Greg Dowling

Who is Greg Dowling?

Gregory Dowling is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s. He represented both Australia and Queensland.

A prop from Ingham, Queensland, Dowling started his career with the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls. At the end of their 1986 season, he went on the 1986 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France. He was later selected as a member of the foundation team for the Brisbane Broncos in 1988. He was named the 1989 Brisbane Broncos season's player of the year. Injury forced him into retirement in 1991.

After playing he became a commentator for the ABC and a columnist for the Cairns Post.

In 2000 Dowling was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league.

Greg Dowling currently resides in Townsville with two children called Lauren and Lachlan and his wife Rhonda. After moving on from his McDonalds franchise on the tablelands in 2008, he began his retirement. Soon realizing this was not for him he started new project which started at the end of 2009, an Oporto franchise in the Willows Shopping Centre Townsville.

Greg Dowling is perhaps best remembered for scoring a freakish try during the 1984 State of Origin series. In Game 2 of the series, played on a wet and muddy Sydney Cricket Ground, Qld captain Wally Lewis put up a chip-kick only metres out from the try line. The ball hit the crossbar on the full and bounced back down. Somehow Dowling managed to catch the slippery ball on the full only centimetres from the ground to score under the posts, helping the Maroons to a series winning 14-2 win.