His high tackle knocked him senseless but Billy Moore would have helped John Lomax beat his judiciary charge which cost the Raiders forward a grand final - if only he could remember it.
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Moore vividly remembers the chance bar room meeting where he and Lomax smoked the peace pipe 20 years after Lomax missed Canberra's grand final win for his shot on the North Sydney lock in the 1994 preliminary final.
At the time, Raiders skipper Mal Meninga asked Queensland Origin teammate Moore to go into bat for Lomax, but his amnesia ruled it out.
Sydney Roosters forward Aidan Guerra agreed to help Brisbane's Justin Hodges in similar circumstances at Tuesday night's judiciary hearing in his bid to play for Brisbane in Sunday's grand final against North Queensland.
"Mal did ring me on the Tuesday morning and I said 'mate I can't, I can't remember it', Moore said.
"You just rolled with those type of things back in those days. Ninety-nine per cent of us played really hard and no one went out to maim anybody.
"You obviously go out to intimidate but I'm quite sure John didn't try and take my head off.
"I remember when I came to in the sheds [North Sydney teammate] Gary Larson was sitting there.
"He said he'd been sent off for a spear tackle [on Raiders forward David Furner]. Ricky [Stuart, Raiders halfback] went over to [referee] Greg McCallum and said his job was to balance things up.
"I can't remember John hitting me, but when I threw a bad pass which gifted them a try they realised I was no good [concussed] and I got hooked."
Moore got his chance to reconcile with Lomax as he drowned his sorrows, coincidentally the night he failed to beat the charge.
"I was with my cousin having a few beers, it must have been midnight and he gave me a nudge and said "is that Johnny Lomax on the other side of the bar?", Moore said.
"I had a chat to see how he was, I didn't know if he got off or not so we ended up having a good chat and I bought him a couple of beers.
"When I saw him at the Bourbon and Beefsteak I was worried he'd be dirty on me I didn't come down [for the judiciary hearing] and back him up.
"He got me in a high shot, well and good. If I was able to I probably would have tried to square up if I could."
Fans north of the border are calling for the grand final to be moved to Queensland once the NRL's contract with Sydney's ANZ Stadium at the end of 2019.
Moore raised the idea of the decider being put up to tender every three years, so other cities can bid for hosting rights.
"I'm a traditionalist but because of the success I've seen in Origin going to Melbourne, I don't mind the same formula where we have two years in Sydney and the third rotates and cities can bid for it," Moore said.
"Let's see if it's successful and if makes money and that's injected back into grass roots rugby league I don't have a problem for it.
"Let's have a cycle of three or six years doing that and see how it goes, then you can expand it or get rid of it altogether."
