State of Origin: Queensland winger Kerry Boustead recalls first Maroons try

Forty years after Queensland won the first State of Origin match at Lang Park, the man who scored the first Maroons try still cherishes the memories.

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It’s 40 years since Queensland won the first State of Origin match 20-10 at Lang Park and the man who scored the first Maroons Origin try, winger Kerry Boustead, still cherishes the memories.

Boustead, a pocket dynamo with speed, skill and a ferocious tackling technique, is working on a book about his life. It is an enchanting tale of a man from Innisfail, who played for Australia at 18 and triumphed as a small man in a land of giants.

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Kerry Boustead can look back on a brilliant career in rugby league. Photo: Stewart McLean

Has the smaller man become underrated in rugby league?

I think so. Have a look at the best players in the game and it’s quite often the smallest guys – Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk; even Cameron Smith is not what you’d call a big man. What they don’t realise is that if you put a little guy on the wing, who can actually run fast, he can cause as much damage as the big guy.

What is your memory of life in that first Origin camp?

I remember Artie Beetson would take us on a 3km walk through the city in the morning. People would come down out of offices and say, “Please … can you just win one game?’’ It was almost as if they were crying in the streets. You could see what it meant and we all got along so well so we were behind it from the start and Arthur was a big driver of that.

They say those early camps were full of clowns. Anyone stand out?

Rod Reddy played jokes on guys all day. I remember Rocket used to ring my flatmate in Sydney at 1am and put on an Italian accent and say, “Hey, you wanna sell a fridge? I wanna buy, but you wanna too mucha.’’ My mate would say, “I don’t own a fridge’’, but Rocket would keep him going for 15 minutes and drive him crazy.

Boustead will forever be part of Queensland history.

From playing club footy at 18 in Innisfail to Test football in the same year — will that sort of story ever happen again?

It happened with (Darling Downs forward) Rohan Hancock but we were the last of the country guys who went to a major rep side.

What was it like when you went back to play club footy in Innisfail after you played for Australia?

My teammates were fine because I played with them since I was six years old. But all the other teams wanted to do was take my head off, with lines like “playing in the big stuff are we?’’ It was quite funny. I used to go to the hospital for stitches almost every time I played in Innisfail and the doctors would be really cranky at me because they would get called in on Sundays to fix me up.

That would have been testing though?

My mother said to me at the end of the year, “Kerry you have to get out of this’’. She wanted me to go somewhere where there were cameras because in Innisfail you could do what you like and you’d get hit from behind by someone who wanted a notch on their belt.

Te first Queensland team – it was a different game in 1980.

What is your memory of playing on the opening State of Origin night?

Just being in awe of Artie Beetson. It was the first time he played for Queensland (at age 35) and I went back and did the stats for a memorabilia piece and realised he actually topped the tackle count, threw most off-loads and most punches. He had a blinder that night closely followed by Chris Close who loves a blue as well. I find even today people don’t want to talk about grand finals. They just want to talk about Origin.

You made fools of some of the big boys you marked. Were you nervous?

I loved playing against the big guys. I knew I could tackle them because I grew up as a halfback and all I did all day was tackle. In fact I found the smaller guys hard to catch. The big fellas are very pedestrian and don’t have a big step. They just tried to run over you every time.

You had a lot of success when Queensland picked you in 1978, before Origin existed, to play against NSW’s two giant wingers in Terry Fahey and Mark Harris. How was that experience?

I started against Fahey then they brought in Harris who was even bigger and uglier than Terry Fahey. He was a monster. You looked at him and thought “oh my god’’ but his reactions were not that quick and I scored two tries against him.

Who taught you to tackle?

I remember reading those old coaching books by guys like Graeme Langlands which taught you how to tackle. I actually based my game on defence.

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Boustead for the Kangaroos against France in 1978.

You scored the first Maroons try in Origin football. What is your memory of that?

It came from an exchange of passes. Greg Oliphant was the halfback and Wally Lewis could see they had a shortage of numbers – he had great vision – so we went wide and I had the space.

In 1980 while playing for the Sydney Roosters, you played two interstate games for NSW before the Origin series was launched and you switched to Queensland for Game Three. How did the Blues boys feel about Origin?

I don’t think they took it that seriously. They knew they had won the series and thought “we will just keep on beating them”. But it was different in Queensland. We picked our side a week earlier and assembled in Brisbane a week before they did. NSW picked their side really late and did not have the moves we had practised all week.

How did the NSW and Queensland camps differ that year?

NSW were fitter. I did both trainings and they trained harder. And I think in Queensland there was still a feeling your day job came first and football second, where in NSW it was the other way around.

Where do you stand in the debate about one or two referees?

I prefer one. Given them a chance to make a decision. At the moment there is really four people making a decision — two refs and two sideline guys and then it can go to the bunker. I just hate the time it takes for a decision. Let the ref make a decision.