Every Dick ‘Tosser’ Turner Medal recipient: Ben Hunt joins elite Queensland Maroons club
Ben Hunt once hacked off an arm cast so he could play in a grand final. It’s that same dogged determination that has lead him to one of Queensland rugby league’s highest honours.
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When Ben Hunt was 13, a schoolteacher caught him with a hacksaw blade trying to cut off a plaster cast protecting his broken arm so he could play in a grand final.
Fast forward two decades and that same dogged determination is why Hunt will receive the famous Dick ‘Tosser’ Turner Medal for his 20th Origin game in the Suncorp decider on Wednesday night.
A total of 231 players have taken the field for Queensland in the heat of Origin battle but Hunt is just the 34th Maroon to join an elite club that includes Wally Lewis, Darren Lockyer, Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Allan Langer.
Underlining how tough it is to reach 20 Origin games, some of the NRL’s greats, such as Gorden Tallis, Steve Renouf, Steve Walters and Gary Belcher, never claimed the Tosser Turner Medal.
Turner’s famous catchcry – “Do Your Duty” – will be inscribed on Queensland’s Origin jumper when they run onto Suncorp for the 2024 decider.
No-one personifies that mantra more than Hunt, the Origin specialist who famously broke NSW’s hearts in the last Suncorp decider in 2022 with a runaway try to seal a famous Queensland triumph.
If Daly Cherry-Evans is Queensland’s captain, the 34-year-old Hunt is the Maroons’ spiritual leader whose toughness and intellect at dummy-half could prove the difference in the decider.
Maroons forward teammate Pat Carrigan said Hunt being bestowed the Turner Medal was a fitting reward for his commitment in Maroon since his Origin debut in 2017.
“’Hunty’ is a favourite of the boys in camp,” Carrigan said.
“He is like a fatherly figure, he is the guy with ‘Chez’ (Cherry-Evans) who brings all the boys together. Benny knows how to have a good time but he also gets serious when he has to.
“He is a big-game player. He comes up with clutch plays and you know with ‘Dozer’, when you run out there he won’t let you down. I’m stoked I get to call him a teammate.”
Hunt hails from the tiny Central Queensland town of Dingo, which boasts a population of just 221 – fewer than the number of people who have played State of Origin for the Maroons.
He may come from a small town but Hunt does not fear the big stage. In the series opener this year, it was Hunt who blew Origin I open. He produced a sublime 50-metre solo run, beating three defenders, to score the try which broke NSW’s spirit in Queensland’s romp to win 38-10.
Hunt has twice been dropped from the Queensland team, but just like the gutsy teenager who hacked off his plaster cast, the terrier from Dingo refused to go away.
“I was always happy to play one game for Queensland, so to get to 20 is something I am very proud of,” Hunt said. “It is a huge honour.”
Asked to nominate his favourite moment, Hunt said: “There are a couple. The debut is always one. Making my debut in a decider at Suncorp, and we won, is pretty special.”
“That one (in 2022) with the runaway try is definitely up there as well.”
Now Hunt is primed to pen another Origin fairytale in a Suncorp decider.
Originally published as Every Dick ‘Tosser’ Turner Medal recipient: Ben Hunt joins elite Queensland Maroons club
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