The real reason Brisbane great Gorden Tallis bashed Penrith prop Ben Ross in 2003

It was one of the most famous punch-ups in recent NRL history.

Gorden Tallis versus Ben Ross.

The young buck and the old bull and it had the tick of approval from the super coach himself.

Lifting the lid on what led to his classic stink with a young Ross in his second season in the NRL, Tallis revealed to the Triple M Grill Team that he went into the 2003 season with fighting on his mind.

Battling injury and with his body slowing down, the veteran enforcer believed his rivals no longer feared him like they once did.

With his career coming to an end, the backrower hatched a plan to send a reminder to his opposition that he wants a player to be messed with.

The man affectionately known as 'the raging bull' recalled the events leading up to that faithful day.

"I was going through the pre-season. I had neck surgery so I wasn't training anywhere near (what I should), I was doing about 60 per cent of the sessions," Tallis explains.

"A lot of people were getting a bit lippy. I wasn't playing and they were starting to sledge a little bit and I'm lying on my back against Penrith and I remember in the pre-season saying; 'Wayne I might have to clip a bloke this year.

"He said 'what?' I said 'I might have to fight a bloke.' He said 'why is that?', because they're all starting to put a bit of s**t on me and I don't like it.

"If I give one a fight, then everyone has to leave me alone and let me ride off into the sunset."

That's when Tallis received the blessing of Wayne Bennett, although the master coach had one condition.

"He goes 'cool. Make it in the early rounds and make sure he's a big bloke'. I said 'sweet, no problem'," Tallis continued.

"So I'm lying on my back in round one against Penrith. It was a 37 degree day. A really hot day and this young kid by the name of Ben Ross came on and he kept pushing my head down and I said 'lay off the food'."

Ross has joined the Panthers that year after making his first grade debut for St George-Illawarra in 2002.

A young forward eager to make his name, Ross had been at Tallis since he entered the field and that's when the former Queensland Origin skipper saw red.

While there was no premeditated plan to target the rookie prop, Ross was a marked man.
"I was giving it to him and he was giving it to me and then he grabbed me around the neck," Tallis said.

"I said 'do that one more time mate and that's it'. So he just thought he'd do it one more time and then I grabbed him. If you watch the footage, he was trying to get away for about a minute and I said 'hey mate, we're gonna fight. Whether you like it or not, we're going to fight so as soon as you throw a punch I'm throwing one back'. That was it and then I ran off.

"No one said anything for the next 25 rounds. They were like church mouses. Sometimes it does work."