Bob Fulton had an offer he figured Benny Elias couldn’t refuse.
But when Elias did, it cost him.
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Elias was Fulton’s Kangaroos vice-captain on a tour of Great Britain and France, and in early 1994, the late rugby league Immortal offered Elias a massive deal to leave Balmain and join his Manly side.
“Bob Fulton rang me up and said, ‘BE, it’s Bozo. Mate, we are looking for a hooker, no-brainer’,” Elias said on Fox League’s Face to Face.
“Bozo is a pretty intimidating bloke, he was the Australian coach, I’d been on the ‘90 Kangaroo tour with Boze, so I knew him pretty well.
“He asked me how much I was on at the Tigers, I told him what I was on, he offered me an extra $100,000 to come over to Manly and I hung up.”
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Knocked around by the offer, Elias confided in former Australian captain and ‘second father’ Keith Barnes, who was then general manager of the Balmain Leagues Club.
“Barnes ended up having the major effect on me. I mean, these players were loyal to the club because of one man, Keith Barnes.”
“Working with Barnes at the time, I told him the conversation, he said, ‘Benny, you know, do you really wanna go?’ I said, ‘I don’t really want to go at all, no’.”
Calling Fulton the next day to deliver his decision, Elias got a short, sharp exchange.
“I rang in Monday morning, Bozo said, ‘Yes or No?’ I said, ‘I’m going to have to say no’ … and he goes, ‘Bad move’, and then he hung up on me.”
Fulton was selecting a Kangaroos team not long after. Elias, who played six Tests, felt confident in his place despite the chat he’d had earlier with Fulton.
“Six weeks later the Kangaroos side gets picked and I’m thinking I’m in with the Australian side – my name doesn’t get mentioned,” he said, recalling that he was shattered and it proved a massive turning point in his career.
“So, I ring up Keith Barnes I say, ‘Keith, ‘I’m retiring from the game; I’ve got other things now that I need to move on.”
Elias did retire at the end of the 1994 season, putting footy aside to work on a successful transition into business. He went back to university, flourishing in management for the Balmain Tigers, for 2GB as a direct sales manager and finally in the telecommunications industry, as a pioneering mobile phone dealer with 42 stores nationally.
Elias recalled getting a drink with Fulton before the legend passed away, asking him the big question of why he decided to cut him from the Australian side that year.
“Why didn’t you pick me in 94?” Elias said.
Fulton replied: “You know the rules, you know the rules!”
Elias added: “He sorta heckled me about it and then I almost sort of wanted to go ‘boom’ (gesturing a punch). It was disappointing.”
On Monday, 31 years after his retirement, Elias was inducted into the NSWRL Hall of Fame at the True Blues dinner in Pyrmont.
Despite Fulton’s brutal exile and the “fierce competition for his hooking position”, Elias was congratulated by the NSWRL for his “several decisive performances for Australia, including their 1985 series win over New Zealand, victory in the World Cup final in 1988 and a memorable Ashes triumph over Great Britain in 1990.”
Fellow NSW greats Andrew Ettingshausen and Paul Gallen were also inducted on Monday.
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