'Best thing Alan Jones ever did': How losing the captaincy shaped Wallabies legend
Mark Ella played for the Wallabies 25 times and was captain in 1982 and 1983.
Ella was part of the Wallabies Grand Slam tour team in 1984 and scored in every Test, but explains how losing the captaincy helped him thrive in his role.
By Mark Ella
I lost the captaincy before the 1984 Grand Slam tour.
The first part was the shock of being dropped as captain. It was Alan Jones.
We played a game at Concord Oval and Jonesy said they were going to announce the team and he said: “I don’t want you to go because you’re not captain, Andrew Slack’s going to be captain.”
I walked across the road with my wife and a few mates and we had a couple of beers while the team was announced.
Leading up to that I was blasé. I wasn’t giving everything to the captaincy.
I captained Randwick but not NSW and I wasn’t giving everything to it.
It may have been the best thing Alan Jones ever did. We had a young guy called Michael Lynagh coming up through the grades, so where before I was a walk-up start, I had competition.
That changes your whole philosophy. I had to work.
Everything aligned. You need a bit of luck, we worked hard and had a good team.
I can’t believe we’ve only had one grand slam. It doesn’t make sense, we’ve had some great sides.
