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Wally Lewis is a proud Queenslander who played his entire footy career in the Sunshine State – but only after a technicality stopped him from making a stunning Sydney switch.
Lewis played 301 first-grade games across Brisbane clubs including Valleys, Wynnum-Manly, Fortitude Valley, and the Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Chargers.
He appeared in 24 State of Origin matches for Queensland, earned 34 Test caps for Australia, and captained both his state and country while becoming one of rugby league’s most influential five-eighths.
None of this went unnoticed by the late media mogul Kerry Packer, who wanted to lure Lewis and his best mate Gene Miles south to Sydney.
Now Lewis has spoken about how Packer rolled out the red carpet for him and Miles in an effort to get them to join the Manly Sea Eagles.
It began with the duo being summoned to Brisbane Airport, where they expected to speak to a representative of Packer's.
Wally Lewis (pictured) has revealed the eye-opening set of circumstances that saw him come very close to playing for Manly
Kerry Packer (pictured) personally called for Lewis and Gene Miles to come and meet with him in Sydney
'So we arrived at the old Brisbane airport and we were waiting for some sort of car to pull up with the representative from the club,' Lewis said.
'The next thing this plane pulled in ... the pilot walked over and said, "Mr Lewis and Mr Miles ... if you can walk this way, please".
'[We asked] "Where are we going?". He said, "To Sydney".
'Geno said, "We gotta ask for more money now".'
The stunned mates were soon in the air and en route to the Harbour City when Miles decided it was time to talk shop.
'We were flying along and I heard this "psst",' Lewis said
Miles asked him: 'How much are we going to ask for?'
'Well, they reckon [Ray] Price and [Mick] Cronin were on $90k in Sydney at Parramatta, so I reckon we ask for $75k,' Lewis replied.
Lewis (pictured right) was at the top of his game with the Queensland Maroons
Lewis is a proud Queenslander, but was lured by the big dollars on offer to move to Sydney
'He said, "Shake hands on it". I went, "Don't you trust me?". He said, "Not one bit".
'I said, "You're my best mate", and he said, "Which is why I don't trust you".'
Lewis and Miles were collected by a driver at Sydney Airport and began to guess which club they were going to, thinking the Roosters were a leading contender.
Where they ended up, though, stunned them both.
'All of a sudden I went, "Holy s***, that's PBL Marketing Limited, that's Kerry Packer!"' Lewis said.
'Gene says, "We've got to ask for more money now, we'll bump it up".
'We go up the lift and go upstairs and there is Bob Fulton and Doug Daley, the Manly coach and secretary,' he said.
'They were sort of waiting around, they came out of Packer's office, they sat there and we went in.
Miles (left) and Lewis (right) were part of a star-studded Brisbane Broncos outfit that was strong from the moment they were admitted into the NSWRL
'Mr Packer was there, sitting back, sucking a cigarette. We walked in and he said, "So you're the two c***s causing us all the trouble, hurry up and sign that".
'I got the nudge from Geno under the table, here, you do the talking.'
Lewis summoned up all the courage he could to talk turkey with the notoriously intimidating Packer.
'I said, "Mr Packer, you've got to make us an offer first and we'll take it home to Queensland,"' Lewis said.
'He said, "Son, son, son, pull up there, let's get one thing straight, I don't gotta do anything".
'So he says, "How much is it going to cost?"
'I said, "You are required to make this offer to us, which we'll take home to the Queensland Rugby League, give them the chance to try to match that contract, if they can match it, we have to stay there".
'He said, "Let's get another thing straight, if I make you an offer, those c***s from up there, they're no chance of matching it".
Lewis and Miles were both cunning at the negotiation table, knowing they could extract maximum value
So Packer decided to get proceedings underway, but wanted to talk to the stars separately.
'Geno nearly tore a hamstring getting out of his chair and getting outside,' Lewis said.
'I thought, I'm going in with Kerry Packer. I could feel myself shaking.
'I was thinking, I am going to ask for $75,000. [Then I said] "If you want me to play for Manly-Warringah Rugby League Club, give me $150,000 a season".
'The voice went all squeaky. He looked at me and said: "How much?"
Lewis stuck to his figure, despite almost losing his voice he was so nervous.
'He said: "For you? You're an arrogant chap, aren't you?"
'"You're a greedy bastard and you're arrogant".
The great Bob Fulton could have had Lewis and Miles as part of an already-strong Manly roster
'I said: "Yeah, but I've come here to win a premiership for Manly," and just looked at him.
'He stopped, just raised his eyebrow and went, "Right, oh well, you're easy. Get out and get the next bloke in".'
It was then that dread set in. The mates had agreed on $75,000 and Lewis had just stitched Miles up by asking for double that.
'I've just stabbed my best mate in the back,' Lewis said.
Packer complicated the negotiations by not letting Lewis go outside and tell Miles what he had just signed for.
'I thought, oh no, oh s***, Geno is going to come in here and say 70 grand and I'm on more than double that,' Lewis said.
But he didn't need to worry, as Daley read out the terms of the contracts to both players.
'[Daley said] Lewis is on $150,000 a year – and I just cringed and put the head down – and Miles is on $120,000 a year.
In the end, the logistics of the contracts meant that Miles and Lewis remained at the Broncos on half of what they would have got at Manly
'I've turned straight around to look at him ... he was looking out the window at Sydney Harbour,' Lewis laughed.
Then Manly upped Miles' offer by another $10k to close the gap between the two players.
But there was one final twist in the tale that would prove fatal for Manly and end any chance of either player moving to the northern beaches of Sydney.
Daley told Packer that they could not pay them that much money without raising concerns from other Manly players.
So they decided to make two contracts, with half of the money paid through the football club, and the other half going to Miles and Lewis as employees of PBL Marketing.
'That was the only real thing that stopped us from going to Manly,' Lewis said.
'The contract from the Manly-Warringah football club was $75,000.
'We went home to the Queensland Rugby League and said there it is, I am getting $150,000, he is on $135,000, that's the problem you've got to deal with.'
Unfortunately for Manly – and Lewis and Miles – the split contracts meant the QRL did not have as big a headache as they thought.
'We came in the next day and [QRL bosses] Ross Livermore and Ron McAuliffe ... said we've decided to match these contracts,' Lewis said.
The problem was, they only had to match the $75,000 offered by Manly-Warringah, not the other $75,000 offered by Packer's company.
'Geno got really angry,' Lewis said.
'He said, "We'll go back to Sydney, they can put it on the one contract and if the public find out about it, well then fine".
'McAuliffe turned around and said, "Permission to negotiate has just been rescinded, gentlemen".'
