John Plath (left) and John Driscoll at Broncos’ training
John Plath is so proud of his son Max following his selection for Queensland in 2026, but John should have been the first member of the family to wear the Maroon jersey in the State of Origin arena.
The Queensland selectors had Broncos’ utility John Plath in mind for the 1994 Origin decider but he had been injured by friendly fire playing for the Broncos and that was that.
Maroons’ coach Wally Lewis saw Plath as the ideal inter-change player after Adrian Vowles was injured, and the selectors rang Broncos’ coach Wayne Bennett.
“Wayne told them I was unavailable because I had popped my AC,” Plath told me when I interviewed him in 2013 for the book ‘Bennett’s Broncos’. “We had played Wigan in the World Club Challenge at ANZ Stadium (at Nathan) and their winger, Martin Offiah made a cross-field run after taking the ball in-goal. What chance did any of us have of catching him, given his speed? But ‘Rhino’ (Peter Ryan) decides to put a big hit on, and takes me out!
“I always remember Wayne saying to me that I would get another chance (to play for Queensland), but I never did.”
Plath finished his career as the most capped Bronco not to play rep footy. His good mate Craig Teevan played Origin for Queensland in 1995 (from South Queensland Crushers) when Super League aligned players – Plath among them, were ignored by State selectors.
“I talk to ‘Donk’ (Teevan) about it often, and he’s very proud of that time, and I can see why,” Plath said. “It was a bloody big effort. (Queensland won the series 3-0). But you can’t worry about things like that, about what might have been. I’ve got bigger regrets than not playing Origin, just things like not taking football seriously enough. I say to my sons (Zac, Max and Jordan) that I don’t care how they play, but I do care about how they train, and whether they do their school work.”
Peter Ryan, the man who took ‘Plathy’ out (by accident) played two Origin games in 1998. Later he switched to rugby union.
“I went to union for more money and did half the work, so it was a no brainer,” Ryan said. (He was used mainly off the bench).
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