| Lewis in 2004 | ||||||
| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Walter James Lewis | |||||
| Nickname | The King, The Emperor of Lang Park | |||||
| Born | 2 December 1959 Hawthorne, Queensland, Australia |
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| Playing information | ||||||
| Height | 182 cm (6 ft 0 in) | |||||
| Weight | 95 kg (14 st 13 lb) | |||||
| Position | Five-eighth, Lock | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1978–1983 | Fortitude Valley | 135 | ||||
| 1983–1984 | Wakefield Trinity | 10 | ||||
| 1984–1987 | Wynnum-Manly | 76 | ||||
| 1988–1990 | Brisbane Broncos | 46 | 20 | 11 | 0 | 102 |
| 1991–1992 | Gold Coast | 34 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 30 |
| Total | 301 | 26 | 14 | 0 | 132 | |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1980–1991 | Queensland | 31 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 30 |
| 1981–1991 | Australia | 33 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 45 |
| Coaching information | ||||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Gms | W | D | L | W% |
| 1992–1993 | Gold Coast | 44 | 7 | 1 | 36 | 16 |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Gms | W | D | L | W% |
| 1993–1994 | Queensland | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 33 |
| Source: [1] | ||||||
Walter James "Wally" Lewis AM (born 1 December 1959[2] in Hawthorne, Queensland[3]) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and coach. Currently a commentator of the sport, he is widely regarded as the greatest rugby league player of all time.[4][5] His time as a player and coach was followed by a career as a newsreader for the Nine Network.
Nicknamed The King and also The Emperor of Lang Park,[6] Lewis represented Queensland in thirty-one State of Origin games from 1980 to 1991, and was captain for thirty of them. He also represented Australia in thirty-three international matches from 1981 to 1991 and was national team captain from 1984 to 1989. Lewis is perhaps best known for his State of Origin performances, spearheading Queensland's dominance in that competition throughout the 1980s. He has a record eight man of the match awards in Origin football and captained the side a record thirty times.
Lewis has since been inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame and in 1999 he became the sixth member of 'The Immortals'. In 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in the sport of rugby league.[7]
In February 2008, Lewis was named in the 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.[8][9] Lewis went on to be named as five-eighth 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.[10][11] In June 2008, he was also chosen in the Queensland Rugby League's Team of the Century at five-eighth and captain.[12]
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Lewis's father, Jimmy, played first grade rugby league at wing or fullback for Brisbane clubs Wests and Souths. He later became coach of the Wynnum-Manly club. His mother, June, was a Queensland representative netball player.[13] Wally was playing rugby league when he was six years old, usually at Lock forward. In his school days, Lewis also played representative rugby union, touring Europe and Japan with the Australian schoolboys alongside the likes of the Ella brothers and Michael O'Connor in 1977.
Following his return to Australia, Lewis faced discrimination in the rugby union fraternity due to his rugby league background, and remained in the professional game,[14] playing in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership with Fortitude Valley from 1978. Lewis turned down an offer to play in New South Wales with the North Sydney club, remaining in Brisbane. In 1979 he made his début for Queensland from the bench and also played for a representative Brisbane side against the touring Great Britain Lions. He then helped Valleys to premiership victory over the Wayne Bennett-coached Souths side in the BRL Grand Final.
Lewis made the run-on side for Queensland in the inaugural State of Origin match in 1980 at Lock forward alongside his hero Arthur Beetson, and had a hand in Queensland's first ever State of Origin try. The following year another State of Origin match was played, and Arthur Beetson pulled out due to injury, instead coaching the side, and handed the captaincy over to 21-year-old Lewis. He also made his début for the Australian national side that year.
In the 1982 State of Origin series Lewis got his first try and his first man-of-the-match award in Origin and later that year toured Great Britain with the undefeated "Invincibles" as vice-captain. In the first and third games of the 1983 State of Origin series he was named man-of-the-match.
Lewis played for English First Division side Wakefield Trinity for a short spell during the 1983–84 Rugby Football League season and he remains a favourite of Trinity fans, who named their fanzine Wally Lewis is Coming. Trinity won 5 of 10 games during Lewis's stay, including a win over St. Helens in which Lewis scored a hat-trick. After his final match on 12 February, Trinity did not win another game and were relegated to the second division.
Back in Australia, Lewis moved to the Wynnum-Manly club. He gained the national captaincy for the first time and was named player of the series for the 1984 National Panasonic Cup in which he led a Combined Brisbane side to victory over Sydney's Eastern Suburbs club. Lewis was named man-of-the match in the first two games of the 1984 State of Origin series, making it three consecutive Origin man-of-the-match awards. That year, he also won the Brisbane Rugby League premiership's grand final against Souths. The following year, Lewis was awarded the inaugural Golden Boot Award as the world's best international player in 1984.
Lewis was man-of-the-match for Game II of the 1985 State of Origin series and played in Wynnum-Manly's 1985 BRL grand final loss to Souths. The Australian side toured New Zealand that year, winning the test series 2-1. The following year his team won the 1986 BRL grand final against Brothers 14-6 before becoming the first Queenslander since Tom Gorman in 1929, to be named as captain for a Kangaroo tour. Following the successful 1986 Kangaroo tour, former Australian coach Terry Fearnley wrote an article for Rugby League Week that was highly critical of Lewis' captaincy.[15]
In 1987 Lewis was honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to rugby league football". Also that year King Wally, a biography of Lewis written by Adrian McGregor was published.[16]
Several New South Wales Rugby League premiership clubs had attempted to lure Wally Lewis south during the 1980s, including Manly-Warringah which came closest to contracting him in 1986, but he signed with the Brisbane Broncos as inaugural captain of the side upon their inception in 1988. Lewis was the Broncos' top try-scorer in their first season and also later had the honour of scoring the club's first hat-trick.
During the season Lewis was awarded the Harry Sunderland Medal as Australia's player of the 1988 Ashes series. At the end of the season he captained Australia to victory over New Zealand in the final of the 1985 - 1988 Rugby League World Cup.
Lewis won another man-of-the-match award in the second game of the 1989 State of Origin series.
After two seasons with the Broncos, coach Wayne Bennett controversially sacked Lewis as club captain and gave the role to centre, Gene Miles. Miles had retired from representative football, and Bennett hoped he could remove the team's reliance on Lewis. In another blow for the King, Lewis was moved from his favoured five-eighth position to Lock forward to make way for new Canberra signing and Ipswich product Kevin Walters. Controversy reared in the 1990 semi-final victory over Manly-Warringah when Bennett left Lewis on the bench, even though Lewis was desperate to prove his fitness before the upcoming Kangaroo Tour, which he was eventually ruled out of. At the end of the 1990 season, due to salary cap restrictions, Lewis was not made a large enough offer to keep him at the Broncos, with Bennett citing the need to retain younger talent.[17]
Following the souring of his relationship with the Broncos, Lewis was still unwilling to move south and in 1991, he joined the Gold Coast Seagulls as captain. He won his eighth and last man-of-the-match award in the first game of the State of Origin series that year before playing both his last match for Queensland and Australia by the end of the season. He captained and coached Gold Coast during the 1992 NSWRL season but again finished the season in last place. In their final match under Lewis as captain-coach, the Gold Coast defeated Penrith, thus denying the Panthers a place in the finals play-offs. The following year he stopped playing but continued coaching the Seagulls, but departed after a third consecutive wooden spoon. In his time coaching Seagulls, the club had won just 7 games out of 44 played, losing the last 16 in a row.[18]
Lewis also coached the Queensland State of Origin side in 1993 and 1994 but never won a series.
Wally Lewis is remembered for his creative, playmaking football and great on-field confrontations, most notably one in the 1991 State of Origin series with Mark Geyer. Years before that his and Brett Kenny's likenesses were put onto the State of Origin winner's shield. The Wally Lewis Medal has been awarded to the Queensland player of the series in State of Origin from 1992 to 2003. Since 2004, it has been awarded to the player of the series from either side.
A bronze statue of Wally was raised at the entrance to Lang Park. The statue text reads:
WALLY LEWIS
The Emperor of Lang Park
This honour was bestowed upon Wally Lewis by the former Chairman of the Queensland Rugby League, Senator and acclaimed father of State of Origin, the late Ron McAullife, in recognition of the impact Wally had on matches played at this ground across three decades. Lewis is arguably the greatest rugby league player of all time. He is one of only a handful of players to be named a Rugby League Immortal and was one of the six inaugural members of the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame. He achieved the greatest honour in Rugby League: the captaincy of his country, but it was his feats as Queensland skipper and playmaker in State of Origin that he achieved legendary status. He played 31 Origin games (30 as captain) and a record 8 Man of the Match awards over a 12-year period. The name Wally Lewis is synonymous with State of Origin and Queensland Rugby League and continues to be an inspiration to future generations of footballers.
Wally Lewis has also appeared in numerous advertisements during and after his football playing career. Examples include promotions for XXXX beer and Burger King.
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 Lewis.[19]
In December 2009 Lewis was inducted into the Queensland Sports Hall of Fame.[20]
Lewis is well known as a big fan of The Phantom comic series.[25]
Following his retirement from the sport, Lewis focussed more on his career as a sports presenter for Channel Nine's National Nine News in his home town of Brisbane.
During the nightly news broadcast of 16 November 2006, Lewis previewed the sports segment but was not onscreen when the program returned from the commercial break, with newsreader Bruce Paige instead presenting the sports segment. A similar event occurred two weeks later, on 30 November, when Lewis appeared onscreen and began to read the autocue, saying "Good evening" before seeming distressed. A scheduled report was then played, with Paige delivering the rest of the bulletin. Following these events, Lewis was given medical leave for the rest of the year.[26] The following night, Lewis revealed that he suffered from epilepsy. Lewis has revealed in his book that his on-air disorientation was caused by the condition.[27]
However, it is still not known when Lewis will return as sports presenter, as he is due to have tests and treatment for epilepsy after years of hiding his condition from his family.[28]
Lewis was not expected to make a return as a TV reporter until 29 January but delivered a flawless report alongside new sports presenter Steve Haddan.
Lewis is quoted as saying that "People come and ask me now about things (from his rugby league career) and I just don't remember them at all – that's absolutely frightening."[6]
Lewis said he wanted to work with epilepsy organisations and raise awareness about the condition.[6] He is also the vice patron of the Hear and Say Centre,[29] becoming involved with the charity organisation after his daughter, Jamie-Lee, was born profoundly deaf.
On 21 February 2007, Lewis underwent brain surgery to help his epilepsy at Austin Hospital in Melbourne. The surgery was reported as a success by Gavin Fabinyi, Director of Neurosurgery.[30] He has since made a full recovery.
Wally's son, Lincoln Lewis, recently started as a full time actor on the Channel Seven drama, Home and Away winning a TV Week Logie Award for best male new talent.
Wally Lewis has continued providing commentary for NRL matches and has recently completed his biography "Out of the Shadows: A Champion's Return to the Spotlight".
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| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by team created |
Captain Brisbane Broncos 1988–1989 |
Succeeded by Gene Miles 1990–1991 |
| Preceded by Mal Clift 1991 |
Coach Gold Coast Seagulls 1992–1993 |
Succeeded by John Harvey 1994–1995 |
| Preceded by Graham Lowe 1991–1992 |
Coach Queensland State of Origin 1993–1994 |
Succeeded by Paul Vautin 1995–1997 |