When Jonathan Brown stops a man in the middle of a crowded footy venue to ask him for a photo, you know you are standing in the presence of Queensland sporting royalty.
As the presentation stage was packed away at the 2026 AFLQ Schools Cup State Finals, parents queued up to shake Neil “Macca” Mackay’s hand.
Many of them were former students, kids he had taught and coached decades ago who were now watching their own sons and daughters lift state trophies under his banner.
When the Palm Beach Currumbin SHS coaching staff took to the microphone to deliver their post-tournament speeches, every single one of them turned to Macca.
The applause that followed wasn’t just for another standard tournament wrap, it was a thunderous, emotional tribute to a man who literally built the foundation they all stand on.
Standing before a sea of red and white during the presentation ceremonies, Mackay fought back tears every single time he was called up to the microphone.
Between choked-up pauses, he joked to the crowd about just trying to “keep his shit together” as the gravity of his final afternoon set in.
After 36 years at PBC, many as Head of Department for the school’s legendary Sports Excellence program, and a lifetime spent quietly shaping the landscape of Australian rules footy across Queensland, the 61-year-old icon is officially taking off the famous red polo for the final time.
From 20 Kids in 1991 to a Multi-Division Beast
To truly appreciate what Mackay built at Palm Beach Currumbin, you have to rewind to when he first walked through the school gates in 1991.
Back then, “school footy” was played strictly on Wednesday afternoons.
In 1996, PBC launched its Sports Excellence program with 10 sports, formalising AFL as an accredited subject, a groundbreaking move for a public school in traditional rugby league territory.
“When we first started, it was one combined class of 20 kids from Year 9 to 12. It was just whoever you could get to make a class,” Mackay recalled with a quiet smile.
Fast forward to 2026, and the program is an absolute juggernaut.
Over 110 boys and 90 girls fill three dedicated classes of 30-plus students, forming the premier schoolboy and schoolgirl Aussie rules pipeline in the state.
Yet Mackay’s impact extends far beyond the walls of PBC.
There has been no fiercer advocate for Queensland school footy over the last three decades and he stands as one of the primary architects behind the creation of the State Championships themselves.
Long before the tournament erupted into a record-breaking competition featuring over 17,500 students and 937 teams across the state in 2026, Mackay was on the front lines organising early 9-a-side matches just so local schools could field teams.
When the tournament outgrew its humble beginnings, he spent years tirelessly fighting for the State Finals to be housed at Maroochydore’s premier facility, a vision that ultimately transformed the carnival into a professional, world-class showcase for young talent.
Three decades later, the tournament is a behemoth and PBC is its undisputed heavyweight champion.
Since the AFLQ Schools Cup era kicked off in 2016, PBC has captured an astonishing 32 out of the 48 total state titles put on offer across all divisions.
Their trophy cabinet tells the story of complete state domination with 8 straight titles in both Junior Male and Junior Female (2019–2026), 7 Senior Male crowns, 5 Senior Female titles, and back-to-back sweeps of the newly introduced Youth Male and Youth Female divisions in 2025 and 2026.
That dynasty reached another peak on Sunday as PBC swept five of the six secondary state titles on the very Maroochydore turf Mackay championed.
Draft Picks, Cross-Sport Greatness & ‘REDS’ Culture
While Australian rules was his personal coaching passion, Mackay’s overarching legacy as Sports Excellence HOD spanned the entire elite sporting spectrum at PBC.
Driven by the program’s core mantra — RISE EVERY DAY STRONGER (‘REDS’) — he oversaw a multi-sport powerhouse covering 12 specialised streams, including rugby league, surfing, basketball, netball, touch football, soccer, tennis and track.
Under Mackay’s leadership, PBC became a national sporting nursery that churned out world-class athletes from NRL/NRLW superstars and world-tour surfers to elite track and court athletes.
Nowhere was that holistic success more obvious than on the Australian rules draft boards.
Over his tenure, Mackay helped steer an astonishing 25 players into the AFL and AFLW systems.
On the men’s side, 18 draftees led by AFL Premiership hero Dane Beams, Sam Gilbert, Jesse Joyce and a current fleet of Gold Coast Suns talents blazed the trail.
In the AFLW era, the school’s dominance exploded with seven elite female draftees, proving that the REDS standard applied to everyone.
His broader coaching footprint spans decades: Queensland Under-15 Schoolboys coach, Northern NSW Talent Manager for Collingwood, Gold Coast Suns Academy Assistant Coach, Senior Coach at Coolangatta, and President of the Queensland School Sport AFL Committee.
In 2019, he was awarded the AFL Merit Award for Outstanding Service to Australian football.
Yet, ask Mackay about his proudest achievement and he won’t bring up draft picks, medals, or the endless row of state banners inside the PBC gym.
“We’re a development program, so you’re trying to develop good humans and good young men,” he said.
“It’s about having a holistic approach. It’s not just ‘can you catch and run?’, but are you a good man? Teaching about character.
“Trophies are nice, but that’s not our only success criteria.
“It’s all those conversations you have. Boys and young women will muck up like anyone, and you have those conversations with them about how they could do things better.
“Seeing them grow, mature, and adopt those values of hard effort in life … that’s probably the most rewarding bit.”
A New Chapter Begins
As the afternoon sun dipped over Maroochydore and the team buses packed up for the drive back down the M1 to the Gold Coast, the reality of the moment finally started to settle in.
No more 7am alarm bells. No more strict school timetables. No more tactical whiteboards in the classroom.
“I’m sad for sure, but excited,” Mackay said when asked what taking off the PBC shirt for the last time would feel like.
“It’s a new chapter, but I’ll miss it something shocking.”
“What’s next? I don’t know. That’s the exciting bit. I don’t have to wake up and every 70 minutes be someone when the bell rings. No schedule.”
For 36 years, Neil Mackay was the standard-bearer for Palm Beach Currumbin footy.
He leaves behind not just a trophy cabinet overflowing with silverware, but thousands of young men and women whose lives were shaped by his guidance, patience and standards.
Queensland footy owes Mackay an enormous debt and as he steps away from the whiteboard for the final time, his legacy as the grandfather of modern Queensland school football is forever etched in history.
Originally published as Neil ‘Macca’ Mackay Calls Time on 36 Years of PBC Royalty After Five-Title State Finals Sweep