Arthur Beetson

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Artie Beetson

Personal information
Full name	Arthur Beetson
Date of birth	22 January 1945 (1945-01-22) (age 63)
Place of birth	Roma, Queensland,
Height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)[1]
Weight	16 st 8 lb (105 kg)[1]
Nickname(s)	Big Artie
Club information
Position(s)	Prop forward
Current club	Retired
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
1964–1965 1966–1970 1971–1978 1979–1980 1981	Redcliffe Balmain Tigers Eastern Suburbs Parramatta Eels Redcliffe	74 (20) 131 (51) 16 (3)
Representative teams
1966–1977 1980–1981 1966–1977	New South Wales Queensland (Origin) Australia	18 (9) 3 (0) 14 (0)
Professional clubs coached
1977–1978 1981 1985–1988 1992–1993 1984	Eastern Suburbs Redcliffe Eastern Suburbs Cronulla Sharks Eastern Suburbs
Representative teams coached
1981–1984 1983 1989–1990	Queensland Australia Queensland
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only.

Arthur Henry Beetson, OAM (born 22 January, 1945 in Roma, Queensland) is an Australian former rugby league player and coach. He represented Queensland and Australia from 1964 to 1981. His position was at prop. Beetson became the first Aborigine to captain his country in any sport and is frequently cited as the best post-war forward in Australian rugby league history.

Beetson's career began with Redcliffe in the Brisbane Rugby League competition between 1964 and 1965. He then moved to Sydney to play in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership with the Balmain Tigers from 1966 to 1970, and later joined the Eastern Suburbs club from 1971 to 1978, where he captained the side to the 1974 and '75 premierships. This Easts team would go down as one of the greatest club sides in rugby league history. During this period Beetson also played with distinction for Australia and in 1974 he was named as Rugby League Week's player of the year.

He possessed great strength and toughness, a surprising turn of speed for a big man and was unequalled as a ball player. His skill as a footballer was matched only by his skill as an eater, earning nicknames such as 'Meat Pie Artie'. He is known and immortalised by his performance of eating 11 hot dogs before a gala dinner for the Australian team in 1973.

His big frame, pure speed and brilliant ball skills won countless games for all his teams. His off-loading and attacking workrate broke the mould for front rowers and changed the way they played the game.

After two years with Parramatta in 1979 and 1980, he returned to Queensland for one final year with his old Redcliffe team in 1981.

Beetson achieved further immortality as captain of Queensland in the inaugural State of Origin game, won 20-10 by Queensland on 8 July 1980. In 1987 he received the Medal of the Order of Australia "in recognition of service to the sport of Rugby League".

Arthur Beetson's coaching career is also extensive, spanning the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He coached the Eastern Suburbs Roosters, the Cronulla Sharks and the Queensland side for whom he is currently a selector.

[edit] Accolades

Beetson is often regarded as Australia's best ever forward, and in 2000 he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal, then in 2001 the Centenary Medal "for service to Australian society through the sport of rugby league". He was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2003. In May 2004 his book, Big Artie: The Autobiography was published. Also that year he became the seventh selected post-war “Immortal” of the Australian game with Churchill, Raper, Gasnier, Fulton, Langlands and Wally Lewis.

In February 2008, Beetson was named in a list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. ^[2][3] Beetson went on to be named in the front-row in Australian rugby league's Team of the Century. Announced on 17 April 2008, the team is the panel's majority choice for each of the thirteen starting positions and four interchange players.^[4][5] Beetson chose to boycott the presentation ceremony, stating that he did not agree with the direction rugby league is taking.^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Arthur Beetson with Ian Heads, Big Artie The Autobiography ABC Books 2004. ISBN 0-7333-1299-3
• Arthur Beetson at the State of Origin official website.
• Arthur Beetson at the Former Origin Greats website.
• Arthur Beetson at eraofthebiff.com