Mick Madsen

Mick Madsen

Personal information
Full name	Peter Madsen
Nickname	Mick
Born	16 September 1901(1901-09-16) Tannymorel, Queensland
Died	2 February 1979(1979-02-02) (aged 77)
Playing information
Position	Forward
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1921–1937	Brothers (Toowoomba)
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1928–1937	Queensland	39				9
1929–1936	Australia	9				0

Peter "Mick" Madsen (16 September 1901 - 2 February 1979) was an Australian rugby league player. He was a front-row forward for the Australian national team. He played in 9 Tests between 1929 and 1936 as captain on 1 occasion and has since been named as one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

Early life

Born in Tannymorel near Warwick, Queensland he attended Toowoomba Grammar School and played rugby league there. He was a seasonal labourer in country Queensland when at age 20 he played in a game against the visiting Toowoomba Brothers club who signed him up.

Club career

Madsen played his entire first grade career of 17 seasons with the Brothers club.

Representative career

Australian national rugby league captain

He first represented for Queensland at age 27 and then consistently for the next 9 years making a then record of 34 appearances against New South Wales as well as 5 appearances against touring international sides.

Madsen back four from left, Kangaroos 1st Test 5 Oct 1929

He made his Test debut against England in the first Test of the 1929 Kangaroo Tour. He played in the 2nd Test loss and 17 tour matches before a broken jaw rule him out of further appearances.

He played in all three Tests of the 1932 Ashes series in Australia.

He made his 2nd Kangaroo Tour of England in 1933-34 and played in 25 tour matches and three Tests. He made his sole appearance as captain of the Kangaroos in the 2nd Test at Headingley in November 1933 following injury to tour captain Frank McMillan. Australia lost the game 7-5 in front of a crowd of 30,000 with all of Australia's points scored by the 1930s point scoring sensation Dave Brown.

At 34 years of age Madsen was recalled to the 1936 Australian side in the Third Test against England in Sydney. A late call up, Madsen was the first Australian player to fly to a Test match.

His last first grade game was at age 38. In retirement he remained a notable Toowoomba identity. In February 2008, Madsen was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.^[1][2] In June 2008, he was chosen in the Queensland Rugby League's Team of the Century at prop-forward.^[3]

Madsen third from left, Kangaroos 1st Test 6 Jun 1932

Run-on Test side plus mgrs 6 Jun 1932, Madsen back-row 3rd from left

Representative statistics

Team	Matches	Years
Queensland	39	1928–1937
Australia	9	1929–1936

Sources

• Whiticker, Alan (2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney
• Andrews, Malcolm (2006) The ABC of Rugby League Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney
• Queensland Team of the Century named - article at nz.leagueunlimited.com

Footnotes

1. ^ Peter Cassidy (2008-02-23). "Controversy reigns as NRL releases top 100 players". Macquarie National News. http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/02/22/Controversy_reigns_as_NRL_releases_top_100_players. Retrieved 2008-02-23. 
2. ^ "Centenary of Rugby League - The Players". NRL & ARL. 2008-02-23. http://www.centenaryofrugbyleague.com.au/site/the-players.aspx?cat=3&list=true. Retrieved 2008-02-23. 
3. ^ Ricketts, Steve (2008-06-10). "Locky named No.1 but Wal's still King". The Courier-Mail. Archived from the original on 2009-05-20. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.news.com.au%2Fcouriermail%2Fstory%2F0%2C23739%2C23843448-10389%2C00.html&date=2009-05-20. Retrieved 2009-05-20. 

Persondata
Name	Madsen, Mick
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1901-09-16
Place of birth	Tannymorel, Queensland
Date of death	1979-02-02
Place of death