Paul Harragon

A foundation member of the Newcastle Knights, Paul 'The Chief' Harragon reaped many rewards during his brilliant career. The giant prop was first chosen in the Country Origin side in 1990 but was ruled out with injury. It was his great performances in NSW's State of Origin victory in 1992, earning coach Phil Gould's award as best player, that led to his selection in the three Test series against Great Britain. Harragon's massive hits and his fearless taking up of the ball made a great impact in the Australian side but a suspension after being cited for a high tackle robbed him of a place in the Test team that defeated Papua New Guinea in July. After playing in Newcastle's historic semi-final appearance in 1992, he was chosen in the Australian World Cup squad although he failed to play in the final. Harragon then made Test appearances against NZ (1993), France (1994) and Great Britain and France on the 1994 Kangaroo tour although injury limited his appearances following Australia's shock First Test loss. Harragon's position of respect in the Newcastle club acted as a conduit for other Knights players in their signing loyalty agreements with the ARL in early 1995. NSW lost the State of Origin series that year 3-0 and was overlooked for the First Test against NZ - a huge snub considering this was a series in which Super League players were ruled ineligible (he was only used from the bench in the other two Tests). Chosen in Australia’s World Cup squad at the end of the year, Harragon was cleared to captain Australia in the match against South Africa despite having a fractured cheekbone. His 16 minutes of field-time appeared to make a mockery of the medical decision to leave Wayne Pearce (1986) and Wally Lewis (1990) out of their respective Kangaroo Tours, and Harragon returned to Australia before the playing of the final. In 1996 he played in NSW’s State of Origin whitewash and represented Australia against Fiji and Papua New Guinea. His clashes with Manly’s Mark Carroll, in which Harragon often came off second best, were certainly memorable but no one could begrudge the likeable giant the honour of holding up the Optus premiership trophy following Newcastle’s ‘back-from-the-dead’ grand final win over Manly in 1997. After battling blinding headaches for much of the 1997 season, a succession of knee injuries limited his appearances in 1998. In May 1999 ‘The Chief’ announced his retirement and has since become a regular member of Channel 9’s Footy Show. In January 2000 he received an Order of Australia medal (OAM). Biography, One Perfect Day (1999).