NORTH Queensland rugby league historian Tony Price will be in Mount Isa on Saturday to launch his book More Than the Foley Shield.
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He feels that the period after World War II up to the introduction of the North Queensland Cowboys in 1995 was the most colourful era of rugby league in the north and the champions who stayed rather than go south chasing fame and fortune were his heroes.
This was a time when North Queensland defeated South Queensland on a regular basis and touring international teams found no easy games in the northern part of Australia.
The players below are his home-grown heroes.
Fullback: Frank Daisy (Mount Isa) whose record of eight Foley Shield Finals is second to none.
His record would have been more impressive had he not played a season in the Burdekin in 1977 and was missing for some reason in 1983.
Frank played for North Queensland for more than 10 seasons which puts him right up there with the greats of the game in the north.
Wingers: Ray Miguel (Ingham) and Harold ‘‘Cocky’’ Roberts (Mackay).
Miguel was the finest winger in North Queensland for most of the 1960s which coincided with a period that North Queensland dominated the rest of Queensland on the playing field.
He never left the north and played for Queensland from 1962 until 1966.
Not many people would recognise the name Harold Roberts but he was a magnificent winger in the Mackay teams that dominated North Queensland football from 1934 until 1937.
He scored three tries in five minutes in the 1937 Carlton Shield final to win the game and played for Queensland from 1934 until 1936.
Centres: Alan Gil (Cairns) and Garry Wellington (Ayr) were both internationals that basically never left North Queensland.
Gil did play a couple of seasons in Toowoomba but played 15 games for Queensland between 1960 and 1963 and played for Australia in 1961 and 1962.
Wellington was a speed-machine that tore the NSW defensive to threads on several occasions and toured New Zealand with the 1965 Australian team.
Gil and Wellington played together in the great North Queensland teams of the mid 1960s that dominated Queensland rugby league.
Five-eight and halfback: The combination of Bobby Banks (Charters Towers, Ayr, Cairns and Tully) and Paul Laffin (Mount Isa) would be sensational.
Banks was possibly the greatest five-eight that played in Queensland until Wally Lewis arrived on the scene and played 13 tests for Australia plus numerous World Cup games that were not regarded as tests for some reason.
On the interstate front, Banks played an amazing 33 games for Queensland between 1952 and 1962. He won the Foley Shield with Tully in 1964.
The always dependable Paul Laffin would be the perfect foil for Bobby Banks as he played in five Foley Shield Finals, never losing.
A rugged and dependable half-back he played for North Queensland and Queensland Country.
Lock: Norm McHardie (Ayr, Babinda, Cairns, Mount Isa, Innisfail, Cloncurry, Mount Morgan) was possibly the greatest player who wore a North Queensland jersey that never played for Australia.
McHardie could play halfback or front row and was considered the finest player of his generation as he dominated North Queensland rugby league from 1946-1954.
After the Queensland trials in 1947, a Brisbane paper was scathing of his omission from the Queensland team referring to him simply as, “Mighty, Magnificent McHardie”.
Mount Isa’s attempt to win the B Grade title in 1950 after drafting McHardie into the team late in the year is still remembered with scepticism.
Second row: Jimmy Paterson (Townsville) and Angelo Crema (Tully), both members of the North Queensland Team of the Century are my pairing with Paterson simply outstanding as he ran onto the field playing 24 games for Queensland and eight tests for Australia. Paterson dominated North Queensland rugby league playing for Townsville, Innisfail and Herbert River.
Crema was a great forward who emerged in the days of North Queensland’s dominance in the 1960s, playing continually for the north from 1961-1968.
He also played for 14 games for Queensland from 1963 until 1968 and played for Australia against Great Britain in 1966.
Prop: Danny Clifford (Tully) and Marshall Colwell (Townsville) are my front-row and neither knew how to take a backward step.
Leading coaches and journalists of the day regard Danny Clifford as better than most Australian representative props and his seven games for Queensland spread over nine seasons is testimony to his endurance.
Clifford played for North Queensland from 1955 until 1965 inclusive, more than any other player. Marshall Colwell was a great forward that nobody got the better of in the late 1970s into the 1980s. He played for Queensland and captained Queensland Country for several years.
A serious neck injury curtailed his playing career but he continued as a coach well into the 21st century.
Hooker: Brian Fitzsimmons (Eacham, Innisfail and Cairns) is the hooker and in the days when winning the ball was an art, he was the best in the business.
There were several players who were probably better rugby league players but nobody in Australian Rugby League ever beat Fitzsimmons in the scrums.
■In tomorrow’s The North West Star, Price will nominate his best players from the period 1968-1995 which preceded the Cowboys.