Douglas "Duncan" Hall

Queensland-born Duncan Hall has long been regarded as one of Australia's greatest post-war front-rowers. He rose to prominence in the period immediately following World War II, toured twice with the Kangaroos and played in two Ashes-winning series for Australia.

Hall had accepted a playing position at Alpha in Central Queensland in the mid-1940s, but a railway strike meant he was unable to take up the position, and instead he moved to Brisbane, where he linked up with the Valleys club.

From there he made a meteoric rise to representative football, first with Brisbane, then Queensland and in little more than three months he was selected in Australia's Test side to play New Zealand.

Hall became a mainstay of Australian teams for the next seven years, contributing mightily to Australia's Ashes triumphs in 1950 and 1954.

Hall played his entire domestic career in Queensland, moving from Valleys back to his home town of Home Hill in 1950, before stints in Toowoomba and with Brisbane Wests. A knee injury cost him the opportunity of a third Kangaroo tour in 1956.

''Hall had an equal distribution of brawn and brains which put him in the near-genius class,'' Duncan Thompson wrote.

''There certainly never was a better ball distributor. Whatever a champion prop needed, Duncan Hall had. He was surprisingly fast and truly tough.''