Redcap's BRL

Eleven degrees of separation from 1909 to 2026: The players who form a continuous line in Brisbane rugby league

Here at Redcap’s BRL, it’s time to take a break from chronicling competition records to answer a question nobody is asking. It’s just that kind of website.

So, in the unlikely event you’ve ever wondered how many players form a continuous line of succession from the start of organised club rugby league in Brisbane during the winter of 1909, right through to those running around in the NRL of 2026, well, I’ve got the answer (or at least an answer) for you.

The rules are simple. The first player in the line has to have debuted in the 1909 BRL season. The second player needs to have played in at least one of the same seasons as the first, and so on. The line must cover every season from 1909 to 2026.

It’s by no means a selection of the best players – though there are some great ones on the list – just the careers which fit together to form the shortest line possible.

Given the BRL was gradually hollowed out, and then, as a result, effectively replaced when the Brisbane Broncos joined the NSW Rugby League in 1988, the eligibility criteria need to be a little flexible.

The player whose career spans 1987-88 does not need to have played in the ’87 BRL and for the ’88 Broncos. That would rather drastically narrow the options available and fail to recognise that the Broncos weren’t the only ravenous jackal gnawing on the bones of the city’s rugby league heritage.

Hence, detours to Sydney are allowed, provided the players in question start and finish their top-tier careers with an eligible club.

Which brings me to eligible clubs. The BRL had a long history of involving teams from outside Brisbane’s administrative boundaries. There were a few different combinations from Ipswich. There was South Coast, the Gold Coast’s first top-flight team. Then there was Redcliffe.

What this means is that the Giants/Seagulls/Chargers and the Titans are eligible. Just for the sake of inclusion, I’ll mention the Crushers. While the precise location of the NRL’s Metaverse Dolphins remains something of a mystery, they are rumoured to have some links to the old Redcliffe Dolphins, so they’re in too.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the players who form Brisbane rugby league’s 117-year continuous line of succession.

David Harrower

Valleys (1909-1910), North Brisbane (1910-1911), South United (1911), Woolloongabba (1912), West End (1913-1915), Wests (1915), Woolloongabba (1916), Westerns (1918), Railways (1919)

David Harrower, the moustachioed man of many clubs who bore a slight resemblance to Nick Offerman’s uber-manly Ron Swanson, is the holder of an interesting record: the eight different top-tier clubs he represented over the course of his itinerant career are one more than latter-day journeymen Tyran Smith, Blake Green and Darrien Doherty, all of whom played for seven.

Harrower’s career partly reflected the extraordinary instability and churn of the early BRL. By the time he hung up his boots in 1919, four of the clubs he’d played for had either ceased to be or morphed into something else, while two others, West End and Railways, would be finished by the end of the 1920 season.

Before he became a journeyman, Harrower was with Valleys in 1909 and while he didn’t play in their premiership final victory over South Brisbane, he was in the Valleys team at the Gabba on the very first match-day of that inaugural season, so we’re starting right back at the beginning here.

Then the churn kicked in and Harrower eventually washed up at the nascent West End ‘All Blacks’ in 1913 as part of a rag-tag bunch of cast-offs from the Woolloongabba and Kurilpa electoral district teams.

West End confounded everybody in 1913, winning the premiership and winning it comfortably. Harrower was one of their key forwards, playing in every game and probably enjoying the very public meltdown of his former teammate Hughie Mullins, who was by then captain and manager of the defending premiers Natives, after West End clinched the title.

Ossie Hardy

South Brisbane (1913), West End (1914), Wests (1917-1919), Valleys (1920-1924)

Who are the greatest try-scoring forwards in rugby league history? The Immortal Frank Burge, Hall of Famer Steve Menzies and the great Edward ‘Babe’ Collins are probably the holy trinity, and deservedly so.

‘Os’ Hardy doesn’t quite belong in that company, but he deserves a mention. When he retired in 1924, he was the BRL’s all-time leading try-scorer with a total of 64. Like Burge, Menzies and Collins, he started in the backs from time to time and often drifted wide looking for opportunities, though he was primarily a forward.

Alas, premiership success eluded Hardy. He joined David Harrower at West End in 1914 but only managed a couple of games and wasn’t on the park when the All Blacks lost to Valleys in the Final.

He left Wests after the 1919 season and then watched his former club go on dominant premiership runs in 1920 and ’22. He played in Valleys’ defeat to Coorparoo in the 1923 Final. By the time Valleys returned to the premiership summit in 1924, Hardy had drifted out of the top grade.

Graham ‘Paddy’ Crouch

Bulimba (1920), Coorparoo (1922-1929), Wynnum (1931-32)

Paddy Crouch was probably the finest centre-three-quarter of his day and a premiership winner in 1923 with Coorparoo. He was briefly the BRL’s all-time leading point-scorer, until University’s dead-eyed kicker George Lockie passed him in 1931, but did retire as the all-time leader in games played after a couple of seasons at the newly-minted and short-lived Wynnum club in the early 1930s.

Crouch was also the first Indigenous player to tour with a football team of any code when he went to New Zealand in 1925 as part of a Queensland side also featuring Jimmy Craig, Norm Potter, Vic Armbruster, Cec Aynsley and sundry other greats of the era. 

Fred ‘Firpo’ Neumann

Valleys (1929-1945)

So we come to the ultimate Diehard, Fred Neumann, whose remarkable career takes us all the way through the great depression and World War II.

The headline points are: three premierships for Valleys, 170 BRL games (a record which stood until 1962), a lifetime involvement with the club as a player, coach and administrator, and eventually having Valleys’ home ground named in his honour (Neumann Oval, now Allan Border Field).

There were a couple of interesting sliding doors moments in Neumann’s career where things could’ve turned out differently.

The first was in 1937 when some feared that the accumulated toll of club and representative football in the preceding years and lingering knee and shoulder injuries might be the end of him.

It turns out those fears were mislaid and by the end of the season Neumann had somehow got himself right and led Valleys to another grand final. The 1937 decider was wildly controversial, and one of Firpo’s finest moments…

With the Grand Final tied at 7-apiece, under 10 minutes to go and the speedy [Snowy] Gollan in the clear, it looked like Wests were going to snatch it. Gollan crossed the line, but wait, a Valleys chaser had been taken out. It was Neumann, of course, and while the veteran centre would surely never have caught Gollan, a penalty was awarded for obstruction. A couple of minutes later, Firpo iced the game and Valleys’ eleventh premiership with a field goal.

The second was in 1941 when Neumann attempted to enlist. Unfortunately for Firpo and quite possibly the armed forces, but fortunately for Valleys, it was felt that his day job in the ship yards was essential to the war effort and that he simply couldn’t be spared.

I’d wager a few of Neumann’s opposing centres, like Hugh Melrose of Norths who he terrorised in the 1941 Grand Final, felt differently.

Charlie Martin

Souths (1940, 1942-1943 & 1945), Norths (1946-1948), Easts (1949-1953)

Charlie Martin was one of the most influential and under-appreciated players of his era. A small and skilful hooker, he was part of Souths’ first premiership in 1945, before playing a key role in Easts’ unlikely march to the BRL premiership in 1950.

Despite a premiership in 1947 and finishing runners-up in ’48 and ’49, Easts were awful in early 1950. Wests hammered them 25-3. A poor Valleys outfit beat them the following weekend. Then they were swamped by a rampant Souths, suffering a 50-15 flogging which surely signalled they were mere pretenders.

Nobody can win a premiership after shipping 50 points, right?

It certainly looked dire, but Martin and Easts did recover, clawing their way into the finals before dispatching Souths in the Preliminary Final, then Wests in the Grand Final to claim the premiership.

Turns out that stuff about the 50-point hoodoo has been a load of old cobblers for the best part of 80 years.

Norm Pope

Valleys (1950-51 & 1953-1964), Wests (1972)

If there’s a record for breaking records, Norm Pope would surely have it.

He broke Bruce Baker’s record for most points in a single season in 1953, then broke his own record twice (Bruce Warwick eventually broke Pope’s record in 1975).

He broke Danny O’Connor’s record as the BRL’s all-time leading point-scorer in 1956, less than halfway through his own career. I must admit that I haven’t tallied points from the BRL of the 1980s yet, but I can’t imagine anybody even coming close to Pope’s 1853, mainly because nobody I’ve tracked since has. Peter Lobegeiger in second place finished more than 600 points behind.

He broke Firpo Neumann’s games record in 1962, though the next player on this list was the first of a few to eventually pass him.

While I’m not sure if it’s any kind of record, 53 tries for a fullback who played in the 1950s and early ’60s, an era when fullbacks mostly stayed at home as custodians and field position kickers, is quite remarkable.

By the way, the reference above to Pope having played for Wests in 1972 is not a mistake. He really did that, despite being 40 years old, having not played first grade in eight years and being, ostensibly as head coach, the responsible adult in the room. Confronted with a couple of late withdrawals and with few other options, he said something along the lines of, ‘f**k it, I’m playing. Let’s go!’

Accounts of Pope, including his own testimony in Greg Mallory’s book Voices from Brisbane Rugby League, suggest a man who didn’t spend much time mulling. It’s probably what made him such a great goal kicker.

Marty Scanlan

Valleys (1964-1975)

It’s hard to know what to say about Scanlan, the wily, hard-tackling, consummate link man, leader of men and four-time BRL premiership winner who’s credited by some as an important influence on a young Wally Lewis. Actually, that’s not a bad start.

While he was a brilliant footballer in his own right, Scanlan was in some ways an understated player. There wasn’t a lot of flash or fireworks – just all the little things done on time and to high-spec so the likes of Mick Retchless, Jeff Gill, Hugh O’Doherty and Gerry Fitzpatrick could do their thing. The beating heart of that great Valleys team of the early 1970s.

Norm Carr

Wests (1975-1984), Souths (1985-1986)

In an era when many lock forwards were essentially five-eighths who couldn’t run fast, Norm Carr was a bit different. He was a proper 1970s-style forward who could look after himself in the fiercest company, while possessing soft enough hands to not look out of place in the number eight jersey.

Check out this lovely bit of play in Brisbane’s win over St George in the 1979 AMCO Cup, with Carr running wide off Des Morris and then putting Brad Backer away for a try with a nice bit of anticipation and timing.

Carr was a key part of breaking Wests’ long premiership drought in 1975. He added another premiership in 1976, before breaking Panther hearts when he left for Souths in 1985 where he was captain of Wayne Bennett’s first premiership team.

Martin Bella

Easts (1983-1985), North Sydney (1986-1989), Manly Warringah (1990-1992), Canterbury (1993-1994), North Queensland (1995), Gold Coast Chargers (1996-1997)

Martin Bella is the man to take us across the threshold from old world to new, which is nice for a few reasons.

First, who doesn’t like big ‘Munster’? Among other things, these days he’s a farily sensible local councillor giving something back to his native Sarina.

Second, Bella’s detour to Sydney started with the North Sydney Bears who hosted many of Queensland’s finest over the years, going all the way back to Duncan Thompson in the 1920s.

Third, the Gold Coast Chargers get a mention nearly 30 years after their untimely demise. In 1997, Bella was part of the best (or at least most fun) Gold Coast team yet, where he teamed up with Wes Patten, Jamie Goddard, Marcus Bai, Et Al to lead the Chargers into the second week of the finals.

Plus, it’s a good excuse to show Bella’s Chargers footy card. The very-stylish-for-the-’90s goatee makes him look remarkably like a chunky version of Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich had more of a halfback’s build).

Darren Lockyer

Brisbane Broncos (1995-2011)

Should we be impressed or concerned about Darren Lockyer’s recent decision to invest in the London Broncos?

Looking on from afar, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Maybe there’s some sentiment involved. Maybe he wants to be English rugby league’s version of Ryan Reynolds, though if that’s the case it might’ve made more sense to buy Barrow or Whitehaven.

Maybe it’s the rugby league equivalent of Australia’s favourite pastime: property speculation. Buying an ugly house in a neglected neighbourhood, but one which might have some prospects if the NRL moves in, maybe attracts some new media money and gentrifies the surrounding area.

He might not even need to spend much doing up the joint – just wait for property values to rise a little, flip it and make off with a profit. Probably a very small profit, mind you. We rugby league folk are unlikely to have the capital or connections to make a killing betting on Chevron or Lockheed.

As a player, Lockyer was on a different level to most rugby league folk, and he’s sure to be mentioned in the next round of ‘Immortals’ debates.

The ongoing devaluation of the Immortals concept through a combination of dubious choices, the NRL’s absurd insistence that somebody has to go in every few years no matter what, and a selection process which provides panel members with no scope to push back against the NRL’s historical vandalism aside, Lockyer would be a perfectly good choice.

Ben Hunt

Brisbane Broncos (2009-2017 & 2025-2026), St George Illawarra (2018-2024)

The billowing toilet fire which is the 2026 St George Illawarra Dragons has many fathers. It’s certainly not Ben Hunt’s fault, though his spectre still looms.

Remember, this is the guy who was willing to forego something in region of half-a-million dollars of gross salary so he didn’t have to play for the Dragons anymore. It was a chastening thought at the time, and it came to mind again watching the embarrassment that was the Dragons’ capitulation at home to a mediocre Cowboys outfit over the Easter weekend.

For most of Hunt’s time at Wollongong, the extent of the Dragons tactical repertoire was ‘I dunno, give it to Ben and see what happens’. Now, they’ve got nothing. In fact, it’s less than nothing given Hunt would occasionally make some of the rank plodders around him look much better than they really were.

It should also be remembered that Hunt was keen to come back to Queensland, and it’s been a happy homecoming for all. He and the Broncos won a long-awaited premiership in 2025, and Hunt became eligible to complete the eleven-man Brisbane rugby league line of succession.

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If there was a point to this piece when the draft web page was summoned into being, the author has long since forgotten what it was. Whatever, if it’s provided you with something you didn’t previously know, then great.

Can you find a Brisbane rugby league line of succession involving fewer players?