A new history of the game that Trumps all others
Steve Haddan’s massive NRL history is like a walk through modern Australia – with the occasional bit of biff.
The link between Donald Trump and the great game of rugby league is tenuous but … stay with me. The thing is that author, comedian, MC with the most, and former sportscaster Steve Haddan is Donald Trump. Occasionally.
And he has just published his magnum opus (Haddan not Trump) – The Greatest Game of All: The National Rugby League 1908-2025.
If you’re not a sports fan, just reading the title will send you to sleep. For fans it sounds like a tantalising prospect with everything you need in a sports book – drama, great photos and statistics. Lots of statistics.
You may recall that Donald Trump was invited to the last NRL in Las Vegas this year, but he was a no-show. I reckon next year he could turn up … even if it’s just Steve Haddan dressed as Trump. Haddan has done some amazing comedic impersonations in a long career. He was famous for his Molly Meldrum, his Stefan and Sir Joh, and in recent years he did an hilarious Clive Palmer.
And now it’s Trump that he rolls out when required. The first we heard of this was when Trump (that is, Haddan) turned up at Brisbane stockbroker Steve Wilson’s 70th birthday bash, complete with a bandaged ear, illustrating that assassination attempt.
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Haddan spent months watching Fox News to prepare his Trump character. But he’s had to put him aside recently as he was finishing off his massive new tome. Just lifting this book is the equivalent of a quick weights session in the gym.
A sports reporter with the Nine Network for 20 years and a sports historian (among all his other talents), Haddan is most passionate about rugby league. He is the author, producer and publisher of Our Game: The Celebration of Brisbane Rugby League 1909-1987 and Wally Lewis: My Life. Haddan’s breakthrough title, The Finals: One Hundred Years of National Rugby League Finals 1908-2007, was the third edition (first was in 1991) of the first complete history of the NSWRL men’s competition.
Never has a history of the National Rugby League been produced on this scale
At the invitation of the NRL, Haddan has served on panels that select candidates for Hall of Fame and Immortal status.
This latest masterpiece – The Greatest Game of All: The National Rugby League 1908-2025 is the gamechanger. Never has a history of the National Rugby League been produced on this scale. It’s a mammoth book and writing it was a mammoth task. So why bother?
“Because I love the game,” Haddan says. “When Dad took me to watch St George play Toowoomba in 1967, I was hooked. This game is perfect fodder for the storyteller. If you’re going to write a book about something, write about something people love. This book will get people reading, including many people who don’t read books.”
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We’re thinking Christmas present, if that sounds like someone in your family.
Three years in the making and more than 500 pages in length, each of the NRL’s seasons is captured in glorious detail. The visual experience is enhanced by artisan-quality design and a magnificent collection of photographs and artifacts.
The introduction to the book is by super coach Wayne Bennett. It’s a page dubbed, From The Coach, and Bennett shares his own love for the game and praises Haddan’s efforts: “When it comes to rugby league, there are a multitude of stories – and you’ll find many of them in Steve’s wonderful book, which spans more than 100 years of history, 60 of which he’s witnessed first hand. I know his passion for this game. I know how deeply he cares about the people who play it and what makes the very best of them tick. We’re lucky he’s chosen to share these stories. And I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.”
In Bennett speak, that’s positively effusive considering his sometimes monosyllabic press conferences.
Bennett was, of course, coach of the Brisbane Broncos when they were beaten fair and square in the 2015 NRL grand final by the North Queensland Cowboys. The first thing I did with the book was flip to the chapter dealing with that year because we are Cowboy supporters and my wife’s dad, Ron McLean, was the club’s founding chairman. After that game Bennett seemed to be in denial. The end of the chapter is rounded out in his own words. He wasn’t happy with being beaten by a field goal, one of the most magnificent field goals of all time, I should add, from a certain Cowboys legend, Johnathan Thurston.
Bennett asked himself a question. “So, do we feel beaten? No, we don’t.” But sorry Wayne. You were.
‘I try to capture what’s going on in the lives of Australians as they make their way to the football to cheer on their team’
There is plenty of colour in the book because Haddan is an historian as well as a fan, one with an eye for a good story. He is right to claim that his book is also something of a social history of Australia.
“Year by year I try to capture what’s going on in the lives of Australians as they make their way to the football to cheer on their team,” he says. “The book’s timeline covers the start of a nation, two world wars, depression, and it explains what Australia was like then for some younger readers.”
Haddan regrets he never had what it takes to be a professional footballer.
“I wanted to be one of the guys I saw on TV, but I never had the ability nor the stomach for the punishment,” he says.
But he loves the game and when he’s dressed up to deliver his own version of Trump you could say Trump loves the game too. Maybe we’ll see him in Vegas next year? Haddan or Trump. Or maybe both?
The Greatest Game of All: The National Rugby League 1908-2025 by Steve Haddan, paperback, $49.99 at QBD bookstores; for signed hardcover copies, $59.99, go to stevehaddan.com.au