By Wayne Heming

It was the best coup ever perpetrated in rugby league but it may not have been successful without the late Darryl Van de Velde’s love and passion for Queensland.

Van de Velde, who passed away late last month aged 72, represented the Maroons in 1977.

While he achieved many things as a player, coach, and later as an administrator, perhaps his greatest contribution to Queensland was in 2001 when, as coach of English Super League club, Warrington, he turned a blind eye to a plot hatched by Wayne Bennett to slip Alan Langer onto a plane and secretly bring him home to Australia to play for Queensland in the State of Origin series decider.

Bennett was called back to coach after Queensland’s third game flogging in 2000.

He revamped his side for the 2001 series but he knew he needed something special.

The story goes something like this: Bennett: “Alfie, I need you to come back and play for Queensland.

Alfie: “what took you so long longneck.”

Alfie told the famous story this week as a tribute to Van de Velde at his funeral.

“Wayne rang me, but I had to get the final ok from Darryl,” Langer told FOGS.com.

“My wife, Janine, drove me to the airport and Darryl did not tell a soul as everything was shrouded in mystery.

“It ended up costing Darryl his job.

“He was all for it, but he suffered the consequences afterward because they finished him up”

Langer said when he returned to play for Warrington, the club, as punishment, stopped paying him.

“I ended up finishing eight weeks early which was pretty disappointing,” he said.

Langer had a special relationship with Van de Velde which stemmed back to when he broke his ankle in an under-18 possibles verses probable’s trial game.

“I couldn’t play so I was working in Ipswich as a truckies offsider,” said Langer.

“Darrly went out of his way to come to Ipswich and see this 18-year-old kid and talk to the manager so I could get some compensation.

“We remained very close from then.

‘Darrly looked after everyone and he cared for people.

“”He was the kind of bloke who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.”

Van de Velde’s funeral was packed with rugby league royalty at Victoria Church, Bridgeman Downs, who turned up to pay their respects to one of the code’s visionaries,

Among the mourners was Tony Brown from Mackay and Bert “Drewpy”, Georges, who travelled over from New Zealand, mixing with a Who’s Who of rugby league’s extended family who farewelled Van de Velde in a celebration of his amazing life at Victory Church, Bridgeman Downs on Monday.

The two old-timers were teammate of Van de Velde’s playing under 16s and A-grade for the Mackay Brothers club.

“Drewpy was captain of the team,” recalled Brown.

“Darryl and I both played A-grade at 16.

“I was a hooker, Darryl played in the centres, and his brother, Marcel, played halfback.

“We played all our football together at Mackay Brothers before he moved down to join Brisbane Easts.

“ We all went to school together.

Darryl was best man at my wedding so we’d been friends for more than 50 years.

“I said to someone as we were going to the funeral, in all the time I played with him, he never, ever dropped the ball. He had monstrous hands on him like dinner plates or shovels.

According to them, Van de Velde was a knockabout bloke with great principles.

The three of them enjoyed having a gamble in their younger years even though they weren’t old enough to bet.

“We were mad punters too in those days, we were young but we loved a gamble,”

said Gorges.

“Because I had a few hairs on my chest and looked the oldest, i’d go to the TAB to put the bets on.

“They were great times.”

Meanwhile, former Kiwi international, Tawera Nikau, who played almost 250 under Van De Velde, firstly with Castleford (164 games) and then another 59 with Warrington in the early 2000s after winning a premiership with Melbourne (1999), described him as “one of a kind”.

“I was very privileged to have played under Darryl at Castleford and again when he asked me to play for Warrington some years later.

“He helped me grow into my professional era.

“He was very fastidious, very technical and tactical and he could connect with people on every level.

“But most of all,  he really cared about you as a person.”

“In my early days as a youngster signing for Castleford, I remember Darryl had this real professional attitude, he wanted players to do player assessments and evaluations on the team’s performance.

“ I remember thinking ‘what the f**k is this all about, I just want to play footy.

‘Darryl taught me a lot about professionalism and the great thing about that he was a great caring person, not only how you were going on the field, but also off the field, he genuinely cared about your family.”

 When Nikau’s wife, Leticia died in 2004, it was the support of his Warrington coach helped him from falling apart following the tragedy.

 “I loved him. When I was going through a pretty tough time, losing my wife who committed suicide, Darryl was there for me,” said Nikau.

“It was just really good being able to sit and talk with someone with no judgement.

“It’s part of why I turned up (for his funeral and wake) because I had so much respect for Darrly and what he did for me, and I know I’m not the only one.

“A lot of people in the UK at Castleford and Warrington talk about what a great guy was.”

As AEG Ogden’s general manager of Suncorp Stadium, Alan Graham hangs with the footy crowd, not just the superstars like Taylor Swift.

Both have filled his world-class arena.

As close friend and associate of Van de Velde, he knows the impact and the influence he had on rugby league including his failed bid to put a team in the NRL which was awarded to the Brisbane Broncos.

“I think we all learned something from Darryl,” said Graham.

“He had so much to offer. He was one of those rare people who just rolled up his sleeves and got things done.

“Personally, I learned so much from Darryl. I am so grateful I had the chance to work with him and learn from him.

“The legacy he has left rugby league cannot be understated.

“If you go back 20-odd years and look at what Darryl set up with the Queensland Crusher, that was visionary, we should have had it then, although we have it now with the Dolphins.

“Darryl set that up 20-odd years ago.

Van de Velde’s media manager at the time during the club’s brief two-year existence, Matthew Arthur, said his boss introduced many different programs which have since been adopted by other NRL clubs to help players make it.

“He set up various programs for youths and young kids coming through which was way ahead of its time.

“He organised young players to enrol in TAFE programs or to get some kind of degree while they chased their football dreams.”

Arhtur said Van de Velde even set up a community house for young players which had a “house mother” cooking and looking after them.

“A lot of them went on to play first grade too, Travis Norton, Clinton Schifkofske, Matt Bikerstaff, it was very successful.

Meanwhile Queensland and Australian halfback Mark “Muppet” Murray remembered Van de Velde as a man who resurrected his career when he moved to Redcliffe in 1986.

“When Darrly came to the club my form for a couple of years prior was not where I would have liked it to have been,” said Murray.

“But his fresh approach brought the best out of me until I injured my eye when we were on course to won the premiership.

“At the time I was leading the Brisbane Rothman’s Medal count by six points and I attributed that largely to Darryl’s approach to coaching.

“We had a wonderful relationship after our player-coach days, we were both administrators and shared our views around the QRL table as to  where the game was going.

“Darryl was a guy with a lot of passion and insights into where the game was and should be going.

“He will be missed not only from the game’s perspective but also on a personal level judging by the number of people at his funeral and the thousands more he touched across many continents in rugby league.

“He was an exceptionally talented man and a very likable bloke who always had his eye on the future.

Queensland Origin series winner, Craig Teevan, paid tribute to Van de Velde as an honest decent man.

He said Van de Velde recruited him from the Broncos to the Crushers over a beer when they were both on holidays at the Maroochydore Sure Lifesaving Club.

“Darryl showed a lot of faith in me after the 1994 season when I ran into at the Maroochydore Surf Club.

“I didn’t have the best of seasons in ’94,  but he true to his word he signed me to the Crushers.

“He put me in the club’s leadership group, when maybe I didn’t have a right to be there, and it gave me a lot of confidence and I kicked on from there.

“During the Super League year, he upgraded my contract a few times, when he probably didn’t need to.

“I can’t pay enough respect to Darryl for the time and the opportunity he gave me to kick start my career again which, until then, was really going nowhere.

Teevan was selected in Queensland’s 1995 Origin side which shocked NSW sweeping the series 3-0 with many of their stars banned from playing because they had signed with the breakaway league.

“Without Darryl’s guidance, I may not have achieved that honor which is still one of the best moments of my life and playing career.

“Whenever I’d pick to phone after my career was over, Darryl was always there to offer advice.

“As an administrator he just had an aura about him,

“The professionalism he instilled in the Crushers and how made that club come alive was well before its time.

“He was also a great listener.

“When you talked to him, he made you feel special like you were the only person in the room.”