Graham Olling

Tough prop, a P’matta junior who won a Second Division premiership with Wentworthville in 1971, spent three seasons with Easts before his career took off in the mid 1970s. Moving to P’matta Olling played in the club’s maiden grand final appearance in 1976 and was selected for NSW the following year. In 1977 he represented Australia in the World Cup competition and took part in the historic grand final draw and replay against St George. Olling admitted to taking steroids during his career but this was when the code was still naive about the value of performance-enhancing drugs and his disclosure caused only a minor ripple of controversy. He was certainly a good enough prop on his own merits, appearing in four Tests during 1978. After playing in two Tests against NZ, Olling toured with the 1978 Kangaroos and was selected in the first two Tests against Great Britain. A knee injury signalled the end of his Sydney career although he later captain-coached Temora in 1981.