Mark Coyne

The younger brother of Peter Coyne joined St George from Brisbane Brothers in 1988 and made his first grade debut as a winger the following year. Increasing in confidence under the coach Brian Smith in 1990, Mark Coyne cemented a first grade place as a centre and represented Queensland. In 1992 he played in St George’s losing grand final team against Brisbane and despite a personally rewarding season in 1993, he was injured in the opening ten minutes of that year’s premiership decider when the Dragons could not turn the tables on the defending premiers. Elevated to the St George captaincy in 1994, Coyne scored a memorable last-minute try to snatch victory for Queensland in the first State of Origin match that year. A loyal ARL man, he was a mainstay of the Queensland State of Origin and Australian teams at the height of the Super League war and despite suffering a broken thumb late in the 1995 season, took his place in Australia’s victorious World Cup team. In 1996 he captained St George in the club’s defeat at the hands of Manly in the grand final. Two years later, in a refreshing move, he donated the proceeds of testimonial year to a children’s charity. At the beginning of the 1999 season Coyne struggled to maintain his first grade spot following St George’s merger with I’warra but characteristically, he fought his way back to the top grade before being again injured. Unluckily, he could not force his way back into the club’s top seventeen for the grand final, and retired following the Dragons’ dramatic 20-18 loss to Melbourne.