Similar shrieks of anticipation to the days of the Ella brothers playing for Randwick is starting to echo across the University of Queensland campus four decades later on the back of a promising trio of talented Aboriginal backs.
The Oates brothers have teamed up to mesmerise first-grade defenders since a 19-year-old Chace this year joined his childhood opponents he once looked up to in the family backyard.
BJ, 25, and Kye, 24, terrified a much smaller Chace, but it also pulled the present day fly half into line about learning the game the hard way.
"There's a bit of an age gap between myself and then Chace, but we use to dress him up in shoulder pads and head gear, just so we could tackle him in the backyard," Kye laughs.
"But yeah, we're all a bit alike, especially me with BJ because we know what's going on with each other, and with Chace it's a bit of the same.
"He's just slotted in because he's pretty calm and collected, and it's easy to run off of him or know what he's doing."
The teenager is having the last laugh, calling the shots to his one-time bully siblings.
But once the ball leaves Chace's hands, its dynamic inside centre Kye that seems to shape the next play as was once demonstrated in their collective Hospital Cup debut together against West Brisbane.
It was like Mark, Gary and Glen Ella all over again.
The high praise of comparisons to the Ellas almost gives Kye an embarrassed giggle.
Kye admits that their mum sends her sons video links of the star 1980s brothers from Sydney's Aboriginal Communities of Le Perouse that modestly played 35 Tests collectively for the Wallabies.
"Some of the things they used to do, you are kind of gobsmacked from the clips I've seen," Kye says.
"Obviously they were awesome players, but I don't think we try too much to replicate them.
"We just try to enjoy our footy out there together and see whatever happens."
There's the steadying flat pass to run onto, a cut-out ball to wrong step around the uncertain creeping defence, and then the timely loop pass.
Chace is a midseason addition to the UQ lineup, but Kye always visualised what the family playmaker could achieve given opportunity that has come sooner than others expected.
"Chace is a really good player and he's a big boy, and if there was quite a few injuries, both BJ and I thought he was a good chance he could play first grade (this year)," Kye says.
"It's ended up working out well this year so far and that was a reason for me to go back to UQ again."
The Oateses are the future for the club, but it was a glimpse from the past, who lured the trio to the club.
Eldest brother Coen Oates went to University of Queensland for an education, playing colts' rugby first and then some lower-grade games on the side of completing his degree.
No such luck for the younger of the Nunuccal, Nughie and Goenpaul brothers.
They are all in it for rugby glory.
"People get that mixed up all the time – they ask me what degree am doing?" Kye laughs.
"I'm like, 'nah, it's just a club for me.'"
Kye has given his opponents an education on the field, capturing in the pandemic-affected 2021 season, the prized Alec Evans Medal, for the top player in Queensland Premier Rugby.
The former Toowoomba Grammar students fell into the sport through the GPS competition.
They bucked a historical trend that Indigenous players take on rugby league, not rugby union narrative of the elite.
"The school only plays union there, but, I was very much a 'leaguey' growing up in central Queensland," he said.
"I played a year at UQ Colts (after school) and I ended up going back to league.
"I then realised I sort of enjoyed union a bit more after that.
"I thought potentially I had more opportunities as far as career wise.
"It has kind of worked out that way."
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Kye has been on the fringe of national fame for a number of years, but is not known much outside of the tight Brisbane rugby circles.
Selection in the Australia under-20s side highlighted his potential as a future Wallaby Test player at one stage and twice he has been called in and out of the Australian rugby sevens squad, not terribly long before the team's recent Olympic fourth-placing in Paris.
"I've got to go around the world a fair bit, but then again the body broke down that led me to come back home," he adds.
Kye debuted at the end of the 2022-23 world series in the famous Hong Kong sevens before playing in Dubai before missing the bulk of the next series and heading home until heading back for two tournaments before again falling back into the casualty ward.
That was where Kye met Aboriginal folk hero, Maurice Longbottom, and a football friendship blossomed.
"Moz and I actually car pooled to training because he just lived around the corner last year," Kye laughs.
"And Moz is really good to play with and is obviously one of the go-to-guys for them and for me, he was pretty helpful."
That has given Kye a real taste of wanting a professional playing career.
Outside of playing the code largely amateur or, at least not enough to earn an income from, the clever ball-runner is a support worker for the Beyond the Broncos Indigenous charitable organisation in local schools.
The rugby convert says a switch to sevens or even league was not out of the question.
"Most likely I would stay, but I'd see if something else comes up," Kye says.
"That'll be cool, but I do enjoy my union though."
Settling back into full club season of the 15-a-side game again this year, Kye admits to never played much sevens before Australia selectors liked the cut of game style and called him up.
The man, whose cultural roots are buried in the Minjerribah lands of North Stradbroke Island, was handpicked to join the Lloyd McDermott Indigenous Rugby Development team while still in school and not long after for an Invitational Indigenous sevens side.
Kye says switching rugby variants was about playing the game instinctively without real structure like he once used to show off with his brothers.
"It's a very different experience to the 15s – it brings you back to when you were a kid," Kye says.
"I always tell people its like professional backyard footy – it's kind of odd in that way.
"It's footy at its rawest and I just loved it.
"There was no long video sessions or real tactical planning.
"It's about doing whatever you can and backing yourself."
Kye also had flirtatious stint with Queensland Reds without coming close to playing a Super Rugby match.
The preseason run came at a time when there were questions over what direction was his rugby taking the outside back, who then spent more time on the fringes of the wings than more in the centre of the field.
"I was coming off playing for Souths Logan league when I ended up in the academy," he says.
"The year of coming off the back of the 2021 season, I then spent three or four months training up in the Reds squad.
"I think it was for more injury cover for one or two of the boys."
For the present, he's keen on building a partnership with UQ teammates over a connection to country.
The students' club was the first in Brisbane's Hospital Cup to embrace wearing Indigenous jerseys courtesy of the involvement and cultural investment from the Oates brothers.
"Mum has brought us up to be proud of our culture," Kye says
"The good thing is I have found a lot of connections through footy too.
"Obviously growing up like through the Murri carnival and things like that, and also Lloydies was a big one personally for me as well.
"I'm lucky through work, I get to help out the younger mobs at schools, and learn more and more every week.
"I feel rugby union has really picked up the ball lately, as it's getting involved with NAIDOC Week and being a part of reconciliation week with our jerseys."
It all started in 2021, the year the Red Heavies won their most recent first-grade grand final, and the empowerment still stands up three seasons on.
The club, from learnings largely from Kye and BJ, carried a theme of Indigenous connection to Murri land and culture into the spirit of how they played games out.
"We were like the most connected team or group that I have ever played with," Kye says.
"That year we were pretty hot like every game – we only dropped the one game just before finals.
"The club really ran with it and the jerseys have been coming every year since then.
"And now every other club has been jumping on board.
"It's pretty cool to see the change – we just have to get more of our players out there playing."
