Duncan Hall (24 August 192518 January 2011) was an Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s, singled out as having been amongst the greatest of the 20th century. He played in the

Brisbane Rugby League premiership The Brisbane Rugby League premiership was a rugby league football competition in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first held in 1922 and for every year until 1997. The competition was reinstated in 2001, known as the FOGS premiership und ...

for

Fortitude Valley Diehards The Fortitude Valley Diehards, often referred to simply as Valleys, are an Australian semi-professional rugby league football club based in the Brisbane suburb of Fortitude Valley. History Until their demise in 1995, the Fortitude Valley Dieh ...

and represented

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He has been named amongst the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century. Away from football Hall worked as a hotelier and bookmaker, and in his later years worked at the

Broncos A bucking horse is any breed of horse, male or female, with a propensity to buck. They have been, and still are, referred to by various names, including bronco, broncho, and roughstock. The harder they buck, the more desirable they are for ro ...

Leagues Club. His son Duncan Hall, Jr. played 15 rugby union tests for the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

Playing career

Hall had a successful 1948–49 tour of England and France as a second row forward and later a front row forward. This gained him the attention of Sydney clubs, who were unable to sign him due to a ban imposed on the QRL at the time preventing interstate transfers of Queensland representatives who had played against New South Wales in the past 12 months. During the

1951 French rugby league tour of Australia and New Zealand The 1951 French rugby league tour of Australia and New Zealand was the first ever tour of Australasia by any French sports team in history. Puig Aubert captained the France national rugby league team who played 28 matches in total in both Austra ...

he played in all three Test matches, scoring tries in the 2nd and 3rd. Hall was selected for Australia's 1954 Rugby League World Cup squad. ;Representative *Australia: 22 Tests (1948–1955) 2 Kangaroo tours *Queensland: 24 Matches (1948–1955) ;Clubs *1945 – 47 Christian Brothers (Rockhampton) *1948 – 49 Valleys (Brisbane) *1950 Home Hill (North Queensland) *1951 – 53 Newtown (Toowoomba) *1954 – 57 Wests (Brisbane)

Highlights

* Debuted for QLD & Australia in first year of Brisbane club football * Won

Bulimba Cup The Bulimba Cup was an Australian rugby league football competition contested by the Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba representative rugby league sides during the mid 20th century. In 1931, a team from Lismore, New South Wales participated. It wa ...

with Brisbane (1948–49) * Member of QLD team to defeat Great Britain (1950) * Won Bulimba Cup with Toowoomba (1951–52) * JG Stephenson Trophy, 'Most Serviceable for QLD' (1951) * Kangaroo Tourist (1948/49), (1952/53) * Won

with Wests (1954) * Pike Cup winner with Wests (1954) * Gunner McCook Trophy, 'Brisbane RL Best & Fairest' (1954) * President's Cup winner with Wests (1955–56) * Coached Wests to President's Cup (1958) * Co-manager Australian World Cup team (1977) * Co-manager FIRST QLD State of Origin Team (1980) * Prop Forward – ARL Team of The Century (April 2008)

Post playing

In 2000 Hall was awarded the

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, off ...

. In 2006 he was inducted into the

Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame The National Rugby League Hall of Fame was first established as the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2002, before being reestablished in 2018 in its current form. The hall of fame honours the contributions made to the National Rugby League ...

. The Duncan Hall Medal, is presented in his honour to award to the best and fairest player in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league, rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League, Queensland Rugby ...

. In 2007 Hall was selected by a panel of experts at prop in an Australian 'Team of the 50s'. In February 2008, Hall was named in the list of Australia's ''100 Greatest Players'' (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

and

ARL ARL may refer to: Military * A US Navy hull classification symbol: Landing craft repair ship (ARL) * Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK * United States Army Research Laboratory * ARL 44, a WWII French tank Organizations * Aero Research Limited, ...

to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. Hall went on to be named in the front-row in Australian rugby league's ''

Team of the Century In team sport, team of the century and team of the decade are hypothetical best teams over a given time period. For the century team, it can be either 100 years, or for a century (always the 20th). Similarly the team of the decade can be for 10 y ...

''. Announced on 17 April 2008, the team is the panel's majority choice for each of the thirteen starting positions and four interchange players. In June 2008, he was chosen in the

Queensland Rugby League's Team of the Century The Queensland Rugby League Team of the Century is a hypothetical team comprising the best players who have played for Queensland to form a team for 1909 until 2008. Rugby league in Queensland was initiated in 1909 with the Queensland Rugby Leagu ...

at prop-forward. In 2008,

rugby league in Australia In Australia, rugby league is a popular spectator and participation sport which has been played since 1908. It is the dominant winter football code in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. According to Ausplay in 2024, there were 174, ...

's centenary year, Hall was named at second-row forward in the Toowoomba and South West Team of the Century. Hall resided in a nursing home at

Coolum, Queensland Coolum Beach is a beachside town and coastal suburb in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Coolum Beach had a population of 9,152 people. Geography Coolum Beach has the following mountains (from north to s ...

until his death at age 85 in 2011.

References

External links

''Queensland Team of the Century named'' – article at nz.leagueunlimited.comQueensland representatives at qrl.com.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Duncan 1925 births 2011 deaths Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league players Fortitude Valley Diehards players Queensland rugby league team players Rugby league players from Rockhampton, Queensland Rugby league second-rows Wests Panthers players 20th-century Australian sportsmen