Redcliffe Dolphins’ top 75 players revealed in its 75th year
Who is the Redcliffe Dolphins greatest player? We name Redcliffe’s 75 best players in the club’s 75th anniversary season.
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It is one of rugby league’s most famous clubs and this season the Redcliffe Dolphins celebrate 75 seasons.
From humble beginnings Redcliffe Dolphins has grown into a league powerhouse that next season will see an off shoot of the club represent the district as the 17th NRL team.
All this from a club which started at the Redcliffe Showgrounds and moved to an old refuse dump, then developed at pace under the club’s “Golden Five’’ administrators – Dick “Tossa” Turner, Eric Keam, Kevin F. Simpson, Des Webb and Don McLennan.
Some of Queensland’s greatest players have donned the club’s famous red and white jersey.
But who is the greatest?
Here we name our best 75 Redcliffe players, including ranking players No. 1 to No. 40.
Anyone in the top 15 players could easily have been in the top five, such are the rich playing stocks of his famous club.
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To make the list a player must have played a minimum of three seasons, which is why champions league players like Ron Raper, David Trewhella, Ray Higgs, Terry Donnelly, Steve Crear, David Moffatt, Chris Close, John Ribot, Darryl Van de Velde, Jamie Sandy, Robin Thorne, Aaron Barba, Paul Khan and co were ineligible.
![James Hinchey at the Redcliffe Dolphins [Picture: Brad Cooper]](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/b8c8761a0646db83e3063fbbe798ec78?width=650)
Bob Gehrke was the first Redcliffe player to be chosen for Queensland and Australia, but only played two seasons.
However, in the case of Petero Civoniceva, Mick Crocker and even Brent Tate, they were true blue Redcliffe juniors and although they did not play three seasons of first grade, they were local juniors and did play A grade. They are very much Redcliffe players and have been included – albeit not as highly ranked as the seasoned, long serving greats of the club.
OUR TOP 75
1. Ken McCrohon
McCrohon, the 1956 and 1957 Australian fullback, was appointed player-coach by Redcliffe ahead of its push from third and reserve grade into the BRL first grade competition. It was McCrohon who first held the lantern, encouraging his teammates to follow him into a brave new world.
2. Arthur Beetson
Redcliffe’s godfather, Beetson started and finished his top flight career at Redcliffe, starting in 1964 as a centre and 16 seasons later returning as the club’s captain, coach and prop. He missed winning a fairytale premiership by seconds, when Redcliffe lost to Souths in 1981 after Mal Meninga put Mick Reardon over to score.
3. Tony Obst
Obst played 230 first grade games for the Redcliffe Dolphins, broken only by two seasons at Brothers. A fullback, centre or backrower, he won the 1980 Rothmans Gold Medal and is so highly regarded the club named an annual award after Obst – The Tony Obst Award for Players’ Player. He played also represented Queensland against New South Wales in 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1976.
4. Peter Leis
Leis first played for the Dolphins in 1966 and went on to become the club’s first 200-game player. The Dayboro farmer played with distinction as a centre for Brisbane and Queensland and he was twice awarded the Dolphins First Grade Player of the Year award in 1968 and 1969. In 2000 the Dolphins renamed its Player of the Year medal to the Peter Leis Medal
5. Ian Pearce
Ian “Bunny” Pearce would win the “good bloke’’ award in any era of the club but was also a mighty fullback and occasional centre who was one of the first players chosen in Barry Muir’s Queensland’s teams of the 1970s. He was the first Redcliffe player to snare the Rothmans Medal.
6. Wally Fullerton-Smith
Fullerton-Smith did it the old fashioned way from C grade to B grade to A grade at Redcliffe before representing Queensland and winning man of the match in his Test debut. A Roma born boy, Fullerton-Smith hit like a Mack truck in defence but also developed nice ball skills as his career progressed.
7. Petero Civoniceva
Australia’s most capped Test front rower, Petero Civoniceva played for the Redcliffe Dolphins as a junior and stayed with the club until 1994 when he broke into the NRL. The ironman returned for the 2013 Queensland Cup season, the same year he represented Fiji in the 2013 rugby league World Cup.
8. Troy Lindsay
Front rower Lindsay’s record is second to none at Redcliffe. Another farmer, “Cowboy” Lindsay played 314 first grade games, including 11 first grade grand finals for eight premiershipwins. No one can beat that. He is a story of perseverance, having played a full year of reserve grade out of colts, learning tricks of the trade from “Gentleman” Jimmy Cowell.
9. Greg Conescu
A premiership winner with Norths, Test hooker Conescu was a grand servant of Redcliffe and Queensland. No dummy half of his era had a better, cleaner pass from the ruck which gave his long-time halfback Mark Murray those extra few seconds to make his decision.
10. Mark Murray
Murray was both a creative halfback and extra lock, such was his work rate in defence. After captaining Norths to the upset 1980 premiership win, and briefly playing with Valleys, Murray was a Redcliffe gun whose combinations with Queensland teammates Greg Conescu, Wally-Fullerton-Smith and Bryan Niebling ensured the Dolphins was one of the BRL’s top sides in the 1980s.
11. Trevor Benson
In the early 1980s Benson arrived on the scene as a white hot centre sensation after working his way through the club’s juniors in the ‘70s. He played 237 first grade games for the Dolphins, and in 1990, in the twilight of his career, was awarded the Rothmans Medal, the premier individual award in the competition.
12. Ian Thinee
He came to the Dolphins from Rockhampton as a lock and won instant recognition in the BRL, claiming the Player of the Year in 1971, and the Courier-Mail Player of the Year award in 1973. Thinee was integral to the success of the Dolphins across 164 first grade games and a regular in Queensland teams in the 1970s.
13. Steve Cherry
Like Beetson and Fullerton-Smith, Cherry started his career in Roma before moving to Redcliffe where he played 195 first grade games for the Redcliffe Dolphins between 1978 and 1992. He represented Brisbane in the old Amco and Tooth Cup competitions and was a fabulous centre or second rower.
14. Bryan Niebling
A workhorse second rower or prop, Neibling had deceptively good hands who, like many Queensland forwards of the 1980s, played bravely above his weight against bigger, grizzly NSW opponents. His finest Test football came on the 1986 Kangaroo tour when he played prop in what could be argued was Australia’s finest Test side.
15. Vic Tighe
Tighe was a true all rounder at Redcliffe, a winger and centre who eventually ended up playing second row/ He was a great club man in a very strong era of the club. Tighe would do anything for the jersey and thoroughly deserves his lofty ranking here.
16. Col Weier
Lock forward Weier was a member of the 1965 premiership winning team, playing more than 100 matches after coming down from Gympie alongside John Treeby, a fine five-eight of the era. He also had the distinction of winning the club’s first ever Best and Fairest award in 1960:
17. Steve Bleakley
The cousin of Bevan, Steve was a lightweight lock or five-eight who played above his weight. Strong for his size and fit, he was a work-a-holic who would have been one of the first players picked by his coaches across the 1980s. He captained the 1987 grand final side.
18. Bevan Bleakley
Like his cousin, Bleakley bled Red and White. In the rough and tumble of 1970s forward exchanges, renowned boxer Bleakley mixed it with the best in what was a brutal era in the code.
19. Greg Oliphant
Much loved ex-Test halfback Oliphant played three seasons for Redcliffe (1977, 78, 1981) – broken by a stint in Sydney when he captained the Balmain Tigers. He was tough and an inspiring leader who was also the Queensland halfback in the Maroons inaugural State of Origin team in 1980.
20. Michael Roberts
Roberts and his sidekick Shane Perry (see below) were like Batman and Robin, a dynamic duo whose scheming brought many a side undone during their fabulous careers. Roberts played hooker and Perry in the halves and together they helped the Dolphins pull off multiple premiership wins. Originally a St Pat’s Mackay boy, Roberts played almost 250 matches for the Dolphins and, like Perry, picked up late career NRL matches for the Broncos. He is the current Langer Trophy coach of Wavell SHS.
21. Shane Perry
Perry has been, and will continue to be the source of trivia questions after helping the Brisbane Broncos to the 2006 premiership. Playing halfback beside Darren Lockyer, Perry was well known in Q-Cup but unknown by NSW clubs. Yet when called upon to help Brisbane to the premiership, he did a mighty job alongside fellow Redcliffe greats Big Petero and Brent Tate.
22. Henry Holloway
Captain and coach of the 1965 Redcliffe grand final side, Holloway was a wonderful forward but also the mastermind behind Redcliffe’s off field preparation. Indeed when Redcliffe won the 1965 BRL premiership, the doyen of league writers, Jack Reardon, writing in The Courier-Mail, penned: “Redcliffe’s win was a triumph for Holloway who brought his team to a wonderful pitch of fitness for the most important game in the club’s history.’’ Holloway was captain-coach from 1963 to 1966.
23. Danny Burke
From far western Queensland, second rower Burke must have been a coaches’ dream. He did hard work for fun and was a member of Redcliffe’s golden era in the 2000s. His teammates loved player alongside him and the Dolphins’ fans loved him for his effort. He is certainly one of this author’s favourite players as well.
24.Kevin Yow Yeh
A relation of Broncos Test and Queensland winger Jharal who in 1964 was named the Redcliffe club’s player of the year. The next season he played in the grand final winning side.
Like his younger relative he was an elite finisher, a powerful runner who loved contact as much as open space in his seasons with Redcliffe before starring with Balmain.
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25. Mitch Brennan
Brennan would have rated higher had he played more than just three seasons for Redcliffe. He was a matchwinning outside back, a long striding footballer who was difficult to tackle. Indeed he once scored the individual try of the season playing for South Sydney in 1981 when he rebounded and ricocheted his way off six or seven defenders before scoring.
26. Ian Graham
One training night Ian Graham once famously saw an old car bonnet poking through the turf at Dolphins Oval, a reminder of the club’s history after its ground was transformed from a dump in the 1960s, into a rugby league show piece stadium. Graham was a wonderful back row forward who captained the 1994 Redcliffe Dolphins in their first grand final victory since 1965.
27. John Treeby
Originally from Gympie, John Treeby was a five-eight who was the vice-captain of the first Redcliffe team to win a Brisbane Rugby League first-grade premiership, beating Valleys 15-2.
28. James Hinchey
It is little wonder Redcliffe were successful in the 1990s-2000s given they had blokes like Danny Burke, Ian Graham, Grant Flugge and James Hinchey clambering for positions in the side.
29. George Gledhill
George Gledhill was a premiership founding father who led from the front row as the Peninsula boys powered to the club’s first BRL premiership in 1965.
30. Colin Part
Part was a brilliant halfback whose blinding acceleration both helped score and create tries, but also save them as he often used his speed to come across in cover defence.
31. Adam Mogg
A long serving Super Cup coach, the Queensland State of Origin winger and NRL outside back was also an outstanding ontributor to the Dolphins outside back brigade. Mogg played over 100 games won two premierships at Redcliffe – and could have won four. The Player of the Year in 2001, he represented Brisbane and Queensland.
32. Michael Crocker
A born and bred Peninsula boy, Crocker was a champion firebrand and premiership winning with the Roosters and Storm. He was also a Queensland State of Origin enforcer and would have ranked as a top 15 player if he had not been lost to the NRL.
33. Brent Tate
Tate is one of Queensland’s greatest ever players and the only reason he is not higher up on this list is because his senior football came at the NRL for the Broncos (and later New Zealand and North Queensland). But he was a Reddy boy who attended Clontarf Beach SHS and made the Australian schoolboy from Redcliffe juniors.
34. Steve Bullow
Bullow and his big mate John Barber gave Redcliffe front rower plenty of authority in the late 1970s. He was a chunky, powerful prop who was one of the finest scrimmaging players of his era in a time when hookers had to fight for the loose head and rake for the ball which was put in the middle of the scrum tunnel.
35. Rod Halley
Old timers love Rod Halley, a Queensland representative who ripped in without know fear during his four season at Redcliffe.
36. Trevor Harken
Harken, a centre, became the first home grown junior to come through the grades and play for Queensland. He was also a premiership winning in 1965.
37. Grant Flugge
Flugge was a part of his champion crop of skilled, motivated men who helped Redcliffe to multiple premierships in the 2000s. He is comfortably one of Redcliffe’s finest.
38. Bob Jones
Originally from the great rugby league town of Gunnedah, hooker, Jones was a No. 12 of great standing, a stalwart for the Dolphins. During the 1970s when he teamed with John Barber and Steve Bullow in the front row, no one put it over him come scrum time.
39. Nick Slyney
A Queensland residents representative and both a Cowboys and Broncos NRL player, front rower Slyney was a two-time Peter Leis Medallist player for the year at Redcliffe. He will be forever more a Redcliffe premiership winner after helping the Dolphins to a title.
40. Col Raaen
A member of the 1965 premiership winning season, Raaen was also an inaugural Dolphins BRL first grade player, winning the club’s Most Improved Forward award.
Best of the Rest in our list of Redcliffe’s greatest 75 players.
Aaron Whitchurch
Shane Bernardin
Liam Georgetown
Danny Nutley
Steve Williams
Forrester Grayson
Brian Gardner
John Barber
Cameron Cullen
Russell Lahiff
Nick Emmett
Marty Turner
Tyson Gamble
Ryan Cullen
Richard Poulsen
Brian Winney
Waverley Stanley
Mick Webb
Stuart Northey
Jim Houghton
Des Parkes
Bob Lawson
Gordon Barwick
Robert Clark
Tom Connolly
Adam Starr
Trent Leis
Kahu Tweedie
Damian Richters
Brian Jellick
Robert Orchard Snr
Sam Anderson
Luke Capewell
Terry Webb
HAVE YOUR SAY
They are our top 75. But you will have your favourites as well.
Email andrew.dawson@news.com.au and we will add your top Redcliffe players to the story.
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