04:22 EDT, 25 January 2021
The latest chapter in one of the saddest stories in Australian sport was played out in a near empty courtroom in northern Queensland last week.
Former NRL star Brett Dallas wasn t in Mackay Magistrates court last Friday to hear his bail application denied on a raft of drugs and theft charges. He was behind bars in the jail cell where he has been confined for the past seven months.
The charges, which also include breaching bail, contravening a domestic violence order and a weapons offence, are the latest in a long list of alleged offences which have tried the patience of legal authorities to breaking point and could see Dallas jailed for up to 25 years.
Brian James
1943-January 10, 2020
A high-quality winger for South Sydney who represented Australia at the 1968 World Cup before retiring at the age of 26.
The son of former Cootamundra Maher Cup prop Jack Swifty James, he came to rugby league via rugby union after attending Newington College and playing a season of first grade with the St George rugby club.
He switched to rugby league with St George in 1961 where he played centre and wing but top-grade opportunities were scarce in the Dragons’ star-studded backline, so he made the decision to transfer to South Sydney in 1966.
He was quickly vindicated, playing more first-grade games in his first season with Souths (18) then he did in four years at St George (16). A winger of above average pace (he pursued professional sprinting in the off-season), James earned his first representative jersey with City Seconds in 1967 before making City Firsts the following year.