A scheming forward with the skills of a back, Brothers’ Peter Gill had all the tricks with the ball in hand at No.6 for Brethren or No.13 for the Dragons.
Gill was in the thick of it when the Brothers won the premiership in 1987, toured with Queensland and became a Dragon.
Peter Gill Q&A
Fullback for Queensland Country against Auckland in 1984 at Lang Park and fullback for Toowoomba against Great Britain. Were those games pivotal to you coming to Brisbane’s attention?
I think it played a part, I really enjoyed fullback. Brothers contacted me and my good Toowoomba mate Dan Staines had gone down to Brothers, so that was good enough for me. I had always wanted to go to Brisbane and Brothers seemed a good fit and I got to play with Dan Staines.
Are you excited about the Clydesdales being back in the Hostplus Cup?
Very excited, it’s such a rich league area and so much history and local pride. I am very proud. A lot of people have worked hard for this. I grew up in a time where touring countries played Toowoomba.
In 1986 you make the grand final against a red-hot Wynnum, was it the game you had to lose?
I think so, you don’t want to lose them but if you lose them you have to learn from it and come back improved. When we lost in 1986, Struddy (Ross Strudwick) would tell us to respect Wynnum but not over respect them. Then he would go in the paper and wind them up and call them the QRL darlings.
In 1987 Brothers beat a star Redcliffe in the grand final. What was different from 12 months earlier?
Defence, Struddy worked on our defence. That first three metres off the line was important and that’s what we did, we got up quick and slid off.
From the time 1986 was over I never had any doubt we would win in 1987. We weren’t arrogant, but we knew we would get back there and win.
I think to this day if the Broncos don’t come in and the BRL keeps going, we could have stayed together and won two or three in a row.
We were such a good team and so close to each other.
What’s something you learnt from Struddy?
Struddy was ahead of his time, he was all about attention to detail.
Picked for Queensland to play in New Zealand in 1987, you got to play with Wally instead of against him and you get two tries and then on the bench when Queensland play again against New Zealand before the third Origin?
That trip to New Zealand was great, what a concept, could you imagine now trying to convince Billy Slater to go to New Zealand and play three tough games then before the third and deciding game Queensland will play the touring New Zealand team at Lang Park.
I loved my time for Queensland, Gene Miles what a player just to see guys like that and how they prepare and why they would be playing Origin in a week was fantastic.
You go to the Dragons and win another trophy the 1988 Panasonic Cup and player of the series. How’d you spend the $20,000?
$20,000 worth of electrical gear, I got televisions in every room and deep fryers for everyone. My house looked like the shop. $20,000 wouldn’t go as far now.
I remember the Dragons rang up and said would you like to come down to Sydney. I thought they were joking, a famous club like the Dragons. So five of us went down and lived together. It was the party house. What a great time.
I would have been happy if I played my whole life at Brothers, but to go down to the Dragons was great.
In my research I asked a Brothers’ team mate of yours to describe you. They said: 'Super player, nice bloke, but an absolute mongrel dog on the field'. True or false?
Who was that? I liked to tackle put it that way.
It was Mark Coyne.
That’d be right, ol' 'Kid' Coyne, we called him that because I think he was about 14 when he came into grade. He was very young. I talk to 'Kid' a bit so I will bring that up next time. Unnecessary.
Have you got your Brothers’ grand final jumper?
Yeah, I have the 1987 one at home and the 1986 one, Wally asked me to swap the 1986 one after the grand final and I was cranky at the world and said: 'No, I don’t want your jumper'. I should have grabbed it - a Wynnum fan would buy it off me now for a fortune.
I asked some former Brothers teammates what they thought of Peter Gill.
Joe Kilroy: "He is a gentleman and a champion on and off the field."
Brett Le Man: "Good bloke and good footballer."
Trevor Bailey: "Great bloke."
Ross Strudwick: "The best."
