NORTH Queensland rugby league historian, Tony Price is writing his third rugby league book about the game in North Queensland.
The first two focussed on the Whitsunday area although they generally mentioned other areas but the book he has almost completed, titled, “More than the Foley Shield” covers the whole of North Queensland from 1908 until 2013.
People have often asked him, ‘why 1908, when officially the game commenced in the north around 1914?’
Mr Price said that Ola Olsen from Charters Towers and later Townsville played six rugby league games for Queensland in 1908, three against New Zealand and three against New South Wales. This is six seasons before Arch Foley and others toured the south with a Townsville team.
Tony Price’s book is almost finished with a printing deadline of September 2014 and he is still chasing old photos and information. He has attempted to include every year the winning A Grade town (eg Townsville, Cairns, Mackay, Mount Isa etc), the winning B Grade town (eg Proserpine, Hughenden, Mareeba etc) and any North Queensland representative teams he can find.
He has put together what he considers the most comprehensive collection of rugby league photos ever seen in the north with some areas like Innisfail, Cairns, Mackay, Burdekin, Herbert River, Tully, Babinda and Whitsunday almost finished while he is still chasing a lot of information from Townsville and Mount Isa. He plans to go to Mount Isa in the next three weeks but there are many missing Townsville photos he is looking for.
Included in his book are around 300 pen portraits of North Queensland rugby league champions from Ola Olsen in 1908 up to the current crop of Cowboys. It will be a great read and he is under pressure to complete the book by his September deadline. If you have a photo of your grandfather or father’s team that you feel he could be interested in could you give him a call on 0427451913. He would love to hear from you.
