Career
He is the current head coach of Papua New Guinea. As a player, he is a former Papua New Guinea international and Queensland State of Origin representative. Lam moved from Papua New Guinea to Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland at the age of 7 where he was raised.
Lam had a fertile career with 14 State of Origin football matches for the Queensland side, including a man-of-the-match performance in the third game of the 1995 series.
He played at halfback for the Sydney Roosters in their 2000 NRL Grand Final loss to the Brisbane Broncos. He captained the Kumuls to the quarter finals in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup and also played 1 match for a "Rest of the World" team against Australia in 1997.
He played a total of 146 club games for the Sydney Roosters, scoring 42 tries and kicking 6 field goals, as well as 119 first team games for Wigan Warriors, scoring 44 tries, kicking 1 goal and 10 field goals, including a try in their 2001 Super League Grand Final loss to the Bradford Bulls. Lam is one of only a few players to have played State of Origin for Queensland and for a country other than Australia.
He is also the only player to be captain of a Queensland side and captain of a national team other than Australia.
The reason he was allowed to do this was that due to the Super League war, Queensland were in need of a half-back due to the fact regular half-back Allan Langer had signed with Super League. Lam became coach of Papua New Guinea in 2007, and was in charge for their 2008 Rugby League World Cup campaign. In 2009 he started an appointment as assistant coach under Wayne Bennett at the Saint George Illawarra Dragons.
He was the coach of the Papua New Guinea national rugby league team until he quit in 2009 due to a dispute with the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League.
Lam became the coach of the Street George-Illawarra Dragons Under 20s team in 2010 and 2011. He returned as coach of Papua New Guinea in 2012.
In 2010 a court ordered former State of Origin teammate Dale Shearer to repay approximately $1.5m to Lam for an outstanding loan which dated back to 2005.
