Issue 49

It’s great to see the Queensland Rugby League pushing their community rugby league because this is the cornerstone of our great game. We need juniors and seniors in numbers, and this brings me to the experienced player-coach or paid player in suburban or regional rugby league.

I know from first-hand experience what a player with an NRL pedigree can do to a local competition. As well as passing on their knowledge and experience they bring paying rugby league followers to the gate and that’s needed in this age of heavy insurance and expenses.

Before super-league it was common for ex-NRL players, some with state and International experience to play well into their 30s in local rugby league competitions and their experience and crowd-pulling value was well received.

In the 1950s into the 1960s it was common for players on the way up to gain first-grade experience in a lower class of competition. Players like Australian five-eighth Bobby Banks played all their careers in the bush, winning premierships and passing on knowledge to all and sundry.

In 1972 I was living in Proserpine. The local club had come last in the Whitsunday competition and the representative team had come last in the Southern Zone of the Foley Shield. They were at bedrock with nowhere to go but out or up. In faraway Sydney, Manly Warringah defeated Western Suburbs 18-14 in a club game. The Manly wingers were the Australian team of the Century winger Ken Irvine and former Australian winger Les Hanigan. That day Hanigan scored three tries and Irvine crossed for one.

Try scoring came easy for both Irvine and Hanigan. Irvine still tops the NRL for tries scored while Les Hanigan proudly still owns the record for the most tries scored in one game for Manly at 5-against Cronulla in 1967.

In 1973 Proserpine signed Les Hanigan as captain-coach. This signing of a player still in his prime changed rugby league in the Whitsundays. People flocked to the games. The local league had a resurgence and Les Hanigan took Whitsunday to their one and only Foley Shield final victory.

Clubs and regional towns should take this advice. Spend a bit and recoup a lot. It’s easy.