Kerry Boustead was fast.

Very fast.

So fast in fact, he made it from playing footy in Innisfail – a far north Queensland township known for producing bananas and sugar – to playing for Australia at 18 years and 316 days – the youngest player to ever wear the green and gold on home soil.

To play for Australia at such a young age and to achieve it from the backwoods of North Queensland is nothing short of amazing.

Between 1978-79 Boustead played for Queensland, Australia in 1978, and for NSW in 1979 when he was contracted to the Sydney Roosters.

But in this interview with FOGS.com.au the man called “Bowie” reveals he almost didn’t take up an invite to play State of Origin for Queensland in 1980 following a bitter falling out with Queensland Rugby League powerbroker, Senator Ron McAuliffe, two years earlier.

“I didn’t think I’d ever play for Queensland again after I had a huge blue with McAuliffe,” to be honest, said Boustead.

McAuliffe tried to block Boustead’s move to Sydney to play for the Roosters in 1979, claiming the flying winger had already signed a contract binding him to the QRL.

“I didn’t sign any contract with McAuliffe,” Boustead insists.

The following year, when the Origin concept arrived, McAuliffe went cap-in-hand and asked Boustead to come back and play for Queensland.

“We sat down and talked and he apologised for what had happened.

“The simple fact is, I am a Queenslander, I always wanted to play for Queensland but I did think twice about it after the way I was so poorly treated.

“Yeah, I was very close to declining McAuliffe’s offer.

“I didn’t like Ron from the start because we got off to such a bad start and he told me lies.”

“Ron told me I was going to be the highest-paid player in the team.

“The next time I saw Artie (Beetson), who was an honest man, I asked him what kind of money he was on.

“When he told me,  I said: ‘f***k, you’re on twice as much as they offered me’.”

“They were telling lies and carrying on.

“I left Queensland because I was cranky about it.

“They weren’t truthful about how they were going to look after you.”

McAuliffe was an intimidating figure and chairman of the Queensland Rugby League during the 1970 and 80s.

He called the shots. What he said was it.

But this was one of the few times McAuliffe didn’t get his way.

Boustead had enjoyed a wonderful 1978 season.

He reckons he played 56 rugby league games that year with club games, rep games, a Kangaroo tour and a finals series with Innisfail Souths who won the grand final, a figure unheard of these days.

He was keen to relocate to Sydney in ’79 to further his career and wasn’t interested in playing in the Brisbane competition after what had happened earlier to his older brother, Ian.

“They (QRL) offered me a sum of money, not very much but they told me it was “the highest anyone had ever been paid. ”

”The QRL put the offer on the table, but I never signed it.

‘When the Roosters announced my signing, McAuliffe came out publicly and claimed I’d already signed a contract with the QRL.

“I told him if he had a contract with my signature on it, to ‘wave it around and show me’ because I never signed anything with the QRL.”

Boustead challenged McAuliffe with legal action.

The Senator’s response was: “I’m a big politician and every time we go to court, I just won’t show up.

“Hl told me he’d keep me out of the game for a year if he had to.”

In the end, Boustead and the Rooster split the fee and paid the QRL so he could play for the Roosters.

Here was a teenage Boustead  — a lightly framed country boy, telling McAuliffe, a leading politician and the head honcho of the game in Queensland – he would take him to court”.

McAuliffe fired back, warning Boustead that in his high government position, as a Senator, he could keep stalling the court case for a year or more, and therefore keeping him out of the game.

Boustead meanwhile recalled his first Origin experience and described it as “fun”.

“There were a lot of “young blokes” like Wally Lewis and Mal Meninga who went into his first Origin camp. Our captain Arthur Beetson made it fun while emphasising history was within our grasp.”

Boustead recalled a funny story with a Queensland fan just before his Origin debut at Lang Park which highlighted how badly Queenslanders wanted to beat the Blues.

 “Artie (Beetson) took the players for a walk up the main street of Brisbane ahead of the first Origin game,” said Boustead.

“ I remember this old bloke came over to me and said: “Please Bowie, please, can you just win one game (against NSW) before I die,.”

“I thought hell, he’s just put a death wish on me.”

Boustead had an interesting take on two greats of the game, Wally Lewis and Parramatta’s Brett Kenny whom he played with and against.

“Wally was the best player I ever saw but the worst trainer I eve saw, he could have been anything,” said Boustead summing up the pair of legends.

“I’d be out on the wing counting numbers, waiting for the right time to let Wally know I wanted the ball and I’d look up and he’d already be there saying: “come on Bowie, get your act together”.

“Kenny was awesome, but totally different to Wally.

“He was a runner, not a passer like Lewis, he had the best dummy pass in the world.

“Kenny’s dummy was so good you would keep running for 20 metres before you realised he hadn’t passed you the ball.

Injuries eventually took a toll on Boustead who had a total of six broken noses, two shoulder reconstructions, a broken collarbone and a broken leg among other injuries.

At 64 though he still enjoys getting out and playing  Touch football with his kids.

He only recently gave up playing Legends games.

His biography says he played 288 first grade games, 80 of them for the Roosters, including their 180 grand final loss to the Bulldogs, 65 for Manly and 33 for the North Sydney Bears.

He also played 15 games for Hull Kingston Rovers towards the back end of his career in 1985-86.

He appeared in 27 Tests for Australia, including his debut in 1978 as the youngest ever to pull on the green and gold.

In 2008 Boustead became the 82^nd player to be inducted into rugby league’s Hall of Fame.

But for all he did on the playing field, one of his greatest personal accomplishments was investing five years of his life and a lot of his own money into the evolution of the North Queensland Cowboys.

It provides players north of Bundaberg with a direct pathway to Queensland and Australian teams.

“I always wanted to do that. When I finished playing for North Sydney I had the opportunity to go to North Queensland and start the Cowboys.

“It didn’t do me much good financially because the people that were then weren’t flushed with money.

“I lost a lot of money doing it, but I am not a real money person.

“I struggled for a while. I had four kids and I was putting them all through high school and it can be difficult on a basic wage.

“It was a battle for a while but I am very proud of kicking off the Cowboys, a lot of people have benefitted from it.”