THE DUGGAN BOYS

TOM Duggan was chosen for Queensland, but unlike his older, brother, Liam, never took the field wearing the Maroon colors of his State.

Tom went to New Zealand with a Queensland squad in 1974, but the first match in Auckland was billed as a ‘sister-city’ clash between Brisbane and Auckland. There were 13 Brisbane players in the touring party of 19, enough to field a team. And even though Duggan was from the bush, he sat on the sidelines in a Brisbane jersey.

Brisbane won 10-4, and then the entire Queensland squad, with Barry Muir in his inaugural year as coach, flew to Sydney for the first inter-state match against New South Wales, at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Duggan didn’t make the 15 for the Sydney match, which NSW won 22-13, with prop, Greg Veivers scoring two tries for the Maroons. That was as close as Duggan got to representing his State. When you look at the official Queensland team photograph, ahead of the trip to New Zealand, Tom Duggan is in the second row, wearing his Queensland tracksuit and standing between Peter Leis and Rod Halley. But because he did not take the field, he is not mentioned in the official list of Queensland players.

The QRL’s History Committee thought that was unfair, and ensured Tom’s name was placed alongside his brother, Liam’s, when a commemorative wall, featuring the names of non-Origin Qld reps, was unveiled, in the northern forecourt of Suncorp Stadium. The names on that wall were removed by the Stadium in 2024, and were being assigned to plinths to be in view of the public inside the stadium.

Liam was born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland (the singing County) and was destined for a sporting career in one of the Gaelic pursuits, until his father, Patrick decided to make a new life for the family, in Australia. Patrick, who had served six years in the British Army, had been interested in cattle dealing since he was 10, and saw Australia as the perfect place to pursue a career, even though he had three brothers-in-law in New York.

Liam, who was 18 months old when the family emigrated, played for Queensland against Great Britain at Lang Park, Brisbane in 1968. The British embarked on a Queensland tour after contesting the World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, with both their Australian matches taking place in Sydney. Their last match before flying home was against a local selection in Mt Isa.

It was a massive achievement for a lad from the small South Burnett town of Wondai (home of Country and Western star, Chad Morgan) to be chosen for his state. But those things happened, in the days before full-time professionalism. Britain defeated Queensland 33-18, after having opened their state tour with a 28-10 win over Toowoomba.

Tom and Liam played together for Wide Bay against ‘The Poms’ at Maryborough in 1974, with The Courier-Mail’s Lawrie Kavanagh describing it as the first tough game of the tour, after Britain had thrashed the Northern Territory 41-2; North Queensland 30-5 and Central Queensland 38-0. The British, with winger, David Redfearn scoring two tries, won 24-12. Wide Bay skipper, Gary Pearson led by example, his hard driving, front-on defence upsetting the British forwards. The Duggan brothers regard Pearson as one of the toughest men they have played with or against.

Liam played all his football in the bush, representing Wide Bay against the British in 1966 at Bundaberg, and against the Kiwis at Gympie, the following year.

“It was a great thrill, playing for Wide Bay,” Liam said. “You would walk down the main street of Wondai, and people would want to talk to you about football. After one game against Central Queensland, I was named man of the match, and was given a box of cigarettes and a lighter.”

Tom did his National Service at Ingleburn in New South Wales in 1969, and played Group 6 rugby league with Campbelltown Warriors. In 1970, he did a tour of duty in Vietnam, and while there played rugby union for an Army representative side against a French Armed Forces outfit in Saigon. (The French Army once boasted rugby league sides, with Armed Forces selections playing against the Kangaroos on several occasions).

Tom was captain-coach of Gympie Brothers in 1975, before returning to Wondai. He joined Brisbane Valleys in 1977, largely because he had formed a close bond with Tony Perkins and Gerry Fitzpatrick on the 1974 trip to Auckland.

In an Amco Cup match in ’77, Duggan scored three tries for Valleys in a 19-10 win over Illawarra, and picked up a color television for his trouble. In 1978, with former Test winger, Johnny Rhodes the coach, Valleys reached the grand final, only to lose 14-10 to hot favorites, Easts. It was Wally Lewis’s first year in the top grade, and his performance in the grand final had critics tipping him as a future International. Duggan produced one of the great moments of the match, when he made a tremendous mid-field bust, which led to a try to centre, Vic Wieland, and gave Valleys a 8-7 lead early in the second half.

The following year, with Ross Strudwick as captain-coach, Valleys belted the Wayne Bennett coached Souths’ Magpies 26-0 in the grand final, with Duggan and Al McInnes the prop forwards.

Future Test centre, Chris Close, who scored a try for Valleys, is widely known as ‘Choppy’, a nickname bestowed on him by the Duggan family.

“Chris came to stay on our family’s property, and wanted to use a tomahawk to chop trees,” Tom recalls. “After a few futile efforts, he said this was way too hard and asked if morning tea was ready. So after that we called him ‘chop, chop’ and it became ‘choppy’.”

If it wasn’t for the likes of the Duggan boys and other ‘country bumpkins’ from the Burnett region, there might not be a surf life saving club at iconic Noosa Beach.

In 1967, there were plenty of ‘long haired surfies’ at Noosa, but not many able-bodied men willing to follow the discipline of surf life saving, and its rostered patrols. So, with the backing of several Murgon businesses, 31 young men from the area, took charge of an old bus, and each weekend made the trip to Noosa to carry out patrols.

Liam made Cooroy, on the way to Noosa, his home some years back and worked as a relieving motel manager, as well as being a land access consultant for the gas industry.

Tom managed pubs and coached in the bush after his retirement from football in 1980. At one stage he managed the Newnham Hotel on Brisbane’s southside, for Broncos’ founding director, Paul ‘Porky’ Morgan. Duggan also was chairman of Brisbane Norths for four years, and was a founding member of the Queensland Committee of the Men of League Foundation (now Family of League).

In the early 1990s, when he was coaching the Roma under-18 side in South West Qld, Duggan rang Broncos’ chief executive, John Ribot to tell him he had ‘another Michael O’Connor’ in his side. He was referring to Willie Carne, who would go on to play 134 first grade matches for the Broncos, 10 Tests for Australia and 12 State of Origin matches for Queensland.

Tom and Liam were named in the South Burnett Team of the Century in 2008, along with internationals, John Wittenberg, Dave Brown and Bryan Niebling. Tom also was named in the Wide Bay Team of the Century. Tom and Liam’s younger brother, Tim had an award winning butcher shop at Mundubbera, in the Central Burnett for a number of years.

(This story is an updated reprint of an article I posted for the Men of League magazine in 2018).

About Author