Gorden Tallis
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gorden James Tallis | |
| Date of birth | July 27, 1973 | |
| Place of birth | Townsville, Queensland, Australia | |
| Height | 189 cm (6 ft 2 in) | |
| Weight | 103 kg (16 st 3 lb) | |
| Nickname(s) | Raging Bull | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| Years | Club | |
| 1980–1991 | Centrals Tigers Townsville |
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| Senior clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (points) |
| 1992–1995 1997–2004 |
 St George Brisbane |
54 (70) 158 (196) |
| Representative teams | ||
| 1994–2003 1997 1997 1998–2003 |
 Queensland Queensland (SL) Australia (SL) Australia |
17 (16) 3 (0) 3 (0) 8 (32) |
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* Professional club appearances and points |
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Gorden James Tallis (born 27 July, 1973 in Townsville, Queensland) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played from 1992 to 2004. He captained Australia, Queensland and the Brisbane Broncos and is a Clive Churchill Medallist. Nicknamed the "Raging Bull" for his on-field aggression, at the peak of his career Tallis was renowned as the best second-row forward in the world. He is currently a commentator and pundit for the Fox Sports network, as well as an NRL Board Member and a member of the Board Of Directors for the North Queensland Cowboys
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[edit] Playing career
[edit] Summary
Australia 1998-03: 8 Tests – 8t (32pts)
Australia (SL) 1997: 3 Tests (0pts)
Queensland (SOO) 1994-03: 17 games – 4t (16pts)
Queensland (SL) 1997: 3 games (0pts)
Brisbane 1997-04: 158 games – 49t (196pts)
St George 1992-95: 54 games - 17t, 1g (70pts)
[edit] St George Dragons
Tallis came from Townsville, North Queensland to make his first grade debut for St. George on August 29, 1992. He was a reserve in St George’s grand final loss to Brisbane in 1993. Tallis was used to good effect off the interchange bench during the 1994 season and also made his representative debut for the Queensland side in the final two State of Origin matches that year.
When the proposed Super League competition was put on hold in 1995, Tallis offered to buy out the final year of his contract with St George in order to join the Broncos. The Dragons declined the offer however, and subsequent court action held him to his original contract. Having already signed a Super League contract to play with Brisbane, the fiery North Queenslander caused controversy when he was the only player who chose to sit out the 1996 season rather than play a final year with St George.
[edit] Brisbane Broncos
After 54 appearances for the Dragons, Tallis returned to the game in 1997 with the Broncos and was the most dominant forward in the Super League competition, which culminated in Brisbane’s crushing 26-8 win over the Cronulla Sharks in the Telstra Cup grand final. After representing Queensland in the Tri-Series competition, he made his international debut in three Super League Tests against Great Britain.
The enforcer of the champion Broncos pack in 1997-98, he used his giant frame to terrorise opposing players in both attack and defence – and he wasn’t afraid to mix it with opponents when called upon. In 1998 Tallis captured another premiership with the Broncos and won the prestigious Clive Churchill Medal as best and fairest player in the club’s 38-12 grand final win over the Canterbury Bulldogs. Tallis celebrated a remarkable year by making his Australian Kangaroos Test debut in the second match of the Trans-Tasman series.
He continued his great personal form when chosen for the ANZAC Test in 1999 and spearheaded Queensland’s State of Origin campaign in a historic tied series. However, the season ended with Brisbane’s failure to defend its premiership and Tallis was ruled out of October’s Tri-Nations competition because of injury.
2000 saw him score a try in Australia’s 52-0 thrashing of New Zealand in the ANZAC Test, but after being sent off in the opening State of Origin match for verbally abusing referee Bill Harrigan, Tallis suffered the ignominy of a whitewash defeat (his public admission that the ‘dead’ third match of the series should be cancelled was a momentary lapse in judgment that may have indirectly contributed to the Blues’ record 56-16 win). If Tallis’ stature as the most dominant forward in the game wasn’t secure following Brisbane’s 14-6 win over the Roosters in the 2000 grand final, his four tries in Australia’s 82-0 humiliation of Papua New Guinea before the 2000 World Cup and his selection as Australian captain for the match against Russia (which resulted in a record 110-4 victory) did. In 2000 Gorden also received the Australian Sports Medal.
Following Australia’s World Cup victory, Tallis captained a rookie Queensland team in the 34-16 win over New South Wales in the opening State of Origin game in 2001 and was named man-of-the-match. Soon after, he suffered a career-threatening neck injury in a club match against the Manly Sea Eagles which revealed a spinal condition that required corrective surgery. While Tallis’ season was over (despite the smokescreen of his naming on the Broncos’ interchange bench for the club’s preliminary final) he made a strong return to football in 2002. It was in the deciding match of the 2002 State of Origin that Gorden Tallis performed a famous tackle on Blues fullback, Brett Hodgson, dragging and eventually tossing him out of the field of play like a rag-doll. Tallis' reaction later of giving the one-finger salute to a section of the crowd, right behind the northern tryline where Carlaw's series-winning try was scored, became a major after-match talking point. Tallis gained some sympathy when it was revealed that he was objecting to an offensive sign about his mother. But many again raised questions about his capacity to captain Australia with debate raging over the choice between Tallis or Andrew Johns to succeed Brad Fittler. Days later Johns was chosen to lead the Kangaroos in the July Test against Great Britain. Tallis scored a try in Australia’s 64-10 win in that match and was later named Test leader (in Johns’ absence) for the one-off Test against New Zealand in October, which Australia also won 32-24.
In January 2003, Tallis' book Raging Bull was published. At the end of 2003, Tallis announced his retirement from representative football, but continued playing with the Broncos. In 2004 he started to feel more affected by his neck injury and took heed of the warning signs his body was emitting. He played his last official match in the 2004 semi-final for the Brisbane Broncos, fittingly in his hometown of Townsville, against the Cowboys, which the Broncos lost. At the time of his retirement, he held the Broncos' club record of most career tries for a forward.
[edit] Post-football Career
Since retiring from the game, Tallis has been appointed as News Ltd's member on the NRL board [1] and a Director on the board of the North Queensland Cowboys. He also commentates games for Fox Sports, as well as providing written columns for newspapers.
[edit] External links
- Gorden Tallis at Global Speakers & Entertainers
- Gorden Tallis at stateoforigin.com.au
- Tallis calls it quits - ABC Sport
- Pressure Mounts on Tallis
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