Tenterfield resident and plumber Graeme Smith was chosen as one of a 20 man squad for the Queensland club.

He played for the Toowoomba South’s team for a decade starting from the age of 16. Mr Smith found it to be ironic that he began his career as a Tiger and finished up as a Tiger in Tenterfield during his final years of playing football.

“I coached the local side here for a couple of years,” Mr Smith said.

“For two years we were in the grand final. We won one and lost one.”

Mr Smith played under another Tenterfield League legend, Cedric O’Brien, who was also named in the Team of the Century for Glen Innes. It was only on an off-chance that Mr Smith began playing football when a Toowoomba Rugby League coach approached him when he was 15.

“He came up to me and said, ‘Can you play footy? I said ‘No,” Mr Smith said.

“He replied, ‘Come over here and I’ll teach you.”

Mr Smith had no idea that his football career would lead him to be recognised as one of the top players for the Toowoomba team. His attitude towards the game remained that he enjoyed it and that was why he continued to play. His career led him to play and coach teams in Corby, Roma and then Tenterfield. The games that he played back in the late 1970s are different to the games played today, but he doesn’t believe that they are any tougher.

“It was completely different to what it is now. I don’t know if it is tougher but there use to be big hitters in those days. Now all plays are big hits,” Mr Smith said.

“The development of the game has been phenomenal.

“We beat the bigger name sides with often quality players,” Mr Smith said in regards to playing city-based teams.

“I don’t think I’d ever leave (football). I still go up and give the fellas a hand.”

Mr Smith stopped playing football after losing heart with the game. He said the direction the game has taken now favours disadvantaged teams who are awarded on technicalities. The art of deceiving the opposition’s players is no longer common practice.

“We used to train to deceive the opposition. Now if you deceive them by putting on a good play, the guys throw their hands in the air,” Mr Smith said.

“Football has been a great thing for me. I would watch bush footy any day rather than the NRL. It’s now become a sellable product.”

Mr Smith’s early years of football provided an opportunity for him, and players like him, to do something on the weekends. He said that the country youth only had football and the pub, with the pub shutting at 10 pm. Being named as part of the Toowoomba South’s Team of the Century was an opportunity for him to meet up again with old mates with whom he spent his weekends.

“It was good to catch up with old mates.

“It’s a bit of an honour after 60 years of football for the club with all the blokes who have come and gone. There are always blokes that could have been picked.”

Mr Smith’s coach was named the Team of the Century coach, along with one of the players who he coached at the club being named hooker of the team.

“It’s a good concept that players are recognised through the whole of rugby league. The disadvantage is that some guys aren’t getting recognised,” Mr Smith said.