As the water cooler talk inevitably rolls around to rivalry rounds it’s quite natural to get lost in Manly and Warringah’s famed Battle of the Beaches, certainly for this era of Shute Shield fans at the very least.

But while hostilities remain at Manly Oval and Rat Park, it’d be remiss to cast aside the fierce, long-standing rivalry between Gordon and Northern Suburbs.

It’s one that dates back to the 1930s when the former club were admitted to the top division, was inflamed through the 80s and 90s in particular and has reignited every year since.

You need only ask players and supporters from either club to find out just how much this rivalry means to each club.

And Rugby News did just that, speaking with former Gordon coach and celebrated rugby union and rugby league writer Norm Tasker, who’s insight is quite unique.

“It might not be the same as back in the day but that underlying rivalry is still there and always has been,” Tasker, who actually ran this very publication at one stage in his glittering media career, said.

“There’s a lot of factors at play, for instance it’s a professional game now so people aren’t as local and they haven’t grown up together like they used to. That sort of thing will always make it a bit different to how it used to be but as I said, the rivalry is still there.

“Every year, I see emails coming through now saying ‘it’s Norths on the weekend, so let’s get serious’. There’s plenty of the rivalry of old maintained through the people supporting the clubs and I’m quite sure all the players still feel it as well.

The story of Norths being relegated to the second division following the 1981 season, all but at Gordon’s hands, is a fabled tale and it of course inflamed the two clubs’ rivalry, which once again came to the fore when the Shoremen earned promotion in 1990.

Gordon dominated the derbies through that decade though, including a 40-17 victory over the Shoremen in the 1998 decider.

“Gordon was perhaps the stronger of the two for many, many years and Norths, of course, tried to upset that,” Tasker said.

“There was a lot of things that grew from that rivalry (and) there was always a lot of cross-club antics.

“I remember one night a Norths bloke knocked off the stags from the Gordon club and another night the Gordon guys knocked off the John Thornett painting out of the Norths club, but generally speaking they were all mates and the rivalry was built out of the fact that they were so close.

“I think it was always a pretty friendly rivalry (and) one of the things that drove it back in the day was all the local schools. Players came out of North Sydney High and North Sydney Tech and there was a lot of cross-over, people knew one another.

“That built a bit of sibling rivalry in a way and that was always there.

“They’re very much the same I think, very similar local clubs who share the same sort of values, live in the same area, attend all the same things … those kind of rivalries by proximity are very natural, and outstanding,” Tasker said.