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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Here’s part two of his look back at the Foley Shield –
Everybody has an opinion but the period from 1968 until 1995 was a time of great change in rugby league with television and the media in general dictating what happened to the game.
In a similar fashion to what happened to cricket in the late 1970s the game of rugby league was seen as a wonderful cash cow by the media barons that prowled the world looking for a game or an event that would sell pay television.
Rugby league was a wonderful opportunity to sell television and the stars of the game became household names like never before.
The huge increases in player salaries made the game fully professional but with that came intense scrutiny as the player no longer belonged to himself; he belonged to the media.
This is my list of North Queensland stars from the period before the Cowboys.
I’m sure some names will create debate. To quote Ned Kelly, ‘‘such is life’’.
Fullback: Colin Scott (Townsville) was a wonderful player who donned a Queensland jersey on 33 occasions between 1980 and 1987.
Scott played in the 1979 Foley Shield Final for Townsville before heading south to seek fame and fortune.
A great player who gave tremendous service to Queensland, he played for Australia against New Zealand in 1983.
Wingers: Kerry Boustead (Innisfail) and Noah Savuro (Mount Isa) were standout players in any era.
Boustead was only 18 years old when selected to play for Australia from Innisfail in 1978 and went on to play 25 tests for his country including two Kangaroo tours.
Boustead first came to the attention of people in the north when he played in the 1977 Foley Shield Final against Mount Isa.
Savuro never played for Queensland or Australia but with speed, strength and determination he played in seven Foley Shield Finals, winning six.
Centres: :Gene Miles (Townsville) and Dale Shearer (Mackay) are my centres with Miles in my opinion around the best that ever came out of the north.
Gene Miles played in the 1979 Foley Shield Final and along with Scott and others went south for the 1980 season.
A strong running player, Miles played for Australia in 14 tests as well as wearing the Queensland jersey on 27 occasions.
Dale Shearer was one of the finest utility players to ever wear a North Queensland jersey.
He was only a teenager when he starred in the 1984 Foley Shield Final for Mackay and actually had played for North Queensland the season before.
Shearer like Miles went south and eventually played 26 games for Queensland and 20 tests for Australia.
Five-eight and half-back: Laurie Spina (Herbert River) and Dennis Yamaguchi (Mount Isa) are my combination with the brilliant Yamaguchi the closest thing the north has seen to Johnathan Thurston.
Yamaguchi played for Mount Isa in the 1972, 1977 and 1981 Foley Shield Finals and formed a great combination with Kenny Mucken and later Paul Laffin.
Laurie Spina played in the 1982 Foley Shield Final for Herbert River as a teenager before spending the next eight seasons playing in the hustle and bustle of the Sydney Rugby League.
Spina returned to the north in 1991 and led the North Queensland team to the State League title that season.
He played for North Queensland until the 1995 season and was the first signing by the North Queensland Cowboys.
Lock: Vern Daisy (Mount Isa) would be a sensation in rugby league today with skills rarely seen on a rugby league field. He had the hands of a five-eight and the toughness of a front-row forward, a rare combination in this world of high powered rugby league.
Along with Norm McHardie I would regard Vern Daisy as one of the better players from the north that never wore a Queensland jersey.
Second row: Mick McLean (Bowen) and Chris Phelan (Townsville) are my second-row forwards.
Mick McLean played for Whitsunday in 1982 before heading south to Brisbane Easts and later, Sydney Easts, Newcastle and the Gold Coast.
A rugged, hard-working forward, McLean played for Queensland in 1991 and 1992.
Chris Phelan was another of the young Townsville players that ran onto the Townsville Sports Reserve in the 1979 Foley Shield Final against Mount Isa.
A great player he would eventually play seven games for Queensland and win premierships with Parramatta and Brisbane Souths.
Prop: Greg Dowling (Herbert River) and Martin Bella (Mackay) are my front-row forwards and both gave excellent service to North Queensland, Queensland and Australia.
Dowling played for North Queensland against Great Britain in 1979 and by 1980 was wearing a Queensland jersey.
Over the next 11 seasons Greg Dowling played 12 tests for Australia and 17 games for Queensland.
Martin Bella was a great player at a young age and played for Australian Schoolboys and North Queensland from Mackay in 1982.
He left for the south in 1983 and played 21 games for Queensland and nine tests for Australia before returning to the north for the inaugural 1995 season with the North Queensland Cowboys.
Hooker: Eddie Muller (Whitsunday) played for North Queensland in 1979 at the age of 17 and 14 seasons later played for North Queensland against Central Queensland in Rockhampton.
A great ball-winning hooker, he played for Queensland against New Zealand in 1986 and was one of the best on the ground in the Brisbane Souths win over Wynnum-Manly in the 1985 Brisbane grand final.
Good judges like Wayne Bennett and Bob McCarthy regarded his as the best hooker in Australian in the mid 1980s.
■Tony Price will be in Mount Isa on Saturday for a book launch at the Barkly Hotel from 11am.