Gavin Allen (born 30 March 1965) is an Australian former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played club football in the

Brisbane Rugby League premiership The Brisbane Rugby League is 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 under the Quee ...

for

Fortitude Valley Fortitude Valley (often called "The Valley" by local residents) is an inner suburb of the City of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. In the , Fortitude Valley had a population of 9,708 people. The suburb features two pedest ...

and in the

NSWRL premiership The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sout ...

for the St. George Dragons and

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

, achieving selection to play for

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

State of Origin series The State of Origin series is an annual best-of-three rugby league series between two Australian state representative sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons. Referred to as “Australian sport's greatest rivalry”, the ...

, and

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

Career

Hailing from

Cairns, Queensland Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

, Gavin Allen started his career with Brisbane's

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 ...

before moving to Sydney's

St George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until ...

for the 1987–88 seasons. Returning to Queensland for the 1989 Brisbane Broncos season, and although not big for a front-rower, Allen's exceptionally high workrate made him a vital component of the Broncos' forward pack from 1990. Allen made his interstate representative debut when selected on the bench for Game I of the 1991 State of Origin series, becoming Queensland

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco O ...

player No. 72. Allen played a major part in the Broncos forward pack that dominated St George in the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engines ...

grand final. After taking part in the club's win over

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

in the

World Club Challenge The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australasian National Rugby League (NRL) and the European Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport. The first such match was pl ...

, Allen was a non-playing reserve in the Broncos return bout with the Dragons in the

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

grand final. With

Glenn Lazarus Glenn Patrick Lazarus (born 11 December 1965) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer, and a former Australian Senator. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative , Lazarus won premi ...

, Andrew Gee and

Mark Hohn Mark Hohn (; born 29 January 1964) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A front-rower, he represented Queensland in the State of Origin on nine occasions and played one Test for Australia as a res ...

competing, however, Allen found it very difficult at this time to maintain his first-grade berth. In 1995, Allen's career was winding down but had a brief reprieve when - by now a fringe first-grader - he was the only Bronco not signed by

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

. Consequently,

Paul Vautin Paul Vautin (born 21 July 1959) nicknamed Fatty, is an Australian football commentator and formerly a professional rugby league footballer, captain and coach. He has provided commentary for the Nine Network's coverage of rugby league since joi ...

picked him up and chose him for the three State of Origin games, in which his experience and workrate helped players like

Gary Larson Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist, environmentalist, and former musician. He is the creator of ''The Far Side'', a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fif ...

and Billy Moore win Queensland a totally unexpected cleansweep. Allen retired at the end of the season.

Personal life

Gavin's son Josh plays for the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

NSW Cup side.

References

External links

*
Queensland Representatives at qrl.com.au
1965 births Living people Brisbane Broncos players Fortitude Valley Diehards players London Broncos players Queensland Rugby League State of Origin players Rugby league players from Cairns Rugby league props St. George Dragons players {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1960s-stub