Queenslanders will always debate the legitimacy of the “exhibition match” held at Long Beach, California on August 6, 1987 but there’s no question it produced one of the greatest untold stories in the history of Origin.

“The night before the game a bunch of us have gone out for dinner and a few drinks,” recalled Paul Vautin.

“We’ve ended up having a few at this big bar where they had a stage at one end.

“The joint is packed and it turns out there is this big bodybuilding contest with blokes travelling around the country to strut their stuff.

“They’ve got the announcer with the big booming voice and it’s like, ‘and now, from New York City, it’s Billy Blogs, he’s 26 years of age and can bench press 400 pounds…’ and this mass of muscles will come out all oiled up and start doing the flexes.

“We’re all checking it out and then all of a sudden we hear, ‘And now ladies and gentlemen we have a special treat, all the way from Australia we have a young man by the name of Alfie Lang-ger …’ and out comes Alfie wearing nothing but a pair of white Reg Gundies.

“He comes out on stage and starts doing all the poses and the one arm push-ups.

“We’re going absolutely mad, the whole place is going crazy. He must have been up there for five or 10 minutes. It’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen.

“At the end they’ve all lined up and there’s little Alfie standing alongside all these giants and you wouldn’t believe it, he’s run third and won a hundred bucks cash.

“He’s jumped down off the stage, walked up to us, put the hundred on the bar and said, ‘Here we go boys, let’s have a drink’ and we’ve stayed there all night drinking, with Alfie still in his Reg Grundies.

“The next night we got beaten by about 20 and the coach (Wayne Bennett) wasn’t too happy with us, but geez we had a good time.”