2022 ROSS LIVERMORE MEMORIAL LECTURE
Former Jillaroo, Jo Barrett will deliver the 2022 Ross Livermore Memorial Lecture at QUT, Kelvin Grove on Saturday, May 21. The Channel 9 commentator and Director of Students at Nudgee […]
Category Archives: The Column
VALE BILL PEARSON
Former Queensland Rugby League centre, Bill Pearson, is best remembered for the leadership qualities which enshrined him as one of the legends of the Norths’ club, in the Brisbane competition. […]
VALE DAVE HADFIELD
You may remember him as George Dunkerley, but I remember him as Dave Hadfield from Bolton, a magnificent sports journalist and a friend, who was always entertaining company. Dave’s great […]
JOHNNY RAPER – ‘PRINCE OF LOCKS’
Everyone had a Johnny Raper story at the pub, on the day the legendary rugby league lock passed away – February 9, 2022. Jim Gannon remembered his dad driving him […]
A TRUE QUEENSLAND GREAT – JOHNNY GLEESON.
By Steve Ricketts. Johnny Gleeson was a quiet, humble man, who largely retreated from the spotlight after a stellar rugby league playing career at International, State and Club level. Gleeson, […]
VALE JOHNNY GLEESON
One of Australia’s greatest rugby league players, Johnny Gleeson, died today just four days short of his 83rd birthday. Gleeson, a brilliant five eighth, toured Britain and France with the […]
VALE JIM FENWICK
Jim Fenwick was one of Queensland’s finest news photographers, with a special feel for events on the rugby league field. He won several awards for his photographs of matches at […]
‘BROTHERS CLOSE AND FAR’
Five Star Cinemas at New Farm hosted a World Movie Premiere with a difference on November 4, with the ‘A Listers’ all broken down, old footballers. It was the first […]
BRISBANE BEER AND BEEF CLUB
When I retired from Queensland Newspapers in October, 2012, aged 60, I wondered how I would keep myself busy in the coming years. I needn’t have worried because, like many […]
FROM WATFORD TO WIDNES FOR THE WORLD CUP
My decision to have an early night before a Rugby League World Cup quarter final, meant I missed a spectacular bar room brawl, with women the main participants. The fact the […]
GIVE US A WAVE, GORDIE
Spectators in ‘The Threepenny Stand’ at The Boulevard, Hull were regarded as some of the most knowledgeable and quick witted in the game of rugby league. They could make life miserable […]
GREEN AND GOLD COMES FIRST
Good on you Benji Marshall. It took a Kiwi to remind Australians that inter-state football should be a trial for Test selection. And you know what? If State of Origin […]
SPECIAL K REVISITED
By Steve Ricketts, former Courier-Mail chief rugby league writer. ‘Touched’, a Broncos’ fan yelled sarcastically, as Karmichael Hunt barely got a hand to rampaging South Sydney centre, Campbell Graham, in […]
VALE HARRY CAMERON
Harry Cameron won club premierships in Sydney, Brisbane and Ipswich and represented his adopted State of Queensland five times in the 1970s. A crowd favourite in a star-studded Brisbane Wests’ […]
VALE DES LEE
To say Des Lee played above his weight is an understatement. The feisty rugby league halfback never tipped the scales at anything over 10 stone (63.5kg), but never let his […]
SOUTHS MAGPIES HALL OF FAME
Super coach, Wayne Bennett describes the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Brisbane’s Souths Magpies as kindred spirits, in that they are working class clubs, with a never-say-die ethos. And the embodiment […]
VALE BOB DUNCAN
by Steve Ricketts, Chairman, Queensland Rugby League History Committee. Bob Duncan was tipped as a future State star when he first burst onto the representative scene with Toowoomba in 1960. […]
TOM TERRIFIC COULD NOT BE CAGED
by Steve Ricketts. Tom Raudonikis took the wheel of his car, after a long lunch at the Breakfast Creek Hotel, and invited the passengers to help themselves to a beer, […]
START OF A NEW ERA
April 1, 2021 marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of Lang Park’s new Frank Burke Stand, by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Henry Abel-Smith. The completion of the stand, […]
VALE KEN MCCAFFERY
By Greg Shannon, QRL History Committee The QRL would like to pass on sincere condolences to the family of a truly remarkable rugby league identity, former Queensland and Australian player Ken McCaffery who passed away on February 6 at 91 years of age. Ken had a long and […]
Steve Ricketts 