THE Queenslander who christened NSW rugby league players
"cockroaches" was Kangaroo halfback and later state coach
Barry Muir.
He claimed he was watching the replay of an interstate
match on a hotel TV when a cockroach scurried across the
screen and stopped on the NSW side.
The insult stung a southerner who responded by calling the
Maroons "canetoads".
The names (and the relative positions on the food chain)
have stuck.
