One excellent thing sports nostalgia content has done is give us time to enjoy and reflect on the sense of rawness and realness of less professional sport - something a bit harder to detect in today’s 24/7 glitzy ultra pro-sport world. 1/

Some will know I grew up supporting the North Sydney Bears, and I still mourn their absence from the NRL (without having given up hope they’ll be back in the future). While I pore over old footage almost daily, I do so privately and as a tragic; I know it doesn’t need sharing 2/

But last night I came across some pictures that stunned me for the way they capture a seminal scene from 1991. They’re polaroid shots from inside the SFS sheds after Canberra has beaten Norths in the preliminary final, shared with photographer Joe Avvenevole’s blessing 3/

Mal leading out Canberra (with Mark Webber as ballboy!), then the Bears coming out of the tunnel, and post match. 4/

There are so many things that make these pictures special - but the one that gets me is how dejected they look. So many of them are state and international players - but it’s essentially a club room scene, one that so many of us have experienced. 5/

Of course Norths led this match 14-0 before Canberra clicked into gear at finished 31-14 winners. They progressed to the Grand Final before Royce and Brandy brought home Penrith’s first premiership (Norths has lost to Penrith 16-14 the previous week, with Halligan kicking 1/5) 6/

Must confess I initially dreaded the wave of predictable sports nostalgia content scheduled to fill empty space. But I’ve enjoyed the remembering the rawness of less professional sport. It’s no slight on the current setup, just an unexpected upside of sport’s cancellation. 7/

Anyway Norths would go on to lose 3 more preliminary finals in 6 years before merging with Manly and then being unceremoniously dumped from that binfire of an arrangement. I miss the Bears. Cheers