.JPG)
Graham Lowe’s brothers, David (left) and Ian (middle),
attended the Sunshine Coast Origin lunch Former Queensland State of Origin coach Graham Lowe has told a luncheon in Queensland that his two years at the helm of the Maroons is his rugby league pride and joy.
Lowe, now CEO of the Manly Sea Eagles, says being invited to coach Queensland was an honour he never expected and would more than likely never happen again for an ‘outsider’.
The New Zealand-born career coach who has attained success with Auckland-based Otahuhu, Brisbane Norths, Manly, the NQ Cowboys, English super club Wigan, Western Samoa and the Kiwis, was special guest at the third annual Men of League State of Origin luncheon on the Sunshine Coast.
He joined 280 guests, former Origin greats Brett Kenny and Kerry Boustead and a long list of legendary ex-players at Maroochydore RSL Club on May 25, the day before Origin One. His informative and no-holds barred address engrossed those in attendance.
The luncheon was – again – an outstanding success with just on $18,000 going in to the Men of League coffers to assist the welfare work of the organisation.
Among the other well-known guests were legendary Gladiator and Sunshine Coast patron Norm Provan, former internationals Bob Hagan (Sunshine Coast president) and Lew Platz and ex-Queensland interstate players John Bourke, Reg Cannon, Ian Dauth and Len Dittmar. Both Bourke and Dauth are Sunshine Coast committee members.
As well, a recent recipient of welfare from the Men of League following an on-field injury, Shane Schloss, attended with his wife.
But it was Lowe, as the keynote speaker, who proved to be the main attraction.
When invited by the Queensland Rugby League to coach the Maroons as successor to Arthur Beetson for the 1991 series, Lowe said he was absolutely gobsmacked.
“I was coaching at Manly at the time, but my heart was in Queensland because that’s where I had kicked off my coaching career in Australia,” he explained.
“But I was a Kiwi, and here I was coaching a team that included such legends as Wally Lewis, Mal Meninga and Allan Langer. It was quite surreal.”
Lowe coached for two years, with Lewis succeeding him in 1993. Of the six games he coached the Maroons each state won a series, the results in each were 2-1 and the points difference between the two teams over those six games was just 13.
“And that exemplifies the State of Origin contest,” Lowe told the gathering.
“Over 30 years and 87 games there is literally just a struck match between the Maroons and the Blues, which makes this one of the great sporting contents in the world of sport.
Lowe again tipped a close contest in 2010 and – with a touch of superb prophecy – predicted his rookie Manly hooker Matt Ballin would serve Queensland well as replacement for Cameron Smith in game one.
Interviewed together, Kenny and Boustead delivered an insightful glance in to the Origin contest that has become an iconic event on the Australian sporting calendar.
Kenny did not concur that Queenslanders held a mortgage on Origin passion and pride, but was critical of the Blues selectors for often making some strange decisions. As a former champion five-eighth during the 80s he disagreed with the choice of Jamie Lyon at five-eighth for Game One and was also perplexed that Jarryd Hayne was named out of position on the wing.
Boustead, who scored Queensland’s first-ever Origin try and the first hat-trick for the Maroons, told the crowd that as underdogs in the inaugural match in 1980 the Queenslanders had been on a hiding to nothing.
“We fully understood that if the Origin series did not become a contest, inter-state rugby league was probably a basket case,” he said.
“To come back to Lang Park with blokes like Arthur Beetson, Rod Morris, Rod Reddy, John Lang and Greg Oliphant, filled me with a lot of pride. We had all played for Australia from our Sydney clubs so we weren’t overawed by what we faced.
“The bonus, of course, was that young blokes like Wally Lewis, Mal Meninga and Chris Close were such outstanding talents that they would go on to become legends in our game.”