2026 NRL – Prop by the Sea: An apology to Gary Larson for omitting him from my ‘Blondie First 13’

 

 

 

 

In his weekly post on The Footy Almanac earlier today, Prop by the Sea named his Blondie First 13, a best ever line-up of rugby league players blessed with blond hair. It was pointed out to Prop that he had not named Gary Larson, the great Central Queensland player of State of Origin, North Sydney Bears and Parramatta Eels fame. The Pride of Miriam Vale. Prop was mortified! How could he miss such a legend from his own backyard? By way of grovelling apology, Prop forwarded the following article he penned for FOGS which was published in League Queensland (Issue 62/2025). It appears here with permission from FOGS.

 

State of Origin’s Iron Man with a Cold Chisel Jaw

When you think about Gary Larson you think about a bloke who made “unspectacular” into a superpower. A bloke with the work ethic of a rural fencing contractor but the media profile of a classified ad. A bloke who grew up in Central Queensland and says to this day there is no better sandwich in Australia than Claws crab sandwich in Miriam Vale washed down with a Vanilla milkshake.

What a player, Larson was pure Queensland granite. Born in 1967 in Gladstone and raised in cattle country around Miriam Vale where the local Oval is named after him, he was built like a cattle yard post and looked like he came straight from central casting for a no-nonsense backrower who could run all day and not say much while doing it. They were that tough in Miriam Vale that the dads would tie straw mattresses on the goal posts for protection, Larson joked!

Larson played 24 straight Origin games for Queensland from 1991 to 1998. That’s not just consistency — it’s laminated resilience. No fanfare, no scandal, no dropping. Just series in, series out. 80-minute stints, usually covered in mud and sweat and a little blood, mostly not his own. (JT broke Larsons record of straight games.)

In Origin terms, that’s a 100 years’ war. Larsen was ever-present through some of Queensland’s leanest years, when the Blues were bigger, brasher, and blessed with seemingly endless backlines of silver tails (what’s changed, you ask?). Yet he kept showing up — knocking the Blues over with no nonsense and hitting up like his mortgage depended on it.

Did he do miracle offloads or carry defenders on his back like ticks on a Brahman? Not really. What he did was show up, get to work, and never stop. That was Larson’s Origin. Liam Hauser in his book The Immortals of State of Origin named Larson in his best ever Queensland side in the second row. Hauser notes that as a boy Cameron Smith rated Larson as the player he just loved the most in Origin as ‘he just got in and made his 50 tackles with little fuss.’  Finally on Origin, given it is 30 years since the tremendous 1995 Neville’s 3-nil series win, Larson was a key player in that series, Man of the Match in the first game and urging all the players in the third game not to be beaten.

And in club footy it was no different. A North Sydney Bear, the great unloved romantics of the ’90s. A team so often knocking on the door of a grand final, but never quite kicking it in. Larson was their heartbeat — 233 games in red and black, turning North Sydney Oval into a cauldron of blue-collar sweat and suburban belief.

When Super League tore the game in half, Larson didn’t take the cheque or the bait. He stayed loyal to the ARL, loyal to the Bears. An old school player who didn’t need hype to have value.

Larson finished his career in 2000 playing 17 games for the Eels after being unwanted by the Northern Eagles, and retired at the end of that season. Larson coached the CQ Comets (Capras) in the 2002 QRL State League, the same team he was scouted from in 1986.

Larson’s legacy may not be the flashiest but it is all substance. Larson may not have been the kind of player kids mimic in the backyard because he didn’t throw many cut-out passes or use a sidestep but he did tackles, ran hard, and never shirked. He was Queensland tough, which doesn’t mean snarling and strutting—it means getting up, every time, and doing your job – just doing your job!

We talk about Origin spirit. About blokes who wear the jersey like armour and never want to take it off. Larson was that. Maybe the best of that – of turning up, shutting up, and getting the job done.

So, here’s to you, Gary. The quiet kid from Miriam Vale. The Bears’ backbone. And the kind of bloke every Queenslander secretly wants to be in the backrow when the game against the Blues is on the line.

10 quick questions about Gary Larson:

Favourite players as a junior? Big Mal

Which club did you support as a kid? The Eels and Souths in the BRL

Where did you play your first junior game? I was 7 and it was for Wallabys in Gladstone

Who was your favourite FOG? Mal, Wally and Choppy

What was your standard pre-match meal? ALWAYS pasta

Who was your favourite Bears teammate? – Billy Moore and Greg Florimo

Who was your favourite Origin teammate? Willie Carne

What was your favourite Origin moment?  My first Origin was a dream come true

What was your favourite ground? I always loved Lang Park and even as a kid, when I played there I always played well

Where do you work now? I work for the Gladstone Port Authority and live at Tannum Sands.

Post Script

Larson is over the moon that the Bears are coming back and will be supporting the red and black from Day 1!

 

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