‘He got all the credit!’ Hilarious plot twist to iconic ‘Queenslander’ chant revealed 30 years later

Billy Moore has become synonymous with the famous ‘Queenslander’ call, however it seems there’s someone else who deserves credit for the iconic moment in the 1995 State of Origin series.

That someone is Gary Larson. The super fit, workhorse forward who played 24 games for the Maroons in the ‘90s, who revealed he was actually the first player to yell out ‘Queenslander’ in a shock plot twist 30 years later.

Larson joined the Fox League Podcast recently to reminisce his glittering career, which also included 249 first grade games for the Bears and Eels, as well as 24 games for Australia.

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When asked to pick his favourite Origin series from the eight he featured in, Larson was quick to say 1995.

While he’ll “always remember” his debut in 1991, the build-up to the ‘95 series and what the Maroons achieved that year is still marvelled at to this day.

It was ruled by the Australian Rugby League that no Super League-aligned players were allowed to be selected for this series.

This wasn’t anywhere near as devastating for New South Wales as it was for Queensland. The Blues still had the likes of Brad Fittler and Andrew Johns in their side, while Queensland lost the likes of Alfie Langer and Kevin Walters.

Wayne Bennett was set to coach the Maroons, however he stepped down due to the dramas between the ARL and Super League. So in came Paul Vautin, who had limited coaching experience.

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With Super League players off-limits, Vautin rolled the dice on nine debutants including Ben Ikin, who had just four first-grade games for the Gold Coast Seagulls under his belt.

Vautin’s team was dubbed ‘Fatty’s Nevilles’. There were so many little-known faces in the new-look squad that there’s a famous story of how Vautin didn’t even recognise 18-year-old Ikin when he arrived to the team hotel and thought he was a young fan.

Gary Larson & Billy Moore lift captain Trevor Gillmeister on their shoulders after victory in third 1995 State of Origin match, New South Wales (NSW) v Queensland, at Suncorp Stadium. Sport / Rugby League / With Others Source: News Corp Australia

But somehow Vautin and his right-hand man Chris ‘Choppy’ Close inspired a shock 3-0 series win.

Larson was one of the more senior players in the team and recalled the lead-up to the first game.

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“A few of us didn’t know each other when we walked into the hotel and even when we walked into the medical,” he told the Fox League Podcast.

“It was a huge effort in that first camp for ‘Fatty’, Chris Close and all the staff to pull us together and to form some belief.

“Even the more experienced blokes like myself, Mark Coyne, Dale Shearer, we were looking at each other thinking ‘this is going to be hard.’

“But they made it enjoyable, Fatty and Choppy made you feel at ease and the motivation just flowed in nearly every hour of that camp. Whether were taking the piss out of each other or when it came to being serious, it was great.”

Asked if the ‘Fatty’s Nevilles’ tag galvanised the squad, Larson said: “It sure did!”

He added: “I wasn’t too big on reading the headlines but everywhere you looked there was a paper talking about Fatty’s Nevilles. That motivated you, what the media said about how we were going to get squashed and run over.”

Queensland won the first game 2-0 — the first try-less Origin match — after an almighty rev-up from Moore.

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Cameras captured Moore yelling ‘Queenslander’ as he walked down the tunnel at Sydney Football Stadium before the game, which has become a part of rugby league folklore.

Moore has told the story before that the ‘Queenslander’ chant was nothing new, but it usually happened in the privacy of the sheds, where this was the first time it was seen publicly.

However, as Larson revealed, it wasn’t actually Moore who pulled the trigger on the chant first — it was him!

A fired up Billy Moore & Gary Larson. Sport / Rugby League / Action Source: News Corp Australia

“There’s a story to that,” Larson smiled when asked about ‘Queenslander’.

“I was right behind Billy yelling out Queenslander... so I was yelling out Queenslander first but no one could hear me. He got all the credit!

“It’s a little in-joke we have with each other.

“He gets asked about it and he doesn’t mention poor old Gary Larson behind him yelling out ‘Queenslander’ and no one being able to hear him — it was Billy yelling it out.”

30 years on from those iconic scenes and the record has been set straight.

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