Stalwarts honoured by team selection

League players James Ward and Daryl Fitzgerald may not have ever played together, but they have plenty in common, including spots on the Sunshine Coast Team of the Century.

Team of the Century halfback James Ward in action for Nambour in their grand final against Noosa Pirates in 2003. Photo: Warren Lynam/122279

Although they never played together in a club game, James Ward and Daryl Fitzgerald have plenty in common.

They both played more than 15 seasons in the Sunshine Coast Gympie Rugby League first grade competition and were teammates in Sunshine Coast Falcons and Wide Bay representative sides.

They both won multiple premierships and finished their careers in the best way possible – with a grand final victory.

And on Wednesday night, they were the short and tall of the Sunshine Coast Team of the Century.

Ward, who played 21 years of A-grade and collected four premierships, won the fiercely contested halfback position, while Fitzgerald, who totalled 17 seasons and five grand final wins, gained his favourite No.11 jersey.

In a room full of Coast league talent, there was no-one who was more excited with their new honour than this pair.

“It’s a massive privilege,” Fitzgerald, who played with Maroochydore and Noosa, said of his selection in the starting side.

“I rang one of my friends during the week after Billy (Moore) told me I’d made the Team of the Century and he said ‘is that because you’ve been playing for 100 years’. I said ‘possibly’.

“The list of guys who missed out, and the guys who made the team, is unbelievable. A lot of the guys I’d heard of but never seen play and then there were five or six of the guys I’d played against or with.”

One of those was Ward, who ended off his career at age 39 by playing in the Nambour Crushers’ 44-0 flogging of Noosa in the 2003 grand final.

As the diminutive halfback pointed out on Wednesday night, he played in the Crushers’ first three premierships, although they were covered by a 16-year span. The first two were in 1987 and ’88.

The Ward family got a surprise when James came home after the Mooloolaba Surf Club presentation function with the No.7 jersey.

He had kept the secret of his selection to himself until then.

One of the other halfback finalists was Lee Hutchinson, a Queensland representative of the 1970s who passed on his knowledge to a young Ward.

“He used to come down to training sessions when I was a little halfback and teach me different things around the scrumbase,” Ward said.

“I thought ‘Hutchy’ was a special to be the halfback and then you throw someone like ‘Goldy’ (Noel Goldthorpe) in who can certainly play. I never had much knowledge of the other finalist, Joe Paris, but I hear he was a super halfback as well.

“I was really humbled to be on that list with them.”

After his two premierships with Nambour, Ward played at Caloundra before heading to Kawana where he won title No.3 in 1995.

Originally published as Stalwarts honoured by team selection