'The Bradman of League' who was Australia's youngest Test captain and whose 38 tries for Easts in 1935 remains a record to this day. He, and his trademark headgear, were inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2003.

But what about that other Dave Brown? The one who partnered Razor Gang enforcer Barney Dalton in the halves at Easts, played one game for Australia against the New Zealand Maori in 1909 before meeting a peculiar, some suspect nefarious, end on some train tracks a year later.

You could be forgiven if the answer is no. Horsley writer and rugby league tragic Tom Mather hadn't either until he embarked on his latest book project The Nearly Men of Rugby League.

The recently published book, written with former Western Reds foundation CEO Gordon Allen, started as a quest to write about men who played for Australia without playing a Test match.

What it ultimately morphed into was an illustration of how tightly rugby league was woven into the working class roots of Australia, with the characters found enjoying far more colourful lives off the park than on it.

"I've written 21 books and I've always had the intention to bring back into the public domain stories of players who've now been long forgotten," Mather said.

"I was absolutely flattened because I thought I was writing a sports history book but as we started to dig we just got blown away. All of these people were everyday Aussies, some were larrikins, but what we found was extraordinary.

"These people reached almost the very peak of the game but how many even rusted on rugby league men out there have never heard of [that] Dave Brown? Who's heard of Stan Carpenter or Syd Fennelly?

"You look at Ray Morris he was the Reg Gasnier of his day and he died on the way to England and never got to play for Australia."

Other stories among the 14 players featured include Newtown prop Joe Murray, a WWI sapper who was recommended for the Victoria Cross and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry.

Easts winger John Stuntz went AWOL for 55 days before reportedly dying in action at Bullecourt after running about the battle field in just his shirt and pants.

For Mather the stories were a reminder of what the game is really about, particularly in its formative years.

"One things that was driven home to how great this game is and how it changed peoples lives," he said.

"These people who got selected to tour New Zealand or England had probably never been out of Sydney. It turned the whole world upside down for the better.

"I would also hope people would take from it just what this game of ours is, not what it's become. It's become money-driven, it's become sponsorship-driven and it was never that. It was a game of the people."

Copies can be purchased from Balboa online.