Warren Boland Recovering from a Heart Attack

[Captain Apollo]

The following is from the Wide World of Sports website -

Former Western Suburbs captain Warren Boland suffers heart attack
By The Mole
5 hours ago

Former Western Suburbs captain and respected league commentator Warren Boland is recovering at home after the Christmas from hell.

Boland, who led the Magpies during their golden era in the late 1970s and early 1980s, suffered a massive heart attack over the holiday period.

He had to undergo a quadruple bypass in a Brisbane hospital, but the operation was a success and the 64-year-old is currently recovering at home with his family.

While Boland was a talented winger who played over 100 top grade games, he is perhaps best known for his career after football.

For many years he headed the ABC's TV coverage of the game and is still working as a host of several shows on ABC Radio.

Boland proved a saviour at Wests in the late 1970s when the club was ravaged by big spending rival clubs, taking over the reins of a fiery club despite his mild mannered personality.

"Tommy Raudonikis, Ray Brown, Les Boyd and John Dorahy all left for big dollars and (coach) Roy Masters was scratching his head for a captain," Boland told me several years ago.

"Roy tried 'Dallas' (John Donnelly) in the trials but it was obvious it wasn't a role he was comfortable with.

"So at training I walked up to Roy and said 'Look, if you think it's any use, I could be vice-captain and help Dallas out a bit.

"A week later, I was made captain. Legend has it that it was Roy's wife who suggested me… but I don't know if that is right.

"The battle between the Fibros and the Silvertails was at its height and every Sunday at Lidcombe was exciting, dramatic, tense and also mentally exhausting.

"We were painted out as the bad boys of rugby league and that was unfair at times. A lot of what we did was intimidation.

"The face-slapping, the class warfare. Roy gave us a reason to hate everyone. Teams like Manly it was easy, but teams like Penrith were harder.

"Before we played them once, Roy said 'They walk around with tattoos… who do they think they are… get out there and belt them'.

"By 'belt' he didn't mean punch, just to hit them hard, get in their faces. Which we did. We knew teams hated playing us and we thrived on that.

"The Manlys and the Canterburys were more talented than us so our challenge was to up the ante physically and match them. It was great."

Al the best to Warren. Hope he makes a full recovery.

 

[Vee]

Scored one of the greatest individual tries you could ever wish to see, unbelievable for a player of his comparatively modest talents, and then jumped around like an idiot in celebration (as he was entitled to do after a try like that). Saw it when ABC replayed it for him one time with the other commentators all laughing at his celebration.

Good fella, good commentator, excellent on ABC after he finished playing.

 

[siv]

One of the great RL commentators

Hope he has a full recovery

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Hope he gets well. We're all thinking of him.

Having starting following league in the late 80s early 90s Boland was a great commentator for ABC.

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Scored one of the greatest individual tries you could ever wish to see, unbelievable for a player of his comparatively modest talents, and then jumped around like an idiot in celebration (as he was entitled to do after a try like that). Saw it when ABC replayed it for him one time with the other commentators all laughing at his celebration.

Good fella, good commentator, excellent on ABC after he finished playing.

Wish him well. I loved the ABC Saturday coverage

 

[gUt]

Always loved his commentary and TV work, best wishes.

 

[H.H]

Good man, hope he's OK.

Those Saturday arvo games on the ABC were gold, great memories. Great team him, Big Artie and Peardy.

 

[axl rose]

Wish him well. I loved the ABC Saturday coverage

Boland, Big Artie, Jacko did this really unique thing.. actually stuck to commentating on the game.

Get well soon Warren.

 

[horrie hastings]

Hope he is ok, always enjoyed his commentary and also liked watching him play.

 

[horrie hastings]

Boland, Big Artie, Jacko did this really unique thing.. actually stuck to commentating on the game.

Get well soon Warren.

Think I remember Mike Stephenson and John Peard also commentating with Boland and Artie at some time also.

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Think I remember Mike Stephenson and John Peard also commentating with Boland and Artie at some also.

I was just gonna ask if Peardy was side line eye or something similar.

 

[horrie hastings]

I was just gonna ask if Peardy was side line eye or something similar.

Yep Peardy was side line commentator on the ABC for quite a while, he was the perfect foil for Boland and Artie

 

[THE CHAMP]

Far too much credibility and class for commercial television. Get well soon warren.

He’s been a constant on Brisbane local radio for a long time. A legend

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

All the best for a speedy recovery.

Like many of the posters above - I remember him for the 3pm Saturday afternoon match on the ABC with John Peard, Artie etc.. Old school rugby league commentary with no guff or fanfare, simply meat and potatoes footy commentary..

And they called one of my most memorable Dragons games to watch - definitely in my Top 5 all time games. In 1989, when the Dragons beat the Bulldogs 34-2. Just looked it up on the RL Project site....

https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/seasons/nswrl-1989/round-19/st-george-vs-canterbury/summary.html

Paul Osborne absolutely ran riot - it was one of the most destructive forward performances I'd ever seen. It was the closest to being absolutely unstoppable I'd seen before or since, making busts, offloads converting to breaks, and trampled about 3 or 4 defenders for a try of his own. He's of course remembered mainly for the substitution in for John Lomax in the 94 GF and setting up two early Raiders tries. His first 20 minutes were brilliant the the Raiders won the GF comfortably. But I always remember him for that game for the Dragons. Ricky Walford Scored 4 tries and 26 points for the game. But Osborne was the star that day.

I'd give a lot to have a copy of that game again. Love a trip down memory lane..

And again - wish Warren a speedy recovery..

 

[GongPanther]

Good man, hope he's OK.

Those Saturday arvo games on the ABC were gold, great memories. Great team him, Big Artie and Peardy.

And before that, it was Alan Marks and Reg Gasnier.

Praying a speedy recovery for Warren Boland.

 

[Rod McClusky]

Great commentator

 

[THE CHAMP]

Only 15 replies?
Is this an indication of the age of members on here?

 

[Vee]

And before that, it was Alan Marks and Reg Gasnier.

Praying a speedy recovery for Warren Boland.

And before that, former international referee Gary(?) Cook was the expert. As one who went on to ref extensively, it's probably no surprise that I loved his commentary as it removed all the emotion and just got to the heart of what had happened.

I used to wonder why Nein didn't add, say, Bill Harrigan to their team but the answer when I realised it was self-evident and obvious. If you have a ref detailing the rule, Gus, Fatty and the rest can't make up rules to suit their agenda and bag the ref for spoiling the game. Controversy rates, reality, not so much.