Tony Currie

One of the most exciting and professional players of his era, Tony Currie was a star at all levels of rugby league.

He was the first Brisbane Wests junior to have graduated to the senior ranks, and then to have represented Queensland in the State of Origin arena, and Australia in Test football.

Currie made his Queensland debut off the bench in the third and deciding Origin match, at the SCG, in 1982, with the Maroons winning 10-5.

A week later he starred for Queensland in the Maroons' 31-16 win over the touring Kiwis at Lang Park. That same year, Currie won the Rothmans' Medal as Brisbane's Best and Fairest.

We were always coming together for a common cause ... and that was to play for Queensland.

Tony Currie FOG #31

A graduate of Kelvin Grove High School, Currie started his senior career with Wests, and finished back there in 1993, after a career which included seven Tests, 13 State of Origin matches and premierships with Canterbury-Bankstown and the Broncos, in 1988 and 1992 respectively, as well as two stints with Leeds in England, and one season at Redcliffe.

He was also a member of the Combined Brisbane side which won the 1984 mid-week National Panasonic Cup competition, and played in the Broncos' Panasonic Cup final win over Illawarra in 1989, the same year that he toured New Zealand with the Australian side.

But for a snapped Achilles early in 1990, Currie undoubtedly would have toured Britain and France with the Kangaroos at the end of the Australian domestic season.

He finished his playing career with a Brisbane premiership at his beloved Wests Panthers, playing alongside future Queensland stars, Brad Thorn and Adrian Lam.

He gave his heart and soul to Wests, first as secretary manager of the leagues club, and later as president and benefactor of the senior and junior clubs.

On the coaching front, Currie had three successful seasons in charge of the London Broncos in the mid-1990s. 

A proud Indigenous ambassador, Currie's grandfather, 'Stoker' Currie was a revered Indigenous star on the North Coast of New South Wales in the 1930s, while his uncle, Alan, won the 1977 Rothmans Gold Medal with Easts in Brisbane.