Of the 8,837 players who have played top-grade rugby league in Australia, not including those who spent their careers playing in the BRL or represented from the bush, only seven have been bestowed with the title of 'Immortal'. It is one of the greatest honours in Australian sport. Only the Australian football equivalent - a Hall of Fame legend - equates.

Arthur Beetson was one of those seven Immortals. He was only the second forward, after Johnny Raper, inducted. Last Thursday, he was only the second to pass away, after Clive Churchill died in 1985. 

In every sense of the word, Arthur Beetson was a giant. He played like it, he coached like it, he ate like it, he talked like it, he walked like it. 

Maligned early in his career at Balmain after coming down from Roma via Redcliffe, for being a lazy trainer and undisciplined player, Beetson still played seven Test matches while at the club, playing a key role in getting Balmain to the Grand Final in his first year and to the club's first premiership in 22 years, their final title, despite missing the decider after being sent off in the major semi final.

It was at the Roosters, though, that Beetson went from a skilful, ball-playing, hard-running, hard-hitting forward to the greatest post-war big man the game has seen. Under Don Furner and then Jack Gibson at Eastern Suburbs, Beetson got fit. He also got an insight into the player he could be and the player others thought he was when handed the captaincy by Gibson. The result was back-to-back premierships in 1974 and 1975, the latter widely regarded as one of the greatest teams in the history of rugby league. The Roosters went 20-2 that season and would defeat St George 38-0 in a blistering Grand Final show. Beetson was central all season.

During this time he became the first Indigenous Australian to captain an Australian sporting team. He would continue to be an inspiration, a leader and a fighter for Indigenous Australians until his very last.

By 1977 he was captain-coach of his beloved Easts, the first of three coaching stints at the club, but soon fell out with the brass and spent two uneventful years at Parramatta where, as a washed-up 35-year-old reserve grader, Beetson finally got to don the maroon of Queensland. With bung knees and creaking bones, Beetson led a young Queensland team out, belted teammate Mick Cronin, inspired a generation of Queenslanders from Wally Lewis to Mal Meninga and set the Origin flame alight. 

When his playing days were over, he followed the words of Dylan Thomas and did not go gentle into that good night. No, Big Artie loved the game too much. And the game loved him just as much. 

He would coach Queensland to series victories in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1989, his only losing series coming in 1990. He would mentor Australia to a win and a loss in the '83 series against New Zealand. In his second stint at Easts, he won Coach of the Year honours in 1987, taking an unfashionable Roosters team to the preliminary final, the club's only finals series between in 1982 and 1996. Two fruitless seasons at Cronulla (are there any other at Shark Park?) before taking over the Roosters again in '94, when Mark Murray was fired, wrapped up his coaching career, not that big-time coaching ever seemed his go. 

No, Artie seemed more at home in recruitment, where he could watch kids play, casting his keen eye for talent over them, helping them on and off the field. He was revered as a fine spotter and even better developer of talent. When Origin rolled around, Artie was always there with something to say. His great stories found a natural home on the after-dinner circuit, where he and old mate Tommy Raudonikis told old yarns, true and embellished.

Last Thursday, while riding his bike, Beetson had a heart attack. It was the end of a life devoted to rugby league, a game in which he excelled, a game in which he led, a game which adored him and will find him very hard to replace.