Chris Phelan with the 1981 Rothmans Gold Medal
It seems almost a throwaway line to say someone always gave 100 percent but in the case of former Queensland State of Origin forward, Chris Phelan it is indeed appropriate.
Chris knew no other way but to give his heart and soul to every minute he spent on the football field, even when playing with injury.
“There has not been a tougher footballer than Chris Phelan, and he is a winner,” coaching legend, Wayne Bennett said of the man who helped Wayne get his career back on track after a humiliating loss in the 1984 Brisbane Grand Final.
Bennett realised he needed hard men in the pack if he was to turn things around after Wynnum thrashed the Magpies 42-8. So, in 1985 he signed Phelan; fellow veteran Norm Carr and John Elias from South Sydney.
Phelan had won two Sydney Premierships with Parramatta and wanted to end his career with Souths in the Brisbane competition. Born in Leinster Province in Ireland, Phelan and his brother Pat grew up playing hurling, but gravitated to rugby league when the family emigrated to Australia and settled in Townsville.
They won a Townsville Premiership in 1975 playing for the Souths club and Pat represented Townsville in the famous Foley Shield competition the same year and made the final against Innisfail. The Townsville team was captained by former Manly-Warringah forward John Bucknell with future top swim coach Vince Raleigh in the second row. In 1976 Pat moved to Brisbane to play with Souths. Tragically he drowned in the Brisbane River in December 1978 on a boat trip.
Chris played for Townsville in the 1979 Foley Shield final against Mt Isa alongside future Internationals Gene Miles and Colin Scott and Queensland prop, Marshall Colwell, and then moved to Brisbane to play for Souths, to honour Pat.
With Bob McCarthy as coach Souths reached the Grand Final only to be rolled by underdogs Norths. Souths made amends in 1981 beating the Arthur Beetson led Redcliffe Dolphins in the decider, with Phelan instigating the blindside move which led to the match winning try by winger Mick Reardon in the dying seconds. Mal Meninga gave the final pass to Reardon.
Phelan won the Rothmans Medal as Brisbane’s Best and Fairest player in 1981 and played lock in Queensland’s 22-15 win over New South Wales in a stand-alone State of Origin game at Lang Park. He had made his Queensland debut earlier in the year in inter-state games played under residential rules.
When Phelan won the Rothmans the runner up was Valleys’ Test five eighth, Wally Lewis. Phelan might have been best and FAIREST, but this was in the days when a bit of fisticuffs was allowed. He took on his Queensland captain-coach (Later coach), Arthur Beetson in one game. In another match he had a duel with another Townsville boy, Zac Sarra (Easts) who is now a Magistrate.
Jack Gibson signed Phelan for Parramatta in 1982 and he played in three straight Grand Finals with the Eels winning in 1982 and ’83. Phelan toured England with the Arthur Beetson coached Maroons in 1983 and won a State of Origin recall in 1984 for Game 3 of the series at Lang Park.
Chris spent the 1984-85 off-season playing for Oldham in England before returning to Brisbane to finish his career with the Magpies, in the front row.
“We wouldn’t have won the Grand Final without Chris,” Bennett said. “He was the rock we built that team around. Wherever Chris went, teams won.”
On his retirement as a player Phelan took on coaching roles at the Broncos, Souths and Brothers. He was named in Souths’ Team of the Century as well as being installed as a member of the club’s Hall of Fame.
A carpenter by trade, Chris was involved in the construction industry for many years. He worked in the cellar of the Melbourne Hotel at South Brisbane when he first came down from Townsville. The publican was great Souths’ supporter and later foundation Broncos’ director, Gary Balkin.
I was the first to interview Chris when he arrived in Brisbane. The article I wrote appeared in the official Brisbane program Rugby League News, which was edited by my Telegraph colleague Neil Groom. In 1980 I was in general, and it wasn’t until the following year that I became a fulltime sports reporter.
I had the honour of interviewing Chris on stage at a reunion for the 1985 Souths’ Premiership side in 2015. Michael Nunn has an excellent interview on-line with Chris, and The Courier-Mail’s Lawrie Kavanagh wrote a great feature on Chris in 1981.
Phelan told Kavanagh how big an influence his brother ‘Paddy’ was on his career. “He was a good footballer and I wanted to be like him. I feel now with making the Queensland team and winning the Rothmans Medal that I am doing the things Paddy should have been doing. He wanted to do all those things but didn’t get the chance.”
News broke on May 5, 2026 that Chris Phelan had passed away, aged 70, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. In a statement on the club’s website, Parramatta said their players would wear black arm bands to honour Chris in the Friday night May 8 match against the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville, where Chris’s league journey began.
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