Gorden Tallis

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Gorden Tallis
Queensland, Australia
Playing information
Height189 cm (6 ft 2+1⁄2 in)
Weight107 kg (16 st 12 lb; 236 lb)
PositionSecond-row
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1992–95 St. George Dragons 54 17 1 0 70
1997–04 Brisbane Broncos 160 49 0 0 196
Total 214 66 1 0 266
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1994–03
Queensland
 20 4 0 0 16
1998–03
Australia
 18 9 0 0 36
1997 Queensland (SL) 3 0 0 0 0
1997 Australia (SL) 3 0 0 0 0
Source: [1][2]

Gorden James Tallis (born 27 July 1973), also known by the

Indigenous Australian rugby league team of the century. He is currently a commentator and pundit for the Fox Sports network. He served as a National Rugby League board member and was a member of the board of directors for the North Queensland Cowboys. Tallis also worked on the coaching staff of the South Sydney Rabbitohs
.

Background

Tallis is of Tongan and Indigenous descent. Tallis' father Wally played rugby league briefly for

Leigh in the 1960s.[5] Gorden Tallis was born in Townsville, North Queensland
on 27 July 1973. There he played for the Centrals Tigers club.

Professional playing career

St George Dragons

Tallis moved to

Queensland side in the final two State of Origin series games that year. In 1995 he was included in the Tongan squad for the 1995 World Cup but had to withdraw due to injury.[7]

When the proposed

1996 season rather than play a final year with St George.[8]
After having made 54 appearances for the Dragons, he left Sydney.

Brisbane Broncos

Gorden Tallis about to receive the ball during a Brisbane Broncos match in 2004.

Tallis returned to the game with the Broncos for the

Telstra Cup grand final. In addition to representing Queensland in the Super League Tri-series competition, he made his international debut in the 1997 post season's Super League Test series against Great Britain
, playing at second-row forward in all three matches.

In

Australian Kangaroos
Test debut in the second match of the Trans-Tasman series.

He continued his great personal form when chosen for the

1999 and spearheaded Queensland's State of Origin campaign in a historic tied series. However, the season ended with Brisbane's failure to defend its premiership and Tallis was ruled out of October's Tri-Nations competition
because of injury.

2000 saw him score a try in Australia's 52–0 thrashing of

2000 NRL grand final, his four tries in Australia's 82–0 humiliation of Papua New Guinea before the 2000 World Cup, and his selection as Australian captain for the match against Russia (which resulted in a record 110–4 victory) did. In 2000, Tallis also received the Australian Sports Medal. Following Australia's World Cup victory, Tallis and teammate Shane Webcke wrote an open letter to players appealing for an end to scandalous behaviour amongst footballers which had been tarnishing the sport.[10]

Captaincy

Having won the

Kangaroos
in the July Test against Great Britain. Tallis scored a try in Australia's 64–10 win in that match and was later named Test leader (in Johns' absence) for the one-off Test against New Zealand in October, which Australia also won 32–24.

In January 2003, Tallis' book Raging Bull was published. His ancestry and ethnicity has been the subject of many questions much to the bemusement of Tallis. In his book, Tallis addresses these questions;

"People ask me about my ethnic background. Newspapers pick me in their "fantasy" Indigenous and Aboriginal sides. To tell the honest truth, I haven't worried too much about it. An auntie of mine did some research and she found that my great-grandfather came from North Western Ambrym in Vanuatu and my great-grandmother was from Loh Island in the Torres Strait. All we were ever told in my family was that we were Australians. My dad was born in Townsville and his dad was born in Bowen, so that makes us Australian and we’re proud of it. I have played in one Indigenous side though, the Redfern All Blacks, who won the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tournament in 1992. That was some side. We had Choc Mundine who was about 17, Tricky Trindall who was 25, and Wes Patten who was 19. People might have read a bit into me playing in that tournament but to me it was just a chance to play some footy with my mates."

At the end of 2003, Tallis, who was expected to lead Australia on the

2003 Kangaroo tour[11] announced his retirement from representative football, but continued playing with the Broncos. In 2004 he started to feel more affected by his neck injury and took heed of the warning signs his body was emitting. He played his last official match in the 2004 semi-final for the Brisbane Broncos, fittingly in his hometown of Townsville, against the Cowboys, which the Broncos lost. At the time of his retirement, he held the Broncos' club record of most career tries for a forward
.

During the 2007 season at the Broncos' 20-year anniversary celebration, the club announced a list of the 20 best players to play for them to date which included Tallis.[12]

In 2010 Tallis was inducted into the Broncos official Hall of Fame.[13]

Career Stats

NSWRL/ARL/Super League/NRL

Season Team Appearances Tries Goals Goal-kicking Percentage Field Goals Points
1992 NSWRL Season St. George Dragons 1 - - - -
1993 NSWRL Season St. George Dragons 15 1 - - 4
1994 NSWRL Season St. George Dragons 17 4 1/1 100% - 18
1995 ARL Season St. George Dragons 21 12 0/2 0% - 48
1997 Super League Season Brisbane Broncos 19 3 - - - 12
1998 NRL Season Brisbane Broncos 25 8 - - - 32
1999 NRL Season Brisbane Broncos 20 7 - - - 28
2000 NRL Season Brisbane Broncos 23 9 - - - 36
2001 NRL Season Brisbane Broncos 10 3 - - - 12
2002 NRL Season Brisbane Broncos 24 10 - - - 40
2003 NRL Season Brisbane Broncos 18 4 - - - 16
2004 NRL Season Brisbane Broncos 21 5 - - - 20

Representative

Years Team Appearances Tries Goals Goal-kicking Percentage Field Goals Points
1994,

1998-2003

Queensland
 17 4 - - - 16
1997 Queensland (SL) 3 - - - - -
1997 Australia (SL) 3 - - - - -
1998-2000,

2002-2003

Australia 13 9 - - - 36

[14]

Accolades

Clive Churchill Medal: 1998

Dally M Second Rower Of The Year: 1999

Indigenous Team of the Century: 2008

NRL Team of the 1990s: 2003

[15]

Post-football career

In 2005 Tallis was appointed as one of

News Ltd's members on the NRL board, replacing John Brass[16] but stood down from the role in 2008, amid speculation that he will join the coaching staff of Catalans Dragons.[17] He was a director on the board of the North Queensland Cowboys, a role he had to relinquish when he joined the South Sydney Rabbitohs as a forwards coach.[18] He was brought in by Russell Crowe to add his knowledge and aggression to the team.[19] Tallis commentates games for Fox Sports, as well as providing written columns for newspapers. Tallis has made his views on fighting clear on the Fox Sports broadcasts of Rugby League, stating that if a fight erupts, "he would run in, you would run in, we would all run in, because it's your mate getting bashed".[20]

During the 2010 NRL season after it was announced that South Sydney Rabbitohs head coach John Lang would be retiring, incoming replacement coach Michael Maguire from the Wigan Warriors announced that Tallis' services as forwards coach were no longer required.

In 2016, Tallis was immortalised with a Gord-e-moji[21] emoji keyboard, in the same vein as his contemporary Kim Kardashian's "Kimoji". The app was developed for iOS by Devotion Digital in Sydney, with plans to roll out an Android version later in 2016.

In 2018, Tallis was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame.[22]

In August 2019, Tallis called for the

NRL to relocate Sydney teams and called crowds at Sydney games as "Embarrassing". Tallis went on to say “Could the NRL put in some key performance indicators to move one of the Sydney teams?, It’s got to go on fans,” he said. “It’s got to go on filling a stadium. It’s got to go on people wanting to watch you, coming through the gate to pay to watch your brand, your style of football, Roosters are on top of the table and count their fans with a fork to get their numbers up, There’s nothing worse when you watch a game of footy and there’s no one there, you get embarrassed".[23]

Gorden Tallis co-hosts Triple M Radio Brisbane's sports segment where he regularly amuses listeners with nonsensical opinions on the game and being the chief instigator of personal beef among the crew.

References

  1. ^ Rugby League Project
  2. ^ Yesterday's Hero Archived 25 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Chris Rattue (5 May 2015). "Why the Kiwis will (and won't) keep winning". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  4. ^ Prichard, Greg (18 August 2002). "Irresistible force v irresistible force". The Sun-Herald. Australia: Fairfax. p. 96. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  5. ^ Hadfield, Dave (15 November 1997). "Rugby League: Tough Tallis just wants to be loved". The Independent. London: independent.co.uk. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
  6. ^ "The Rugby League Bible". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  7. ISBN 1-86971-090-8
  8. ^ Player Profile at yesterdayshero.com.au Archived 25 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ CNN/SI: "Newcastle on top of table" – Sunday 28 June 1998 03:11 PM
  10. ^ Mercer, Phil (25 April 2001). "Australia's game of shame". BBC News. UK: BBC. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  11. ^ "Tallis quits rep football" (2003-09-30) abc.net.au[permanent dead link]
  12. ^ Dekroo, Karl (9 May 2007). "Still the king". The Courier-Mail. Australia: Queensland Newspapers. Archived from the original on 12 May 2007. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  13. ^ "Broncos Hall of Fame". broncos.com.au. Brisbane Broncos. Archived from the original on 26 January 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  14. ^ "Gorden Tallis - Career Stats & Summary - Rugby League Project". www.rugbyleagueproject.org. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  15. ^ "Gorden Tallis - National Rugby League Hall Of Fame". Hall of Fame. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  16. Masters, Roy (20 January 2005). "Woman on board as NRL turns a new page". The Sydney Morning Herald
    . Fairfax Digital. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
  17. ^ "Pressure mounts on Tallis". The Sydney Morning Herald. 18 August 2006.
  18. ^ "Tallis heads South to join Rabbitohs" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine smh.com.au
  19. ^ Article at skynews.com.au
  20. ^ Fox Sports NRL Monday Post Game Show, Canberra v Newcastle, 31 August 2009
  21. ^ Gord-e-moji
  22. ^ "Gorden Tallis inducted into the Hall of Fame". 1 August 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  23. ^ "Gorden Tallis backs calls to relocate Sydney NRL team". Fox Sports.

External links

Preceded by Australia national rugby league team captain
2000-2002 		Succeeded by
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