Mr Brian Davies

Davies was voted into the top 100 players of all time in rugby league's centenary year in 2008 and was selected in the Queensland Team of the Century for his performances in a career that spanned 17 seasons from 1948-1964.

The outstanding forward played 33 Tests, including three as captain-coach, completed two Kangaroo tours and played in World Cups in 1954 and the victorious 1957 side.

He debuted for Australia at 21, just a year after taking up the game when convinced to attend Brothers rugby league training after coming to The Courier-Mail office to fix the air conditioning as an apprentice plumber.

Davies played both second-row and front-row during his career and, on arriving home from his first Kangaroos tour in 1952-53, team manager Latchem Robinson named him the player of the overseas tour.

A Brisbane premiership winner with Brothers in 1956 and 1958, Davies also played 37 games for Queensland between 1950 and 1958.

He was the only resident Queenslander in the Australian team for his final international campaign in 1958, when the Kangaroos lost the series 2-1 to Great Britain.

Davies spent four seasons in Sydney playing for Canterbury in 1959-1962, returning to Queensland to play for a year at St George in southwest Queensland. His playing career ended back where it began, at Brothers in 1964.