Wally Lewis

Wally_Lewis
Personal information
Full name	Walter James Lewis
Date of birth	November 1 1959 (1959--) (age 49)
Place of birth	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Nickname(s)	The King
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
1978–1983 1983/84 1984–1987 1988–1990 1991–1992	Brisbane Valleys Wakefield Trinity Wynnum-Manly Brisbane Broncos Gold Coast Seagulls	? (?) 10[1] (?) ? (?) 46 (102)[2] 34 (30)[2]
Representative teams
1980–1991 1981–1991	Queensland Maroons Australian Kangaroos	31 (30) 33 (45)
Professional clubs coached
1992–1993	Gold Coast Seagulls
Representative teams coached
1993–1994	Queensland Maroons
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only.

Walter James "Wally" Lewis AM (born 1 December, 1959 in Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who was one of the most pre-eminent five-eighths of the 1980s. He has since become a newsreader for the Australian Nine Network.

Nicknamed The King and also The Emperor of Lang Park,^[3] Lewis represented Queensland in thirty-one State of Origin games from 1980 to 1991, and was captain for thirty of them. He also represented Australia in thirty-three international matches from 1981 to 1991 and was national team captain from 1984 to 1989. Lewis is perhaps best known for his State of Origin performances, spearheading Queensland's dominance in that competition throughout the 1980s. He has a record eight man of the match awards in Origin football and captained the side a record thirty times.

Lewis has since been inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame and in 1999 he became the sixth member of 'The Immortals'. In 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in the sport of rugby league.^[4]

Personal

Wally's son, Lincoln Lewis, recently started as a full time character on the Channel Seven drama, Home and Away.

Football career

BRL and England

In his school days, Wally Lewis played representantive rugby union. After switching to league he played in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership with Brisbane Valleys from 1978-83, also making his debuts for Queensland and Australia during that time. He toured Great Britain with the 1982 "Invincibles" as vice-captain. Lewis played for English First Division side Wakefield Trinity for a short spell in 1983/84 and he remains a favourite of Trinity fans, who named their fanzine Wally Lewis is Coming. Trinity won 5 of 10 games during Lewis's stay, including a win over St.Helens in which Lewis scored a hat-trick. After his final match on 12 February Trinity did not win another game and were relegated to the second division. He then moved to Wynnum-Manly where he played from 1984 to 1987. In 1985, Lewis won the inaugral RLIF Golden Boot Award for best international player in the world. In 1987 he was honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to rugby league football".

Brisbane Broncos

Several New South Wales Rugby League premiership clubs attempted to lure Wally Lewis south during the 1980s, including Manly-Warringah which came closest to contracting him in 1986, but he signed with the Brisbane Broncos as inaugral captain of the side on their inception in 1988. Lewis was the Broncos' top try-scorer in their first season.

Two seasons later, in order to increase the Broncos' success in the Winfield Cup, Broncos coach Wayne Bennett controversially sacked Lewis as club captain and gave the role to centre, Gene Miles. Miles had retired from representative football, and Bennett hoped he could remove the team's reliance on Lewis. In another blow for the King, Lewis was moved from his favoured five-eighth position to lock to make way for new Canberra signing and Ipswich product Kevin Walters. Controversy reared in the 1990 semi-final victory over Manly-Warringah when Bennett left Lewis on the bench, even though Lewis was desperate to prove his fitness before the upcoming Kangaroo Tour, which he was eventually ruled out of.

Gold Coast Seagulls and Coaching

In 1991, Lewis joined the Gold Coast Seagulls. He played both his last test match and his last State of Origin match that year. He captained and coached Gold Coast for two seasons in 1991 and 1992 but finished both seasons in last place. The following year he stopped playing but continued coaching the Seagulls, but departed after a third consecutive wooden spoon.

Lewis later coached the Queensland State of Origin side in 1993 and 1994 but never won a series.

Legacy

Lewis is remembered for his creative, playmaking football and great confrontations during State of Origin, particularly one in the 1990 series with Mark Geyer. A bronze statue of Wally was raised at the entrance to Lang Park. The statue text reads:

WALLY LEWIS
The Emperor of Lang Park

''This honour was bestowed upon Wally Lewis by the former Chairman of the Queensland Rugby League, Senator and acclaimed father of state of Origin, the late Ron McAullife, in recognition of the impact Wally had on matches played at this ground across three decades.


''Lewis is arguably the greatest rugby league player of all time. He is one of only a handful of players to be named a Rugby League Immortal and was one of the six inaugural members of the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame.


''He achieved the greatest honour in Rugby League: the captaincy of his country, but it was his feats as Queensland skipper and playmaker in State of Origin that he achieved legendary status. He played 31 Origin games (30 as captain) and a record 8 Man of the Match awards over a 12-year period.


The name Wally Lewis is synonymous with State of Origin and Queensland Rugby League and continues to be an inspiration to future generations of footballers.

The Wally Lewis Medal has been awarded to the Queensland player of the series in State of Origin from 1992 to 2003. Since 2004, it has been awarded to the player of the series from either side.

Quotes

• "...he’s the only bloke who dominated the game at the highest level, in State of Origin, over a long period." Ray Warren^[3]

Post-football career

Following his retirement from the sport, Lewis became a sports presenter for Channel Nine's National Nine News in his home town of Brisbane.

During the nightly news broadcast of 16 November 2006, Lewis previewed the sports segment but was not onscreen when the program returned from the commercial break, with newsreader Bruce Paige instead presenting the sports segment. A similar event occurred two weeks later, on 30 November, when Lewis appeared onscreen and began to read the autocue, saying "Good evening" before seeming distressed. A scheduled report was then played, with Paige delivering the rest of the bulletin. Following these events, Lewis was given medical leave for the rest of the year.^[6] The following night, Lewis revealed that he suffered from epilepsy. It is as yet unknown whether his on-air disorientation was caused by the condition.^[7]

However, it is still not known when Lewis will return as sports presenter, as he is due to have tests and treatment for epilepsy after years of hiding his condition from his family.^[8]

Lewis was not expected to make a return as a TV reporter until January 29 but delivered a flawless report alongside new sports presenter Steve Haddan.

Lewis is quoted as saying that "People come and ask me now about things (from his rugby league career) and I just don't remember them at all – that's absolutely frightening."^[3]

Lewis said he wanted to work with epilepsy organisations and raise awareness about the condition.^[3] He is also the vice patron of the Hear and Say Centre,^[9] becoming involved with the charity organisation after his daughter, Jamie-Lee, was born profoundly deaf.

On 21 February 2007, Lewis underwent brain surgery to help his epilepsy at Austin Hospital in Melbourne. The surgery was reported as a success by Gavin Fabinyi, Director of Neurosurgery.^[10]

Sporting positions
Preceded by team created	Captain Brisbane Broncos 1988–1989	Succeeded by Gene Miles 1990–1991
Preceded by Mal Clift	Coach Gold Coast Seagulls 1992-1993	Succeeded by John Harvey 1994-1995
Preceded by Graham Lowe 1991-1992	Coach Queensland State of Origin 1993-1994	Succeeded by Paul Vautin 1995-1997

References

External links

• Wally Lewis profile at National Nine News
  
• Wally Lewis at the Brisbane Broncos official website.
• Wally Lewis at the State of Origin official website.
• Wally Lewis at eraofthebiff.com
  
• Wally Lewis at rl1908.com

Brisbane Broncos
The Club Representatives • History • Records • Honours • Players • '''Venues
Seasons 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017
Stadiums Lang Park/Suncorp Stadium • ANZ Stadium
Captains Wally Lewis (1988-1989) • Gene Miles (1990-1991) • Allan Langer (1992-1999) Kevin Walters (1999-2000) • Gorden Tallis (2001-2004) • Darren Lockyer (2005-present)
Coaches Wayne Bennett (1988-present)

Persondata
NAME	Lewis, Wally
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lewis, Walter James (birth name), The King (nickname)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Australia rugby league player
DATE OF BIRTH	1 December 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH