due to their combined class and the apparent on-field intuitive understanding of each other's kicking and positional game that the club showed consistency of form through to the mid-1970s. During 1970, St George became the first club in any code of Football to provide three Kangaroo Captains in the same season in Graeme Langlands, Billy Smith and rugby-union convert Phil Hawthorne. Other stars in the early 1970s were Barry Beath, Ken Maddison, Rod Reddy, Steve Edge and Ted Goodwin. In 1971 St George made it through to the Grand final against an experienced Souths side with a battle-hardened pack. Saints were the underdogs but looked well-positioned when the half-time score was 1–0. Souths then raced ahead in the second half to 11–0 lead. The Dragons fought back with tries to Barry Beath and Ted Walton, while Langlands converted both including a magnificent sideline kick giving the Saints fans great hope of an upset. However a match-winning try from Souths' Bob McCarthy showed the experience of the Rabbitohs and South Sydney took their fourth title in a five-year period. A year of injuries in 1974 saw St George win only ten of the season's twenty-two matches and miss the semi finals for the first time in 23 years. In 1975 Langlands wore white boots, novel at the time, in the Grand final against Easts. Langlands had problems with a groin injury and, partially because he battled-on relying strongly on painkillers, St George was defeated 38–0. This was a record loss in a Grand Final until 2008 when Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles defeated Melbourne Storm 40–0 however that was accumulated on the four-point try system. The 1975 score on that basis would be 46-0. In the latter half of the decade Steve Edge, Rocket Reddy, Steve Morris, Mark Shulman, Robert Stone, Bruce Starkey, John Jansen and Craig Young provided the playing leadership at the club. In 1977, enjoying a resurgence under new coach Harry Bath, St George met Parramatta in a thrilling Grand Final, which went into 20 minutes of extra time. Reddy ever the enforcer in his career, had played a brutal defensive first half resulting in post-match comments that Parramatta's Ray Price finished the game looking like he'd been used as a punching bag. Reddy's questionable tactics, targeting Price and Higgs in the 2nd half saw a number of penalties with successful goal results go Parramatta's way. A try with ten