In the 1960s, all rugby league roads led north and turned right at the promised land of Norths’ Oxenham Park.
The Devils were in the middle of a golden era that by the end of the 1969 grand final had stretched to six minor premierships and 11 finals appearance in a row - and eight premierships from that 11.
Hooking in the scrum like a man possessed with blue and gold blood was Bob Fowler and North side glory wasn’t far away.
Bob Fowler Q&A
How did you end up at Norths Devils?
I was a northside boy, lived at Bald Hills. My brother played for Norths and I did too. You had to play where you lived, so I was only going to be play for Norths because I wasn’t moving. I used to catch the train from Bald Hills to Nundah to go to training. It was a big effort. I started at Norths and then got transferred to Townsville for my job with MLC life insurance. Then I came back to Brisbane and Norths in 1969. Brothers Townsville were going to put a $300 transfer on me because I had played for North Queensland. I took it to the QRL and argued against it and Ted Verrenkamp was on the QRL board and he said 'you’re a good salesman' and waived the transfer so I could come back to Norths.
Can you remember your debut for Norths?
Certainly can, Wests at Oxenham Park and Baxy said 'stop Barry Muir', that was my job.
Bob Bax, tell me something about the great man? What was his best half time speech?
Baxy was caring. He understood his players. If you needed a cuddle, he was there. If you needed a rocket, he would give it to you. Two speeches I can remember. We are behind at half time and Baxy is launching at us and pointing at players. We had dropped a few balls offloading and Baxy hated errors.
"Here’s a Queensland fullback that likes to offload one-handed. Here’s a Queensland centre that likes to offload one-handed. The next player that offloads one-handed comes and sits with me" and he’s walked out.
Another time, he’s pointed to the two reserves at half time and told them to get changed. "These 13 blokes got us into this mess they can get us out" and he turned around the walked out. He was an innovator, he used to pay us 10c a tackle and then at the end of the year he would show up with all these 10c pieces for our end of year drink. He started a captain’s run, most teams just trained Tuesday and Thursday night, but we’d also do a quick run through the day before.
1969 grand final, Norths’ era coming to an end and it would be their last premiership until 1980.
We were always confident; it was a great time for Norths and we had such good players. I never really felt like we would lose. It was only 14-2, but they didn’t score a try. Valleys were on the way up and the 1970s would show that their time was coming.
I will tell you some Devils you tell me what you think.
John Brown
Smart player and great communicator. He was a great leader and great captain.
Ian Massie
Was super fit, he just didn’t stop and wasn’t anything he couldn’t do on the field. He still is fit and won five premierships at Norths and is in the Norths Team of the Century. Great tackler and played for Queensland. Then coached Norths too. He scored in so many grand finals; 1960, two tries in 1963 and a try in 1969.
Fonda Metassa
Five premierships, not much more you can say. Great finisher. He scored tries in so many grand finals; 1959, two in 1962, 1964 and in 1969. I always thought he was so old, but he swears he was only 31 in 1969. 13 tries in finals in his career, that’s more than some whole careers.
Favourite ever Devil?
That’s hard, but I will say Don Simpson and Peter Hall. My two front rowers from 1969.
Who caused you some grief out there?
Brothers' Peter Gallagher could be a handful. Played for Queensland, Australia and Brisbane and was such a Brothers’ man.
What was your biggest contract at Norths?
$30 a win, $15 a draw and a bonus for seven games, and then 14 games and finals. One year Peter Hall got smacked in the face by Greg Veivers and I went to help and broke my knuckle, so I was one game short of a bonus. Hally cost me $200.
Norths in the 1960s would have been rocking; what’s your best memories?
Apart from the grand finals, Norths had this house they owned at Nundah that was like the club house. After a game on Sunday, I would go home and have some dinner then go to the Norths House. All three grades would be down stairs having a beer and the selectors would go upstairs and pick the teams for next week. You’d find out that night if you were still in A grade or not.
The second great memory is the Farquhar owned the Bonny View Hotel at Bald Hills and we would always go there for a drink at the end of the season. The Farquhar family would put on a great feed for all the Norths boys and we had some great days there.
I dug a little deeper to find out some more about Bob Fowler and who else would you go to but Fowler’s halfback at Norths in 1969, John Brown.
“Bob was central to our attack and Bob Bax introduced a version of Duncan Thompson’s contract football. Our front rower Don Simpson would crash into the defence and turn and deliver an offload to Bob Fowler and Bob would either pass to another forward like Massie or Peter Hall or I would call the ball to move it along our backline. It worked perfectly and Bob did his job admirably. He was very intelligent for a hooker.”
