Queensland mourn loss of Tweed rugby league icon
AT a time when the Broncos have been urged to “show some heart’’ rugby league has lost the man who was the very embodiment of those three words.
Barry Muir, the colourful, irreverent, loveable larrikin who was one of Australia’s finest rugby league halfbacks and greatest characters, died age 84.
“Garbo’’ Muir will be forever remembered as the man who coined the phrase “cockroaches’’ to describe players from NSW as he tried to rouse undermanned Queensland sides he coached to special efforts in the underrated and often forgotten pre-origin era of the 1970s.
Rough and raw and real, Muir’s coaching addresses would make Kevin Walters’s outburst after last week’s loss to Parramatta sound like a Sunday school sermon.
Earlier this month named halfback in the Brisbane Rugby League’s greatest team at a special lunch in Brisbane, Muir was a strident critic of the pre-origin system, which allowed Queensland players to be plucked from Brisbane then play against Queensland for NSW.
Muir, who played 26 matches for Queensland and 25 Tests, fed Australia’s scrum during a challenging period from 1959-64 when the outstanding British halfback Alex Murphy was his rival.
Muir was born in Tweed Heads – ironic given his hatred of all things NSW – and played for Toowoomba Valleys and 11 years at Brisbane Wests, captain-coaching at that club before heading to Ayr in North Queensland to wind up his career.
“I saw Barry on Monday – I had seen his health decline but of late he had really enjoyed talking about his footy days,’’ former star Queensland five-eighth of the 1970s Geoff Richardson said.
“He was great for rugby league. He spoke up in the papers. Once before a game between Queensland and Great Britain we picked up a copy of the afternoon Telegraph at our hotel and it had a story where Barry said the Poms were cream puffs.
“After every tackle that night the English forwards would say “so we are cream puffs are we?’’
“Barry started the ‘us against them’ theme in Queensland rugby league. But he did not talk down to players. He urged them to have a go.”