State of Origin: 'Fair go' for Kooris forced Greg Inglis to Qld

By Brad Walter
Updated November 6 2012 - 12:26am, first published June 13 2010 - 12:05pm
Greg Inglis with Queensland team-mate Sam Thaiday. Inglis' foster parents are believed to have advised him to choose the Maroons.
Greg Inglis with Queensland team-mate Sam Thaiday. Inglis' foster parents are believed to have advised him to choose the Maroons.

Greg Inglis chose to play for Queensland over NSW because indigenous players believed they got a fairer go north of the border.And Blues interchange forward Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, the only remaining indigenous player in the NSW squad after Timana Tahu's dramatic walk-out over racial comments by assistant coach Andrew Johns, also wanted to play for the Maroons - but was knocked back.The revelations have come to light in the wake of Johns' racist remarks about Inglis to members of the Blues team last week, and confirm the long-held belief that indigenous players feel less appreciated by NSW.It is understood Inglis' foster parents in Brisbane advised him to declare his allegiances to the Maroons."Greg is from Bowraville (on the Mid North Coast) so he should be playing for NSW, but he knows deep down in his heart how indigenous players are treated in this state," close friend and mentor Anthony Mundine said."He is the type of guy who wouldn't want to come out and say anything, but I am telling you he wanted to play for Queensland because that is where they give the boys a go."That is why Queensland have won four series straight, because they pick the best players. No matter what colour, no matter what creed, they just pick the best players."On the eve of Origin I, Tahu, who lived at the same Newcastle hostel as Inglis and played alongside him in an Aboriginal knockout team when the Maroons star was 14 years old, told Fairfax how much harder it was for indigenous players from NSW to gain selection in representative teams."I never knew Laurie Daley was Aboriginal until two years ago," Tahu said. "And it makes you wonder if Laurie Daley had recognised himself publicly as an Aboriginal in the past, would he still have made all those rep teams and played for Australia? That is just an example."Being Aboriginal, coming from an Aboriginal heritage, it does hurt when blokes wait until later on in their careers to do that. But I guess what hurts the most is that those players felt they couldn't acknowledge themselves because they feared a bad reaction."Most of the time it's just been me as the only indigenous fella in the NSW sides."According to statistics on the Queensland FOGS (Former Origin Greats) website, 30 per cent, or 51, of the 169 players who have represented the Maroons since 1980 were indigenous, including Arthur Beetson, Dale Shearer, Steve Renouf, Colin Scott, Wendell Sailor, Gorden Tallis, Tony Currie, Sam Backo and Mal Meninga, the present coach.Of the 2010 team, Inglis, Willie Tonga, Johnathan Thurston and Sam Thaiday are all Aboriginal.There are no comparable statistics available for NSW, but Tahu, Learoyd-Lahrs, Greg Bird and Jamal Idris are the only indigenous players to represent the Blues since the opening game of the 2006 series."I thought we'd come a long way in rugby league, but let's face it ... in the 30 years of Origin history, NSW does not have a good record supporting Aboriginal talent like Queensland does," Currie said yesterday."Good on Timana for the strength that he has shown," Meninga said. "The strength he has shown has a pretty positive impact on all of our team up here."

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