My memory is a bit sketchy (it was a lot of bourbon ago) but I went to high school in Blackwater. My family were good friends with a maori family that lived behind us. One of their kids was a guy called Ashley Tupaea who played reserve grade for the Broncos in about 89/90. I was working in Ipswich in early 91 or 92 when Ashley called to say he had been picked on the bench in first grade for a pre season trial against Cronulla at Lang Park. He was pretty excited because if he played well he would stay in first grade for the regular season. He invited me to come and watch and being a trial game I actually got to stand on the side line next to the bench. I have two vivid memories of the game. The first is standing next to Arthur Beetson for a few minutes watching the game. I'm a reasonably big bloke but Artie made me feel like a little kid. The other memory is of seeing my mate reel out of a tackle with a broken arm after only a few minutes on the field. He never got another shot at first grade and went on to captain/coach Mackay in the State League.
1990 Round something vs Illawarra at Lang Park ... they won 36-6 .. was before the one-on-one strip days and Alan Langer had a field day ripping the ball out a couple of times to score and or set up tries
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