- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
One of rugby league’s Immortals, Arthur ‘Artie’ Beetson, has died today of a heart attack.
The league legend was just 66. Beetson was one of the seven Immortals, recognised as one of the greatest ever to play the game.
A revolutionary prop with his ball-playing ability, Beetson was a pioneer – the first indigenous Australian to captain this country in any sport.
He also captained Queensland in the inaugural State of Origin match in 1980 at the age of 35, where he famously punched his Parramatta teammate Mick Cronin, igniting the iconic “mate against mate, state against state” rivalry.
Beetson’s influence spread across both Queensland and NSW, across many different clubs. His career kicked off with Redcliffe in Brisbane before moving to Sydney to the Balmain Tigers. He spent four years at Balmain, including a brief spell in the UK with Hull, before decamping to Eastern Suburbs.
It was at the Roosters where Beetson found greater success – in a seven-year spell he captained the side to the 1974 and 1975 grand final wins. He departed for Parramatta for two seasons in 1979, before heading back to Redcliffe and then retiring in 1981.
His coaching career started at the Dolphins as captain-coach, before taking over the Queensland side and leading them to series victories from 1981-1984 and achieving a seven win – three loss record.
He had a brief stint in charge of the Australian team before taking over at the Roosters for four seasons. In 1992 he was hired as coach of Cronulla, and stayed in the Shire for two seasons.
Apart from his coaching experience, Beetson had a long background as a recruitment manager. He had a good eye for playing talent and spent many years heading up recruitment for both Easts and Queensland.
Beetson won a truckload of awards during his career, owing to his huge frame, surprising speed and silky skills. From player of the year gongs to the medal of the Order of Australia, to the Australian Sports Medal and being named in the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame and in Australia’s rugby league team of the century – he had more accolades that are possible to mention.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald today, ambulance officers were called to a home at the Gold Coast’s Paradise Point where he had suffered a heart attack and fallen from a bicycle shortly before 9am.
I never had the chance to see Artie play live or on TV, just grabs from past games and YouTube clips. But his legend was well known.
You can see in the video that he was someone who led from the front, a tough and strong character who hit hard and was a ferocious tackler. Beetson had a remarkable talent for getting the ball away when the defender could least expect it.
The big man could score tries and set them up too, making him a potent weapon and a crowd pleaser. You’d be hard pressed to find a similar player in the Beetson mould in the NRL today.
The great man will be remembered as a someone who changed the way forwards played rugby league, as an icon of Queensland and of the sport in general.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.