Brett Dallas

Mackay winger first came to notice when he won the Buttercup Sprint Challenge at Botany in February 1993 after coming to C’bury. Dallas went from strength to strength in his second season with the Bulldogs. At age 18 years and 225 days, the fleet-footed teenager became Queensland’s youngest State of Origin player (since surpassed by Ben Ikin) after winning a place in the third match of the series. Despite Queensland’s win in the dead rubber, Dallas's rep debut was not entirely without its problems and the following year proved to be a major disappointment. Relegated to reserve grade, he missed a place in the club's grand final campaign when coach Chris Anderson (whose family Dallas billeted with as a teenager) preferred Kiwi international wingers Darryl Halligan and Jason Williams. In 1995 Dallas stood firm in his support of the ARL amongst the Super League-aligned Bulldogs and this stance saw him play for both Queensland and Australia. He made traditional Test players shudder when he inadvertently swapped his debut Test jersey with Jason Williams and then missed the rest of the series with an injured knee. Injury ruled him out of C’bury’s grand final victory against Manly (Bulldog captain Terry Lamb gave his winner’s medallion to Dallas after the match) but he took his place in Australia’s victorious World Cup squad at the end of the year. Joining Norths in 1996 he again played for Queensland and Australia and scored 4 tries in the 84-14 thrashing of Fiji in Newcastle. When the Bears merged with Manly in 1999 Dallas left Australia and linked with Wigan where he played in the 2004 English Challenge Cup final.