Mark Loane

Mark Edward Loane AM is an Australian former rugby union football player, who played 89 games for Queensland and 28 Tests for the Wallabies. Described by Bret Harris in his book, The Marauding Maroons, as "the closest thing to a folk hero Queensland has seen", Loane was noted for devastating barging runs and on numerous occasions the game would be won by one of these characteristic bursts.

His role in University's 1979 Grand Final victory will be remembered. The first Grand Final was drawn after extra time against traditional rivals, Brothers, and another match was scheduled for the following week to decide the victors. In all, 200 minutes of rugby had to be played before the victory could be celebrated.

Loane captained Queensland to several distinctive wins over NSW in the 70s and also captained Australia for six tests between 1979 and 1982. His first test as captain was the 1979 match against the All Blacks at the Sydney Cricket Ground which Australia won 12–6 to take back the Bledisloe Cup for the first time in 30 years. Loane famously told a fellow Wallaby to get his act together, after the player turned up to a function drunk and poorly dressed, with the line "Mediocrity shits me".^{[citation needed]}

He is married to Elizabeth Loane (née O'Neil) and has two daughters. Loane now works as an ophthalmic surgeon with Vision Eye Institute,^[1] specialising in cataract surgery, glaucoma and general ophthalmology. He also has a strong passion in the provision of ophthalmic services to indigenous people, particularly those of the Cape York Peninsula.

In 2007 he was honoured in the third tranche of inductees into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame.

On 23 September 2000, Loane was awarded with the Australian Sports Medal for having played more than 50 games for Queenslandand also for having contributed to the development of rugby in Queensland.^[2]

On 26 January 2011, Loane was named as Member of the Order of Australia for service to medicine in the field of ophthalmology, particularly to the Indigenous communities of northern Queensland, and as a contributor to the development of sustainable health services.^[3]

References

• John Eales: The Biography by Peter Fitzsimons (2001)