Barry Muir

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Barry Muir
Personal information
Full nameBarry Atkins Muir
Born(1937-09-18)18 September 1937
Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Height173 cm (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Weight68 kg (10 st 10 lb)[1]
PositionHalfback
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1956 Tweed Heads Seagulls
1957 Valleys (Toowoomba)
1958–68 Western Suburbs
1970 Ayr
1971 Tweed Heads Seagulls
Total 0 0 0 0 0
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1959–66
Queensland
 28 3 2 0 13
1959–64 Australia 25 3 0 0 9
Coaching information
Club
Years Team Gms W D L W%
1966–68 Western Suburbs 63 21 4 38 33
1973–76 Redcliffe 92 50 0 42 54
1983 Northern Suburbs 14 4 0 10 29
Total 169 75 4 90 44
Representative
Years Team Gms W D L W%
1974–78
Queensland

Barry Muir (18 September 1937 – 2 September 2022)[2] was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach. An Australian and Queensland representative halfback, he played in 22 Tests between 1959 and 1964, as captain on two occasions.

Early life

Born in

Coolangatta State School and represented Queensland Schoolboys in 1951. He would leave school at age 15 to take up a carpentry apprenticeship. He was also a promising junior cricketer, occasional boxer, and coxswain for the Tweed Rowing Club.[3]

Club career

Nicknamed "Garbo",

Brisbane Rugby League
. He stayed with the club for 11 seasons.

He was captain-coach of Western Suburbs from 1966 to 1968. In 1968 he was banned from Brisbane football for allegedly spitting at the referee.[2]

Muir continued playing in 1970 as captain-coach with Ayr in North Queensland, before finished his playing career as captain-coach in 1971 back at Tweed Heads, where his career had begun 15 seasons earlier.[2]

Representative career

He debuted for Queensland against a visiting

Kangaroo tour where he appeared in all six Tests[2]
and 14 minor Tour matches.

He was vice-captain of the Australian squad for the 1960 World Cup and played in all three Australian appearances. He first captained Australia in the opening match of that World Cup against France when Keith Barnes was out injured.[2]

After captaining Queensland in 1961 in the interstate series he was selected in a 1961 tour of New Zealand and captained Australia in the Second Test of that series in Auckland to a 20–8 victory. For the next two years he formed a regular test halves partnership with

Ashes
series against Great Britain and Tests against visiting New Zealand and South African sides.

In 1963 he made his second

Kangaroo tour and replicated his feat of four years prior in appearing in all six Tests and 14 minor Tour matches. He was abruptly sent-off by referee Eric Clay in the Third Test at Headingley, Leeds for a reckless kick directed towards his opposite number Tommy Smales when the ball came out of a scrum on the Great Britain side. After he was sent off, he picked up a bucket of water on the sidelines and tipped it over an abusive spectator.[3]
It was to be his last Test appearance.

Team Matches Years
Queensland 28 1959–1966
Australia (Tests) 22 1959–1964
Australia (World Cup) 3 1960

Coaching career

Following his retirement as a player, Muir was brought to the Redcliffe Dolphins as coach in 1973. Muir would lead Redcliffe to the 1973 Brisbane Rugby League Grand Final, with the Dolphins losing to Fortitude Valley 15–7. Muir would coach Redcliffe for three seasons.

Muir coached the Queensland side from 1974 to 1978 (two years prior to the adoption of Origin selection criteria) and during this time Muir coined the term "cockroaches", the derogatory descriptor of the New South Wales rugby league team still used by the Queenslanders.[6][7] Before the final match of the 1976 interstate series he was watching a replay of an old game in the Queensland team's hotel when he spotted a cockroach.

"There was one of those rabbit ear aerials on top of the TV with this cockroach sitting on it. Tt was on the NSW side. Then when the Blues changed sides at halftime, it did too. I thought, that's what they are, bloody cockroaches." The next day at training Muir told his players to go out and belt those cockroaches. A Sydney reporter overheard and the nickname stuck.

— The Courier-Mail, 30 June 2012[3]

In the 1980s, he would later coach Queensland Country, Combined Brisbane, and Norths Devils.[2]

Legacy

Muir was a long time outspoken critic of the system that allowed the best Queensland club players to move to the Sydney competition and then to represent New South Wales.

Rugby League State of Origin
concept.

In February 2008, Muir was named in the list of Australia's

ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.[8][9]

In August 2022, Muir was named as halfback in the Brisbane Rugby League Team of the Century.[10][2]

Death

After a long battle with ill-health, Muir died peacefully at his home on 2 September 2022.[11][2] He was survived by his wife and four children.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "1960 World Cup Match". i.ebayimg.com. ebay. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ricketts, Steve (2 September 2022). "Vale Barry Muir". qrl.com.au. Queensland Rugby League. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e Colman, Mike (30 June 2012). "You don't get it. Im the best halfback in Australia. I don't play reserve grade. - Barry Muir". The Courier-Mail. Nationwide News Pty Ltd. p. 10 (QWeekend).
  4. ^ a b Craddock, Robert (3 September 2022). "Maroons Legend Lost". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane: Nationwide News Pty Ltd. p. 71.
  5. ^ Goodman, Tom (28 May 1959). "Queensland beats N.S.W. in league by 17-15". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
  6. ISBN 978-0-7022-3383-8
    .
  7. ^ "QUEENSLAND MOURNS LOSS OF THE ICONIC BARRY MUIR". Former Origin Greats. 2 September 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  8. ^ Peter Cassidy (23 February 2008). "Controversy reigns as NRL releases top 100 players". Macquarie National News. Archived from the original on 25 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  9. ARL. 23 February 2008. Archived from the original
    on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 23 February 2008.
  10. ^ Arnold, Rikki-Lee (19 August 2022). "King Wally named captain of the BRL Team of the Century". qrl.com.au. Queensland Rugby League. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  11. ^ "Death notice - Barry Atkins MUIR". The Courier-Mail. Nationwide News Pty Ltd. 9 September 2022.

Sources

  • Whiticker, Alan (2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney
  • Andrews, Malcolm (2006) The ABC of Rugby League Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney
Sporting positions
Preceded by Coach

Queensland
1974–1978 		Succeeded by
John MacDonald

1979–1980
Preceded by
Australia

1960-1961 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barry_Muir&oldid=1177167811"