Visitors to Hughenden in north-west Queensland will be greeted by billboards featuring NRL players Justin O'Neill and Chris Grevsmuhl.

The local community has a lot of pride in their local rugby league heroes, and the Hughenden Chamber of Commerce soon will be installing 'Home of Justin O'Neill and Chris Grevsmuhl' signs on the eastern and western entries to town on the Flinders Highway.

North Queensland Cowboys centre O'Neill and South Sydney Rabbitohs forward Grevsmuhl grew up in the small rural town, home to about 1,400 people, and started playing rugby league at the local club, the Hughenden Hawks.

O'Neill, whose parents still live in Hughenden, has been part of two premiership winning teams — the Melbourne Storm in 2012, and in last year's maiden premiership for the North Queensland Cowboys.

He said it was an honour to be recognised in his home town.

"I was pretty excited to have our faces on a billboard," O'Neill said.

"As you come into town, to be seen as someone that's representative of the town in the rugby league is great, and for them to want our faces is a privilege.

"I don't know if it quite matches up to winning a grand final," he laughed.

"We all wanted to do something for the community and give back to the community after the grand final.

"This is probably one of those little things that we can do to give back to our community and especially my hometown."

Supporting the local community

Chamber of Commerce president Les Carter said the idea for the signs stemmed from the Give a Local a Go campaign, which encouraged visitors to shop locally.

He hoped the signs might pique visitors' interest in the rural town and encourage them to stay longer.

"We're capitalising on our local talent," Mr Carter said.

"We want to welcome people to Hughenden and say this is the home of these two gentleman, and how much we appreciate them.

"They're fantastic ambassadors for Hughenden ... they love the town and ... we love them as well.

"We just want the tourists to stay an extra day and have a look around Hughenden and enjoy."

The signs will 3.6 by 2.4 metres and cost about $5,000 each, which the chamber, local businesses and the Flinders Shire Council will pay for.

The chamber is also applying for a drought relief grant to help fund the signs.

O'Neill and Grevsmuhl will be wearing Hughenden Hawks jerseys on the signs.

Mr Carter hopes the chamber might eventually be able to put signs on the northern and southern entries into town as well.

He said the town — especially junior football players — took great pride in the two men.

"Everyone says 'I'm from Hughenden — that's where Justin O'Neill and Chris [Grevsmuhl] come from'," he said.

"This will go on for a long, long time. These boys will be remembered for a really long time as part of Hughenden and part of that fantastic [Cowboys vs Broncos] grand final."

The chamber plans to install the signs before the outback tourist season kicks off in May.

Bronco supporters get hard time in Cowboys country

Mr Carter said there were still a few stoic Broncos supporters in the town, but most people were now behind the Cowboys.

He said the Hughenden community had watched last year's grand final with bated breath.

"The town was alive ... I think it turned a lot of people that were other [team] supporters and made them into Cowboys supporters," Mr Carter said.

"We've got some still staunch Broncos supporters here but we give them a hard time.

"All we need is to get our two boys at the Cowboys, that's only my opinion. I'd love to get the two boys in the Cowboys, that'd be fantastic," he laughed.

Justin O'Neill playing for the North Queensland Cowboys in the 2016 pre-season. ( Supplied: North Queensland Cowboys )

While O'Neill does not get back to Hughenden very often, he makes an effort to visit the two local schools when he does.

He said he was very grateful for the support he received from the local community.

"I realised that I do get a lot of support when I get back there, see a lot of familiar faces and always do get a lot of congratulations and support from the locals," he said.

"There's a lot of Cowboys supporters out there as well, so to give back to the kids and show the kids that there's a realisation there, if they train hard and they really work hard and strive towards their goals, they can achieve what they want and NRL is something that is achievable."