£12.47
The Nearly Men Of Rugby League: Volume Two by Tom Mather and Gordon Allen
This book looks at the lives of sixteen Australian rugby league players who made it almost to the very pinnacle of the game.They all played for Australia but never in a Test match. The book also covers in many cases the colourful lives they led off the field. Arthur Bollard way back in 1909 actually played with a team-mate who only had one hand! He would die from tuberculosis when just 40 years of age, through war service. One player left to go on tour to England leaving his fiancée back in Australia only to return having married a Yorkshire lass while in England. He would die at the age of 26 following a routine appendix operation that went bad. The book also covers the playing careers of three who went on to become great coaches. Ron Willey led Manly to their first premiership win and repeated that success the following season. Frank Stanton would coach what was considered to be the finest Australian team ever to leave Australia the so called “Invincibles”. Finally perhaps the greatest coach the game has ever seen in Wayne Bennett whilst much as and is still written of his coaching exploits the same cannot be said of his playing career. He would tour New Zealand and play for Huddersfield over in the UK. These and many more stories are contained in the book and give the reader just a small glimpse into the lives of some of these 16 players many now long forgotten. Sold by Amazon.
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