tigers fan pay for a dozen home matches a season at the famous suburban ground these days?

“Playing there on a Sunday afternoon was the best; running out, there’d be a sea of orange in the crowd,” the rugby league legend told Inside Sport through the week.

These days Blocka is a regular panel member on Fox Sports’ weekly show On The Couch With Sterlo and also commentates on a regular basis for the pay TV channel. We caught up with the great man at the launch of Fox League’s annual Retro Round at the Bristol Arms Hotel in Sydney. Fox League is this weekend celebrating rugby league in the 1980s. They’ve been bringing Retro Round to life throughout the week and will continue to do so across Round 22 of the NRL premiership.

A key aspect of rugby league in the late 1980s was the sport’s coup of American rocker Tina Turner, who appeared in the first-ever marketing campaign by an Australian sporting body. As Roach recalls, production of the Simply The Best and What You Get Is What You See television adverts suddenly put toiling footballers within reach of superstardom.

“Mate, we couldn’t believe it. Here was this world-renown person getting involved in rugby league,” Roach says. “Hello! It was mad! It made it feel like the game was something; that it was more than just a game. ‘The Winfield Cup … making the game even bigger.”

Roach, who played 185 games for his beloved Balmain Tigers in the New South Wales Rugby League between 1982-1992, said the historic inner-west district of Balmain and surrounds meant so much more to the players than footy.

“When you played at Leichhardt, the fans could reach out and touch you,” he remembers. “It was real. We shopped at the local butcher, went to the local fruit shop. Things were simpler then.”

(Header image courtesy Fox League)