John Elordi the Norths rugby league player
MONDAY, DECEMBER 29
Sunshine Coast based newsreader Robert Brough has finished at Channel 9 after a long career in front of the cameras. He was chasing league stories at the same time as me, back in the 1980s. I believe he has quit for family reasons and I wish him all the best.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30
Learn of the passing of former champion lawn bowler, Rob Parella OAM, through the funeral notices. Nothing in The Courier-Mail sports section. In his day he attracted plenty of back page attention, not just because he was so good at his sport, but also because of his flamboyance.
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 31
Marie and I see in the New Year at a street party here at Samford Grove with the resident DJ Michael Bojar. Lyn Williamson provides quoits and a hob. John Pollock tells me he helped start a four team rugby union competition in Far North Queensland with the rep side playing a side from Papua New Guinea (and losing). John boasts that he once took a crocodile to Ballymore. John’s dad was a Collingwood fan and would get the Sporting Globe sent from Melbourne to Mossman to get his Aussie Rules fix.
At Sandsend on the Yorkshire Coast, our good mate Andrew Varley lets off fireworks to bring in 2026.
THURSDAY JANUARY 1
Mission Beach based Greg Shannon, a fellow member of our Queensland Rugby League History Committee has a dramatic start to the New Year when he sees a helicopter airlift someone to hospital in Cairns, after that person was allegedly the victim of a vicious assault. Greg was woken by the helicopter and went out to check what was happening. Greg knows the identity of the injured person – a former prominent rugby league player – but I will refrain from naming him because I would like to see an official report about the circumstances of the incident.
Dual Welsh rugby international, Johnathan Davies gets a CBE in the King’s New Year honours. I interviewed him when he played for North Queensland Cowboys.
A worker at Drake’s Supermarket at Samford tells Marie there are no newspapers published on New Year’s Day, hence the absence of Courier-Mails in the store. Wrong. Marie gets the paper from the local servo and there is a story about the career of Michael Bevan on the 30th anniversary of his knock against the West Indies when he hit the winning runs with a boundary off the last ball at the SCG. Marie and I and the kids watched it with other campers in Boomerang Caravan Park, Ballina. You know – the one where patrons keep coming back.
Marie and I enjoy a BBQ at Peter and Lyn Williamson’s place where we are joined by Margaret Urquhart and Fay Lergessner. Peter recalls a wild, boys’ weekend at Longford Motor Races in Tasmania. They are racing at Longford today – on horses.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 2
Fellow Samford Grove resident, Scotland (Kelso) born Ted Devereux and I talk the rugby codes and travel during Samford Grove Happy Hour. It is the first time we have chatted although we have both been here around three years. Mind you, he is often away on business, and has no intention of slowing down, despite being 78. Scotland fullback Andy Irvine is one of his favourite rugby (union) players. Kelso boy George Fairbairn switched to league because Irvine (Edinburgh) had a stranglehold on the jersey.
Australian fast bowler, Sean Abbott was a good junior rugby league player, but opted for cricket. He played cricket against recently retired league star, Luke Keary, who once hit him for six. Usman Kawaja confirms he will retire after the SCG Test starting on Sunday. He pays out on the media for giving him stick over his golfing habits leading up to the Adelaide Test, suggesting it is another case of racial profiling. I would argue it wouldn’t matter whether the person was black, white, brindle, Jewish, Muslim or Catholic, if they were 39 years-old leading up to a Test and they had played three games of golf, their prep would have come under scrutiny if a back injury then forced them out of the game. Usman is about to become part of the media, and says he will then be let off the leash, meaning he is going to be controversial. As if he’s not now.
Political professor Paul Wiliams has yet another column about the evils of booze. Surely the Government’s reaction – or should I say inaction – in the wake of the Bondi terrorist atrocity, should have been his topic. Williams says when he has been harassed by drunks it invariably is white blokes. Well, I don’t think Paul would be hanging round too many places where aboriginals are in the majority. And, of course, Muslims don’t drink. Praise Allah for that.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 3
Academics have suggested we should re-design our famous beach flags for foreign tourists. Fair dinkum. My sister, Gay Lynch and her husband David celebrate their wedding anniversary at Tumby Bay in South Australia. There are great whites everywhere off the South Australia Coast. For the sake of foreign tourists perhaps we should have a shark sign every 100 metres.
There is a working bee at Samford Stags rugby league club. Footy season is not that far away. In fact the Andrew Johns and Laurie Daley Cup competitions get underway on January 31. ESPN has live coverage of ice hockey from Florida. Doesn’t seem right on two counts – Florida??? And the match is played in a stadium with the actual rink miles away from the spectators. But it was great to see an Army veteran honoured beforehand.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 4
Australian actor, Jacob Elordi reveals he broke his back playing rugby union at Nudgee College in Brisbane and it was then he decided to concentrate on acting. His father, John played rugby league for Norths Devils. There is an Ashgrove Marists sticker on the side of a four wheel drive selling green mangoes on the approach to Samford’s main street.
‘Burty’ (Paul Burt) is on 4BC when I turn on the radio. Good to see he has a gig after being dumped by Channel 7. Watch Test cricket from the SCG until rain intervenes and then we have the Kiwi version of the Big Bash from Tauranga. I stick with cricket until that horrible Glen McGrath ad comes on and then switch to WNBL, that’s how desperate I am to get away from this try-hard attempt at humour. Not sure what to make of Balter’s ‘Beers do Come True’ ad.
Get a late message that former Ipswich Jets’ winger, Gordon Langton has died. When I think of Gordon I immediately picture him racing away for a long distance try for the Jets from a perfectly placed Allan Langer kick. Not that Gordon – an Indigenous lad – needed ‘Alfie’ to put him in the clear, as Gordon had amazing pace. The former Australian Schoolboys’ rep was good enough to play NRL (NSWRL at the time) – not sure what happened to him, but he didn’t get a contract when the Broncos and Gold Coast entered the NSWRL in 1988.
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