Gary Belcher was born in Brisbane in 1962.

A Souths junior, Belcher played first grade for the Souths Logan Magpies in the Brisbane competition from 1983 to 1985. He was a part of the 1985 Grand Final winning side alongside Mal Meninga and Peter Jackson and under the coaching of Wayne Bennett.

His move to Canberra in 1986 alongside Mal Meninga would change the fabric of the club forever. Personally for Badge, it was almost the perfect season as he made his Origin debut for Queensland, made the Kangaroos Tour and was awarded the Raiders Player of the Year.

Badge’s running game was poetry on motion and he quickly became an elite fullback. Taking his side all the way to the Grand Final against Manly, Belcher was awarded the clubs Player of the Year again in 1987.

In 1988 he was the season’s top point-scorer with 218 points which was a Canberra club record at the time but since bettered by Clinton Schifcofske (245) in 2001 and then Jarrod Croker (296) in 2016.

Trying his hand in the northern hemisphere, he went to England at the end of the 1988 season to play for the Castleford Tigers. They made the final of the Yorkshire County Cup but then he got injured and only managed to play 11 games in total.

He had plenty of success in 1989, when the Raiders went one better and beat the Tigers in the Grand Final with Badge scoring the first try. They went back to back in 1990 and this enabled him to join the Kangaroos Tour again and play all three Tests against Great Britain as the first choice fullback.

In 1991 he made his fifth Grand Final in six years and Canberra’s fourth Grand Final in five years. Unfortunately they couldn’t beat the Panthers and so he ended up with three from five grand final victories.

A knee reconstruction wiped out his entire 1992 season and he returned for a full season in 1993 but wasn’t offered a new deal at the end of it. He announced his retirement live on TV during his own sports segment of the news.

Throughout his Raiders career between 1986 and 1993 he played 148 games for the club, scored 69 tries and kicked 148 goals for 572 points.

He played 16 games for Queensland and 15 Tests for Australia.

Post playing, Belcher was a part of the Broncos coaching staff until 2005.

He went into the media with Fox Sports as a commentator and has stayed in the office industry ever since. He was also part of the Channel 7 coverage of the 2017 World Cup.

An automatic starter in the Raiders Hall of Fame, he was also nominated for the NRL Hall of Fame in 2019.

Now 60, Badge hosts the Sports Day NSW radio show with Scott Sattler. He’s still as passionate as ever about the Raiders and you can clearly hear it in his voice whenever he talks about the club.

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