Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
NZ NZ

Flamin' Oath: Alf Stewart From Home And Away Nearly Played For The Wallabies

By Calum Henderson
Alf Stewart

Long before he bought the Summer Bay caravan park, Alf Stewart (aka actor Ray Meagher) was a handy first five-eighth who played a handful of games for Queensland. He tells Calum Henderson the story of his brush with Wallabies selection.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I’m a total hypocrite,” Ray Meagher admits. He looks and sounds exactly like Alf Stewart, his famous character on Australian soap opera Home and Away. We are in a meeting room in the TVNZ office building in Auckland, where Meagher is doing promo for an upcoming stage production of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, but when he talks it feels like we could be in Summer Bay, talking footy down at the surf club.

“I run into Kiwis living in Australia all the time,” he tells me, “and I’ll say ‘so you follow the All Blacks?’ ‘Yeah yeah of course mate.’ So then I ask ‘when the Wallabies play England, who do you support?’ And they always say England. The bastards follow everybody but the Wallabies! That doesn’t go down well.”

“Then I think hang on, what have I done? I’ve moved from Queensland to New South Wales, and I follow Queensland whenever they play New South Wales and then want everyone else to beat New South Wales,” he laughs.

Meagher’s loyalty to the maroon runs deeper than many may realise. In the 1960s, long before he was hot-headed bait shop owner Alf Stewart, he spent the best part of a decade playing first five-eighth for Brisbane club Wests, going on to represent Queensland a handful of times – most memorably against a touring French side – and even came close to being selected for the 1969 Wallabies tour to South Africa.

The story of his brush with Wallabies selection begins and ends with Des Connor, a “sensationally good” halfback who played 12 tests for Australia before marrying a Kiwi, moving to New Zealand and playing 12 more for the All Blacks. “At that time that was quite a number of tests – they might only play 3 a year.”

 
banner

ADVERTISEMENT

 

Connor was made coach of the ‘69 Wallabies side to tour South Africa, despite having only recently returned from New Zealand. Meagher played in a trial game before the tour, one of the few chances selectors had to watch players before picking a team. “He didn’t really know the form of anybody, and they used to take 30 on those trips, two full teams.”

The other selector was long-serving Australian rugby administrator Joe French. “This fella Joe French was from the same club as Des, Brothers Old Boys in Brisbane,” says Meagher. “The captain of my first grade team [Wests] was sitting right behind these two while this trial was going on.”

“At one stage the ball went through the hands and I backed up around – it was a simple runaround thing. I went around the bloke that I’d passed to and the outside centre stayed on his man, so there was a gap and I went through and scored a try.”

“Des Connor, who’d just come back from New Zealand, turned to Joe French and said ‘what about that bloke?’ My mate sitting behind them told me Joe French just looked at him and shook his head. It was all over, that was it. My one brush with [Wallabies selection] over in the shake of a head.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“That was about a hundred years ago,” Meagher jokes. He still keeps a close eye on the Wallabies, but we don’t talk about their 3-0 series defeat to England in June. He also follows Queensland, particularly when they play New South Wales.

As for league, he obviously follows Queensland in State of Origin, but doesn’t have any particular club ties. “Whenever there’s a side that’s got a few rugby players that have gone to league I usually follow them,” he explains, “or if there’s a really good attacking league side that like to throw the ball around.”

At the moment he likes the Broncos, and remains hopeful they will return to form by the playoffs. “I think [Wayne] Bennett could possibly get the Broncs back into some form now that State of Origin is over. I think he’ll sort them out and as long as they’re somewhere in the 8 they’ll give a lot of teams a lot of trouble.”

Before we wrap up the interview I want to ask him one more question. If Summer Bay was a real Australian town, which footy club would its residents support? Meagher thinks for a second. “Probably the Sharks. Manly… are perceived to be a bit silvertail-ish, whereas Cronulla’s more of a working man’s sort of club. Titans maybe? Nah, probably the Sharks.”

As we stand up to leave, Meagher laughs again. “That’s good,” he says. “I’ve never thought about that before.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Join free

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | Episode 6

Sam Warburton | The Big Jim Show | Full Episode

Japan Rugby League One | Sungoliath v Eagles | Full Match Replay

Japan Rugby League One | Spears v Wild Knights | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 10 | Six Nations Final Round Review

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | How can New Zealand rugby beat this Ireland team

Beyond 80 | Episode 5

Rugby Europe Men's Championship Final | Georgia v Portugal | Full Match Replay

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

39 Go to comments
A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

39 Go to comments
FEATURE
FEATURE Storm clouds gather over Biarritz with owner poised to bail out Storm clouds gather over Biarritz with owner poised to bail out
Search