It's 1978. Malcolm Fraser is PM. The national dish is the Chiko Roll. Sherbet is all over the airwaves like a tropical rash. And Wests and Manly rugby league teams are engaged in a ding-dong hit-up, both on and off the field.

Intimate, impassioned and painstakingly researched, this piece of social history tracks the rivalry between "The Fibros" (Wests) and "The Silvertails" (Manly), a contest that was about class as much as it was about football.

Director Paul Oliver makes much of alleged corruption but most fascinating is the way Wests coach Roy Masters leveraged status and class to whip his players into an unthinking fury. "I'm not a hateful person," Wests' Bruce Gibbs says. "But I did hate [Manly]. So we just went out there to maim 'em."