Kevin Walters escapes the clutches of Wally Lewis
Broncos’ five eighth, Kevin Walters featured in five of the club’s seven tries in a 36-10 win over Manly-Warringah, in the 1993 New South Wales Rugby League Knock-out Semi-final at Brisbane’s ANZ Stadium, played in front of a crowd of 38,432. The Broncos were never in danger of defeat, with prop, Glenn Lazarus describing it as the defending premier’s best performance of the season.
While Walters dazzled with the ball, Trevor ‘The Axe’ Gillmeister smashed the Manly attackers with brutal, copybook tackles, leaving former Sea Eagles’ hard man, Terry ‘Igor’ Randall, in awe of the diminutive Norths’ Banyo product.
“To win a final you have to play tough, and that’s what the Broncos did today, with ‘Gilly’ leading the way, with his front-on defence,” Randall said.
Test winger, Willie Carne – playing at centre in place of injured star, Steve Renouf – scored two tries, and did a great job against Manly’s Welsh centre, John Devereux.
Broncos’ lock, Terry Matterson dislocated his shoulder, and had to wait 90 minutes for an ambulance to take him to hospital, and then another 90 minutes for a second ambulance to transfer him from that hospital, to another. It was three and a half hours before the shoulder was put back in place. Matterson scored a try, after suffering the injury, giving Brisbane a virtually unassailable 18-0 lead.
Test star, Lazarus sprained the left ankle in the closing minutes, and faced a race against the clock to be fit for the club’s next elimination final – against Canberra.
Manly’s chances of a win nosedived with the loss of five eighth, Cliff Lyons to a rib cartilage injury, in the 24th minute. Playing his last game for Manly was Des Hasler, who had signed with English club, Hull. Hasler said he felt Brisbane could go all the way, while Manly coach, Bob Fulton said he believed it was too big an ask for the Broncos to win from fifth spot?
Canterbury-Bankstown coach, Chris Anderson was a spectator at the game, and left believing the Broncos would be the team to beat for the title, even though his Bulldogs’ outfit was to play minor premiers, St George the following week, in the major semi-final.
Manly, coached by former player, Marty Gurr, won the reserve grade clash with Gold Coast Seagulls, 12-10, with Kiwi, Gene Gnamu scoring a try and kicking two goals for the Sea Eagles. Gold Coast centre, John Skardon scored a try three minutes from fulltime to make the score 12-10. But Ken Jackson missed the conversion shot, which would have sent the match into extra time. Jackson, who was set to return to Brisbane Easts in 1994, set up the try, with a cut-out pass to replacement winger, Russell Bussian, who drew the defence and put Skardon over. The match was the last for Seagulls’ coach, Grant Bell, who had been appointed inaugural North Queensland Cowboys’ coach, with the Cowboys to enter the ARL in 1995.
Meanwhile, down on the Gold Coast, the Seagulls and Wally Lewis were working on an ‘amicable’ parting of the ways. Lewis’s manager, Peter Hickey said he hoped things could be settled within a fortnight, so both parties could get on with their lives. Under Lewis’s coaching, the club finished last in 1993, with Wally under contract for the 1994 season as well. A players’ representative had fronted Lewis, telling him that support among the rank-and-file was not as strong as Wally might have imagined.
While Lewis’s future was up in the air, the club made one firm decision – to sack football manager, Greg Bandiera, a North Queenslander, who played first grade with Balmain, Sydney Easts and Newtown. Bandiera always seemed at loggerheads with Wally.
The New South Wales Rugby League also appointed a committee to restructure Seagulls, a club which relied largely on backing from its massive Leagues Club at West Tweed Heads. The club was under siege, because poker machines had been legalised in Queensland, and Seagulls had counted on Queenslanders travelling over the border to play the ‘one-armed-bandits’.
The man behind Bandiera’s sacking, and the review of Lewis’s position, was CEO Vic Folitarik. Bandiera said he believed he had been sacked because of arguments he had with a couple of Board members, and a Sunday newspaper article, in which he was quoted in relation to an old proposal to demote Lewis to reserve grade coach.
“I had been thinking of resigning for a while, but it was still a shock to get my marching orders this way,” Bandiera said.
Seagulls’ players, Scott Sattler and Craig Weston, announced they would join Sydney Easts in 1994.
Nerang Roosters’ coach, Graham Herlihy was appointed coach of the South Queensland Crushers side to contest the Brisbane competiton in 1994, ahead of the Crushers’ debut season in the ARL in 1995. The Crushers had yet to name a coach for their top side, but former Brisbane Souths and Broncos’ coaching staff member, Bill Gardner was favourite. Gardner was coaching Sheffield in England, and his reign got off to a great start with the Eagles beating the Garry Jack coached Salford Red Devils.
There were dramas on the schoolboy rugby league front, with Wavell High coach, Ross Henrick – a former Queensland State of Origin halfback – filthy at the fact the Brisbane school had been overlooked for the challenge match against St Paul’s College, from Auckland in New Zealand. Henrick said it was ‘a slap in the face’ for Wavell – the (national) Commonwealth Bank runners up – to be leap frogged by third placed Parramatta Marists, after champions, St Gregory’s College from Campbelltown – had withdrawn. St Gregory’s withdrew as a disciplinary measure, because of the Cup final all-in brawl, which resulted in four players being sent off. Wavell took no disciplinary action against their students.
The Wavell side included Henrick’s son, Brett, and Brendan Barlow, a member of the Queensland Cricket Elite Squad, who played club league for Norths.
On September 3, a charity match was played at Tweed Heads between a Wally Lewis Selection and a Brett Kenny Selection, refereed by Barry ‘Grasshopper” Gomersall. The match finished in a 52-all draw. Lewis marked Wallaby great, Mark Ella.
I was criticised by one letter writer to ‘The Courier-Mail’ because I described the match as boring, but I was supported by Lazarus, who said rugby league looks hopeless, unless it is played in a fair dinkum way.
FOOTNOTE: My eldest grandson, Ethan, attended Trevor Gillmeister’s Tackle Academy at Bishop Park, Nundah on August 16, 2023. ‘Gilly’ was there, along with three other former Broncos – Terry Matterson, Andrew McCullough and Matt Gillett; and former Brisbane Brothers’ player, Brett McCarthy.
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