A forward-sized centre who also excelled on the wing in his early career, Close represented Combined Brisbane in the 1979 Amco Cup competition and made his debut for Queensland the same year.
After playing in Manly's reserve grade grand final loss in 1987, he linked with the newly formed Gold Coast club where his experience was used to good effect in the forwards.
After his retirement as a player, Close filled the role of Queensland State of Origin team manager under Paul Vautin (1995–97), Wayne Bennett (1998 & 2001–4) and Mark Murray (1999-00).
When asked about the incident in 2015, Close said "That was basically directed at one person not the whole bench, I got a great deal of enjoyment out of that, he used to call The Queensland spirit a myth and claimed we were always lucky, that was just euphoria coming out in that moment.
[3] During the time he lived in Rockhampton, he and his wife spent 18 months restoring a five-bedroom, four-bathroom Queenslander in the city's upper class suburb of The Range, which was expected to set a $2 million sale record when it was placed on the market in 2011.