OF all the little big men who have played rugby league, few have stood taller than Johnny Kolc.

Putting on the boots: Johnny Kolc with the ball

Former St George halfback Mark Shulman and ex-English international and Cronulla half Tommy Bishop might stop below him, but there would be a centimetre in it.

Kolc stood 155centimetres in very big boots but that didn’t stop him reaching the heights.

The little big man played 99 first-grade games for the Eels and was the scrum half in Parramatta’s first grand final, the 13-10 loss to Manly in 1976. He also played in the 1977 drawn grand final and losing grand-final replay against St George.

Kolc subsequently was superceded by first Graeme Murray and then Peter Sterling but he was, and remains, one of the great Parramatta stalwarts and has worked at the leagues club for many years.

The diminutive one’s career highlight came when he was picked in the 1977 Australian World Cup team.

Kolc stood taller than ever in the final against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground and one of his teammates that day was a lanky, sidestepping front-rower called Denis Fitzgerald.

It was Kolc’s trademark feint from dummy half and 30-metre blindside run for a try that won the game for Australia.

Now 32 years on, the middle-aged Kolc is not the dasher of that day but he will have the chance to show what’s left of those twinkle toes at the World Masters Games.

Mark Geyer has picked Kolc in his team that will contest the touch-football competition.

Geyer’s brother-in-law Greg Alexander will be another member of the team, and so will referee Shayne Hayne.

MGs Maulers side will contest the mens 40-plus category at two St Marys venues from October 12-15.

“The Games are as much about making friends and having fun as they’re about playing hard and winning medals,” Geyer said.

“But I’d like to think MGs Maulers, including John, will have a red-hot go at striking men’s 40-plus touch footy gold.”

A win wouldn’t compensate Kolc for those grand finals, but would provide him with a few tall stories to embellish.