“Unbeknownst to us at the time was a man driving to Lidcombe Oval by the name of Kevin Cashman, who was the boss of Sunbeam, who owned Victa,” Masters recalls. “He had his two daughters in the back seat of his car. He lived at Cronulla. Neither club had a sponsor. Kevin said to his girls, ‘Whoever wins today, I’ll sponsor.’

“The girls wanted Victa to sponsor Cronulla, in so far as Cronulla was their team, but Kevin had a hope that Wests would win. His factory was in Western Suburbs Magpies territory and it would be seen as a way of the factory supporting the local team. Well, it was a very violent and rough game, which Wests eventually won.

Victa sponsored the Western Suburbs Magpies between 1978-82. They’re back on board with this year’s ISP squad. (Photo by James Smith)

“The following Tuesday it was announced we had just picked up Victa as our sponsor. They put on a bit of a party for us after training one night over at their factory to acknowledge the partnership. We turned up and there were chefs with big white hats on and tables with white tablecloths on them in the middle of the factory. There were filet mignon steaks, which Bobby Cooper, unknown to him the quality of the steak, lavished half a bloody bottle of tomato sauce on his steak without knowing how good it was. We saw fruits for the first time such as kiwi fruit, which none of us had seen before, besides our five-eighth Peter Rowles, who had previously played for the Waratahs …

“Anyway, that’s some of the colour and culture of the time, just to give you an introduction to what it was all about.”

Lidcombe Oval today. (Photo by James Smith)