Arthur Beetson was by no means the first Aboriginal rugby league player to pop up on the radar. There were several renowned Indigenous players before him. But through his unique combination of talent, application and leadership, Beetson redefined the Aboriginal sports figure as a complex, sophisticated character who became a team leader.
Before Beetson, the status of iconic Indigenous sport person was held by Lionel Rose: a boy who used his fists to become world boxing champion in the 1960s. But Rose, for all his achievements, was an old-style icon: a loner who didn't talk much, had one particular physical talent and shone only briefly under the spotlight.
Beetson raised the bar: he fused athletic prowess with brains, and transformed from the awkward outsider into a national leader.
Beetson, who died of a heart attack on the Gold Coast last week aged 62, was a burly front-row forward who moved to Sydney from Queensland in the 1960s to join the Balmain club. He arrived with the reputation as that rare breed of forward: a creative ball player who could attack as well defend.
But he soon found himself battling fitness problems. He earned the nicknames Half a Game Arty and Meat Pie Arty, in reference to his weight and lack of fitness.
In the early 1970s Beetson moved to the Eastern Surburbs Roosters, which had been languishing at the bottom of the competition but was now under a new coach, Jack Gibson. Beetson responded to Gibson's mentoring and fulfilled his early promise by revolutionising the role of front-row forwards.
Up to that point, front-rowers were valued purely for their size, strength and aggression. Beetson, surprisingly agile, was endowed with an almost magical capacity to offload the ball while being tackled, to free his arms from the often two defenders it took to stop him, and get the ball away to a fast-running second-rower or half-back who would convert the half-opening into a yawning gap.
On a personal level, he was candid yet laconic, and developed a charisma that endeared him to everyone. Gibson appointed Beetson captain and he led the Roosters to two premierships, in 1974 and 1975. The 1975 team was considered one of the best in rugby league history and the images of Beetson being chaired off after the grand final victory are among the most famous in the game.
He became widely acknowledged as the best forward in the game, was chosen in the Australian