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Gorden James Tallis (born 27 July 1973), also known by the nickname of "Raging Bull" for his on-field aggression, is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He is currently a commentator and pundit for the Fox Sports network.
A Queensland State of Origin and Australian international representative second-row forward, he captained both these teams as well as the Brisbane Broncos with whom he won the 1997, 1998 and 2000 Grand Finals, after starting his career with the St. George Dragons in Sydney. At the peak of his career Tallis was considered as the best forward in the world and in 2008 was named in an Indigenous Australian rugby league team of the century.
According to The Courier-Mail in 2021, Tallis identifies as an Indigenous Australian through his paternal ancestry. Tallis' mother is white.
Tallis addressed speculation about his ethnic background in his 2003 autobiography Raging Bull:
Aboriginal activist Stephen Hagan interpreted this as meaning that Tallis does not claim to be an Indigenous Australian. Confusion may have come from the fact that Loh Island is located within the Torres Islands of Vanuatu, not Australia's Torres Strait Islands.
Tallis is also understood to have Tongans ancestry.
When the proposed Super League competition was put on hold in 1996, Tallis offered to buy out the final year of his contract with St. George in order to join Brisbane Broncos. St. George declined the offer however, and subsequent court action held him to his original contract. Having already signed a Super League contract to play with Brisbane, the fiery North Queenslander caused controversy when he was the only player who chose to sit out the 1996 season rather than play a final year with St. George. Player Profile at yesterdayshero.com.au After having made 54 appearances for the Red V, he left Sydney.
during the 1998 NRL season Tallis returned to St. George for the first time since his acrimonious split with the Saints and was pelted with garbage and insults and was loudly booed every time he touched the ball before his try secured a 30–18 victory. CNN/SI: "Newcastle on top of table" – Sunday 28 June 1998 03:11 PM He was selected to play for Queensland in Games 2 and 3 of the 1998 State of Origin series. Brisbane went on to capture another premiership with Tallis scoring a try and winning the prestigious Clive Churchill Medal as the best and fairest player on-field in the club's 38–12 1998 NRL grand final win over the Canterbury Bulldogs. Tallis made his Australian Kangaroos Test debut in the second match of the Trans-Tasman series.
He continued his great personal form when chosen for the ANZAC Test in 1999 and spearheaded Queensland's State of Origin campaign, playing in all 3 games of the historic tied 1999 State of Origin series. However, the season ended with Brisbane's failure to defend its premiership and Tallis was ruled out of October's 1999 Tri-Nations because of injury.
2000 saw him score a try in Australia's 52–0 thrashing of New Zealand in the ANZAC Test, but after being sent off in the opening State of Origin match for verbally abusing referee Bill Harrigan, Tallis suffered the ignominy of a whitewash defeat (his public admission that the 'dead' third match of the series should be cancelled was a momentary lapse in judgment that may have indirectly contributed to the Blues' 56–16 win). If Tallis' stature as the most dominant forward in the game wasn't secure following Brisbane's 14–6 win over the Roosters in the 2000 NRL grand final, his four tries in Australia's 82–0 humiliation of Papua New Guinea before the 2000 World Cup, and his selection as Australian captain for the match against Russia (which resulted in a record 110–4 victory) did. In 2000, Tallis also received the Australian Sports Medal. Following Australia's World Cup victory, Tallis and teammate Shane Webcke wrote an open letter to players appealing for an end to scandalous behaviour amongst footballers which had been tarnishing the sport.
At the end of 2003, Tallis, who was expected to lead Australia on the 2003 Kangaroo tour "Tallis quits rep football" (2003-09-30) abc.net.au announced his retirement from representative football, but continued playing with the Broncos. In 2004 he started to feel more affected by his neck injury and took heed of the warning signs his body was emitting. He played his last official match in the 2004 semi-final for the Brisbane Broncos, fittingly in his hometown of Townsville, against the Cowboys, which the Broncos lost. At the time of his retirement, he held the Broncos' club record of most career tries for a forward.
During the 2007 season at the Broncos' 20-year anniversary celebration, the club announced a list of the 20 best players to play for them to date which included Tallis.
In 2010 Tallis was inducted into the Broncos official Hall of Fame.
| + !Season !Team !Appearances !Tries !Goals !Goal-kicking percentage !Field goals !Points | |||||||
| 1992 NSWRL Season | St. George Dragons | 1 | - | - | - | - | |
| 1993 NSWRL Season | St. George Dragons | 15 | 1 | - | - | 4 | |
| 1994 NSWRL Season | St. George Dragons | 17 | 4 | 1/1 | 100% | - | 18 |
| 1995 ARL Season | St. George Dragons | 21 | 12 | 0/2 | 0% | - | 48 |
| 1997 Super League Season | Brisbane Broncos | 19 | 3 | - | - | - | 12 |
| 1998 NRL Season | Brisbane Broncos | 25 | 8 | - | - | - | 32 |
| 1999 NRL Season | Brisbane Broncos | 20 | 7 | - | - | - | 28 |
| 2000 NRL Season | Brisbane Broncos | 23 | 9 | - | - | - | 36 |
| 2001 NRL Season | Brisbane Broncos | 10 | 3 | - | - | - | 12 |
| 2002 NRL Season | Brisbane Broncos | 24 | 10 | - | - | - | 40 |
| 2003 NRL Season | Brisbane Broncos | 18 | 4 | - | - | - | 16 |
| 2004 NRL Season | Brisbane Broncos | 21 | 5 | - | - | - | 20 |
| + !Years !Team !Appearances !Tries !Goals !Goal-kicking percentage !Field goals !Points | |||||||
| 1994, 1998-2003 | Queensland | 17 | 4 | - | - | - | 16 |
| 1997 | Queensland (SL) | 3 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1997 | Australia (SL) | 3 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1998-2000, 2002-2003 | Australia | 13 | 9 | - | - | - | 36 |
Dally M Second Rower of the Year: 1999
Indigenous Team of the Century: 2008
During the 2010 NRL season after it was announced that South Sydney Rabbitohs head coach John Lang would be retiring, incoming replacement coach Michael Maguire from the Wigan Warriors announced that Tallis' services as forwards coach were no longer required.
In 2016, Tallis was immortalised with a Gord-e-moji
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Gord-e-moji emoji keyboard, in the same vein as his contemporary Kim Kardashian's "Kimoji". The app was developed for iOS by Devotion Digital in Sydney, with plans to roll out an Android version later in 2016.
In 2018, Tallis was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame.
In August 2019, Tallis called for the NRL to relocate Sydney teams and called crowds at Sydney games as "Embarrassing". Tallis went on to say "Could the NRL put in some key performance indicators to move one of the Sydney teams?, It’s got to go on fans", he said. "It’s got to go on filling a stadium. It’s got to go on people wanting to watch you, coming through the gate to pay to watch your brand, your style of football, Sydney Roosters are on top of the table and count their fans with a fork to get their numbers up, There’s nothing worse when you watch a game of footy and there’s no one there, you get embarrassed".
Tallis co-hosts Triple M Radio Brisbane's sports segment where he regularly amuses listeners with nonsensical opinions on the game and being the chief instigator of personal beef among the crew. In 2024, Tallis joined NRL 360 on Fox League replacing Paul Kent.
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