Hearn made his first-grade debut for North Sydney in Round 3 1992 against St George. In 1994, Hearn made 16 appearances for Norths as the club finished 2nd on the table, enjoying their best season in several years. Norths reached the preliminary final but were defeated by eventual premiers Canberra, with Hearn playing in the match. During the
1993 and
1994 seasons, Hearn was suspended 3 times for foul play by the
NSWRL Judiciary. In 1995, Norths qualified for the finals, with Hearn making 10 appearances. His final game for Norths was a 14–14 draw against the Gold Coast. With the
Super League war in 1995, the
Australian Rugby League (ARL) refused to pick Super League aligned players for representative games that year. That opened up
State of Origin selection for Tony Hearn who was subsequently selected to play for
Queensland under rookie
State of Origin coach
Paul Vautin. With the Maroons left to pick a very inexperienced side, the team was labeled as "Neville's" (nobodies) by coach Vautin who used the underdog status to motivate his players. Queensland, including Hearn in the front row, surprised everyone by winning the
1995 State of Origin series 3-0 in a spectacular upset in which most had not even given the Maroons a chance of winning a game, let alone the entire series. Unfortunately however for Hearn, what was being touted as possible selection for
Australia for the upcoming
Test series against
New Zealand, turned sour in Game 3 of the Origin series at
Lang Park in Brisbane. Reacting from what he believed was a swinging arm from opposing
NSW front rower
Mark Carroll, Hearn got up and threw what appeared to be a headbutt at Carroll who reacted with a flurry of punches. After the fight was broken up and despite Hearn being put on report for "using the head", referee Eddie Ward somehow ended up giving Qld the penalty. The headbutt ended up costing Hearn an 8 week suspension and ended any chance of his Test selection. In 1996, Hearn joined South Queensland and made 15 appearances for the club as they finished last on the table. In 1997, Hearn joined St George playing with them for 2 seasons before retiring at the end of 1998. ==References==