Brisbane rugby league legend Jeff Fyfe passes away

The Queensland rugby league community is mourning the loss of Jeff Fyfe, the man who decided the 1972 grand final regarded as one of the greatest rugby league games played in Queensland.

Jeff Fyfe after he kicked the winning point at Lang Park.

One kick of the football was all it took to make Jeff Fyfe a Brisbane rugby league legend.

Fyfe, who died in Brisbane aged 70 over the weekend after battling dementia, had never kicked a field goal before the decider that made him famous.

With scores locked 15-all a few seconds from full-time in the 1972 Brisbane grand final — widely acclaimed as one of the greatest rugby league games ever played in Queensland — Fyfe looked left and right and noted all his support players were covered before slotting the wobbly one-pointer that brought the house down.

It enabled Easts to beat Valleys 16-15 in a match which former chief Courier-Mail writer Jack Reardon rated the greatest decider he ever saw.

The pressure was so intense that the mother of Valleys captain Marty Scanlan had a heart attack and died in the grandstand.

Jeff Fyfe after he kicked the winning point at Lang Park.

Another Courier-Mail chief football writer, Steve Ricketts, was that day part of a Lang Park crowd so big that 2000 people spilt onto the edges of the playing field.

“In a decade of sold out grand finals, Jeff Fyfe’s matchwinner field goal is the iconic moment of the sizzling 70s,’’ Ricketts said.

“I was there, a 20-year-old on an end-of season trip from the Tweed, forced to watch from inside the perimeter fence, such was the size of the crowd. I wish I could say I saw the kick but such was the pandemonium of those final few seconds, all I can recall is an almighty roar and a sea of humanity pushing past me, onto the playing field.’’

In a book about the history of Lang Park, Fyfe’s teammate John Lang recalled how he tried to talk Fyfe out of kicking a field goal.

Fyfe is doused with beer by Valleys forward Russell Hughes.

“A field goal was always on and we were working for the right position,’’ Lang said.

“Des Morris was surging upfield. I was standing in behind Fyfy screaming at him not to kick it. I wanted him to take one more ruck and give it to Lee Hutchinson for the next one.

“Anyway he’s kicked it. It was a little wobbly old kick. A Bunny Pearce special. It just lobbed over in the corner. I went from screaming “Don’t kick it!’ to “You little Beauty!.’’

“Still we did not hear the hooter. The crowd noise was unbelievable. You had to shout in each other’s ear to be heard.

“There was a terrific roar and the crowd ran on to the field. Jeff Fyfe is the most single-minded of people. He was running around pushing people in the chest because he was worried the match would be called off. The hooter had gone but we had not heard it.’’