Two from Coast make team of century

James Ward and Mick Plant are not only members of the Sunshine Coast Rugby League Team of the Century, they’ve made the Wide Bay version too.

Halfback James Ward and back-rower Mick Plant are not only members of the Sunshine Coast Rugby League Team of the Century, they’ve made the Wide Bay version as well.

Ward, who won Sunshine Coast-Gympie premierships with Nambour (three) and Kawana (one) in an A-grade career which lasted 21 seasons, was named as the No.7 in the Bulls Team of the Century announced on Saturday night.

Plant, who played for Souths in Nambour before becoming the first captain/coach for the Noosa Pirates, gained a place on the reserves list after missing out on the starting lock position to former Australian rep Col Weiss from Bundaberg.

“It was a fantastic honour to be in the Sunshine Coast side and the same with this one,” Plant, who also played three first grade games for Easts in Sydney, said.

“It was a really good night on Saturday, just like the other one we had a couple of weeks ago.

“It’s been great to run into some old players who you used to play with and against.”

The unlucky omission from the Sunshine Coast contenders for the Wide Bay team was fullback Ray Laird, who was beaten for the fullback position by South Burnett’s Ian “Bunny” Pearce.

Unlike Laird, Pearce didn’t represent Australia, however he was regarded as one of the premier footballers in Brisbane in the 1970s, finishing his career with almost 1500 points in club matches for Redcliffe and two Rothmans Medals as the competition’s best player.

The Wide Bay team contained three players who represented Queensland in State of Origin – wingers Les Kiss and Brad Backer and second-rower Bryan Niebling.

Kiss and Niebling went on to play for Australia.

Originally published as Two from Coast make team of century