Beetson's big frame, pure speed and brilliant ball skills won countless games for all his teams.

He represented Australia again at the 1968 Rugby League World Cup, playing at prop forward in the win against France in the tournament final.

Beetson continued to represent Australia at the 1972 Rugby League World Cup, playing against Great Britain at prop forward in the tournament final which was drawn.

On the 1973 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France, he was selected as Australia's vice captain, playing at prop forward in all three Ashes test matches.

During the 1976 NSWRFL season, Beetson captained Eastern Suburbs to victory in their unofficial 1976 World Club Challenge match against British champions St Helens in Sydney.

He was captain-coach of Redcliffe in 1981 and that season was appointed coach of the Queensland State of Origin side, taking them to repeated series victories over New South Wales from 1981 to 1984.

After stepping down as Queensland coach following the 1990 State of Origin series loss to NSW, Beetson became part of the ABC's commentary team in 1991 for their Saturday Afternoon League telecasts alongside chief caller, former Western Suburbs winger Warren Boland, as well as his former Eastern Suburbs and Parramatta teammate John Peard and Canterbury-Bankstown media liaison Debbie Spillane, both of whom worked on the sidelines.

Part-way through the 1994 NSWRL season Beetson briefly replaced the sacked Mark Murray as coach of the Eastern Suburbs Roosters.

In the post-1999 NRL season an Aboriginal side managed by Arthur Beetson defeated the Papua New Guinean national team.

Also that year he became the seventh selected post-war "Immortal" of the Australian game with Churchill, Raper, Gasnier, Fulton, Langlands and Wally Lewis.

[16] In 2008, rugby league in Australia's centenary year, Beetson was named at second-row forward in the Toowoomba and South West Team of the Century.

As part of the Centenary of League celebrations in 2008, Beetson was retrospectively awarded the Clive Churchill Medal as Man of the Match in the 1974 Grand final.

An inspiration and role model for his people, Arthur was resolute in his beliefs about the absolute need for young Indigenous Australians to be educated, to finish school and to be employed.

On 1 December 2011, Beetson died following a heart attack while riding his bicycle at Paradise Point on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

[23] On 16 December 2023, a Google Doodle was made to honour Beetson's life and career; the date was chosen because it marked 50 years since his appointment as captain a mainstream Australian sports team.

[26] Rugby league commentator Ray Hadley also criticised the decision after an attempted compromise with an offer put forward to have Beetson honoured with a statue instead of a grandstand.

[27][28] In March 2022, it was announced that the decision not to name a stand at the new Sydney Football Stadium had been overturned by New South Wales sports minister Stuart Ayres.