The highs of rugby league excellence are often outweighed by the lows and former Kangaroo and NRL legend Gavin Miller knows this all too well.
Miller, 63, captained the Cronulla Sharks in his heyday, played State Of Origin football for NSW and represented Australia in rugby league, scoring two tries.
He was a star in the 1980s and 1990s, winning two Dally M Player of the Year awards and being the very first man chosen to appear with the late great Tina Turner in the advertisements that took the game to mind-blowing heights.
But today the toll of first-rate footy in the brutal days of the 70s and 80s has come home, with Miller requiring hip and knee replacements as his body fails him.
At his peak, Miller became, uniquely to this day, the only rugby league player in history to win a Dally M and a Man Of Steel, along with a Rothmans Medal and a Rugby League Week Player of the Year award. price.
He made 178 appearances for Cronulla, becoming one of the club’s five “Immortals”. [separate from the NRL’s Immortals]represented Australia three times, played five State Of Origin games and 102 games for Hull Kingston Rovers in England.
He was a legend even though he was a small forward and had to play his entire career while being beaten by much, much bigger rivals in forward.
Cliffy Lyons (maroon top), Tina Turner and Gavin Miller (blue top) during the original photo shoot for the now incredibly famous NSWRL ad campaigns
Gavin Miller (above) was sitting in a North Sydney restaurant when Tina Turner (pictured) came up behind him, put her hands over his eyes and told him he was about to star in a TV ad with her
He was 174 cm tall as a player and weighed only 87 kg and today, 40 years later, those clashes with bigger men have taken their toll.
At the time, he accumulated some unique memories and some of them still live with him, though his humble demeanor and quiet nature rarely lead him to pause and reminisce.
But the big man has five pictures of himself and Tina together on his phone to this day and he has nothing but fond memories of her.
“Just a lovely lady and we got along really well,” he said.
She liked him so much that she took him completely by surprise one afternoon during her trip to Australia.
“I didn’t know she’d flown in here for another set of ads,” Miller said.
‘And so one day when I was invited to lunch with a bunch of other footy players in North Sydney, I went along, sat down to the meal and out of the blue I feel these hands come up from behind me and cover my eyes.
“It was Tina and we hugged and then she told me we were doing another ad that afternoon. Those adverts changed rugby league and I’m very proud to be a part of it.’
Two years earlier, it was Miller who was the first Australian rugby league player to meet her. It was in London. He played for Hull Kingston Rovers there and accepted an invitation from the NSWRL to meet her.
The then CEO of rugby league in NSW, John Quayle, knew Gavin and called him. “I said mate, we need to get Andrew Ettingshausen for these ads. You’re his mate, can you catch him?’ Quayle asked.
Widely recognized as the best looking rugby league player ever, ET was also playing in England at the time Miller was, and Miller contacted him, but ET got snowed in and couldn’t film the ad.
“So Gavin calls me back,” said Quayle, “and says, John don’t worry. I can get Cliffy [Lyon] and I. We’ll meet her and do the ads. And it worked perfectly.’
From then on, Gavin Miller and Cliffy Lyons formed the cornerstone for the first-ever advert that made Tina a household name in Australia and propelled rugby league to greatness down under.
“I now think with all the emotion surrounding her death that the NRL should revisit those ads. Just add a few players from today and use the ads again.
“That’s how effective they were and will be again.”
But unfortunately that thought hasn’t been confirmed yet, and everything he did in the paddock and in those advertisements are now just memories for Miller, who faces a very real modern problem.
Specialists have told him that he needs not only a hip replacement, but also two knee replacements.
Tina Turner wins Simply The Best at the 1993 NRL Grand Final between the Brisbane Broncos and the St. George Dragons
The legend that is Tina Turner (pictured) became a friend of Gavin Miller while filming the awesome Simply The Best ad campaign in the 1990s
The once proud, dynamic, incredibly gifted Cronulla forward who could score field goals, score tries, kick deftly in general play and fire offload passes sublimely can barely walk upright.
When he extends his right hand to shake someone’s hand, his fingers are curled in a way that appears to be permanently arthritic.
He is very gray and looks many years older than his 63 years. But its steel toughness is still there to be seen and admired.
“I hurt my hip bowling,” he said.
‘Can you believe it? I was bending over and bowling the other day and my left side just stopped working.”
His health is fine, but his much beat up body is letting him down.
Former players Gavin Miller and John Dorahy at a memorial service for Tommy Raudonikis at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2021
Former NSW Blues State of Origin coach Ricky Stuart talks to QANTAS employee and former player Gavin Miller after arriving with the team at Sydney Airport in 2012
Today he is retired and enjoys a quiet regular beer with his mates, while still keeping an eye on his beloved sharks.
“I’m out now, but I’ll talk to Fitzy [Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon] a little on the side, but my days are over.’
On this upcoming Origin, he believes Nicho Hynes has earned his right to play on the team. “He’s ready, he can drive games and they need that,” Miller said, but warns that it’s an incredibly high ask for a NSW team to venture to Queensland for an Origin match.
He starred in five of them in his career.
League’s Family is due in two weeks [formally Men Of League Foundation] will raise money and awareness for the greats of rugby league through the annual Crazy Socks week.
NRL fans can help former players like Miller by getting involved.