Richie Poulsen came from Casino to the unknown world of Brisbane and Dolphins football.
The front rower would play for the Dolphins, Manly and Brisbane and love every minute of it, forging a career right in the middle of the field.
Richie Poulsen Q&A
How did you get from Casino to Redcliffe?
I didn’t know too much if anything about Redcliffe or even Brisbane rugby league. I came down to watch Valleys v Redcliffe at Dolphin Oval and saw it was high quality and I saw Wally for the first time and thought this might be all right. I had a relative of Arthur recommend me to Dolphins.
How’d your debut go?
I came to Brisbane as an 18-year-old and my parents drove me to Redcliffe, so it’s safe to say I started in reserve grade for the Woolies pre-season and State League. Round 1 against Easts, myself and Curtis Powell made our debut and Arthur recalled Bunny Pearce. Redcliffe had lost the State League final to Easts and Arthur made six changes.
Was your strength with the ball or defending?
I think it changed, in Brisbane I loved to offload, but once I went to Sydney, they didn’t really appreciate that and I improved my defence.
First year in 1982, Wynnum too good 35-0 in the finals.
Yeah, you could say Wynnum was too good, it was over by 20 minutes in, Warren Green was just finishing everything and then kicking the goal to make it worse for us.
We had a very good team but it just all went to hell at the end of the year.
How did you find Arthur Beetson as a coach?
He wasn’t just my coach, he was my landlord too. I was living upstairs in his pub in town. Arthur was a very good coach. You could just sit and listen to him and because of who he was you wouldn’t want to not do what he said. Some of the meals he had at the pub had to be seen.
1983, goes better. A grand final under John Barber with a game built around a forward pack that was to be feared. But you’re missing?
Minor premiers and I think our pack were clearly our strength - myself and Vic Tighe were out - but we still had Wally Fullerton-Smith, Shane Bernardin and Paul Khan with Terry Webb. We lost to Easts in the finals and then came back to beat Valleys 28-10, so meet Easts again and lost 14-6.
1984 was your last year in Brisbane before joining Manly, how did Manly come about?
It had a lot to do with John Ribot, he was at Redcliffe and I believe was tipping Manly off that I might be worth a go.
Were you keen to get to Sydney?
I was tempted to stay in Brisbane to be honest, I loved Redcliffe and it was great football but the lure of Sydney and Manly was too much. Bullfrog Moore came into it too and wanted me to come to the Bulldogs. But living near the beach and working at the bank playing for Manly seemed pretty good. Not that I loved working at the bank.
Favourite ever Dolphin?
Bob Jones, special bond between a front rower and hooker.
You played eight games for Brisbane including the one-point win against the Roosters in 1984 in the Panasonic Cup Final, is that a highlight?
That Brisbane team was great, I think only three of us didn’t play Origin; myself, Henry Foster and Eddie Muller. It was such a great defensive effort to win by a point and a try each from Wally and Miles.
Who gave you trouble in Brisbane?
Two guys I always found hard to bring down were Mark Meskell from Souths and Paul Stewart from Wests.
Who did you avoid when you had the ball?
Mal Green from Wynnum. Step and step fast. He was a classic defender.
Do you still have your jumpers?
Treasure my Dolphins, Brisbane and Manly jumpers. I have them right here.
Favourite ever game?
This will sound strange but the 1988 Manly reserve grade grand final, I didn’t play much first grade that year at all and we had a real bond in that team. We beat the Roosters 22-2. I was keen to come back to Queensland at the end of 1988 and Bullfrog rang again and was keen to have me, but I chose the Giants and went to the Gold Coast. Bullfrog even rang my wife and said tell him he’s being ridiculous. Turned out he was pretty right, I did my Achilles for the Giants against the Dragons in my last NRL game and that was it. Only played five games for the Giants in two years.
