- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The NRL kicks off tonight, but it was a vastly different story 56 years ago, when Noel Kelly played his first NSWRL game for Western Suburbs.
Born outside Ipswich, Kelly made his way into the Queensland side via Ipswich and Brothers to be in the first and third winning sides against NSW in 1959.
That earned the teak-tough prop-cum-hooker a Test against the Kiwis, and a berth on the 1959 Kangaroo tour to England and France, captained by Keith Barnes.
Now a fully-fledged international, Kelly signed on as captain-coach in Ayr for the princely sum of 800 pounds. That’s where he received a phone call from the Magpies to come to the big smoke of Sydney, and the big time.
In that era there was only Balmain, Canterbury, Eastern Suburbs, Manly, Newtown, North Sydney, Parramatta, South Sydney, St George, and Wests in the comp, with the match of the day every Saturday at the SCG – no Sunday play.
It was a big decision for the country boy, with wife Chris, son Greg, and daughter Judy, to pack up the car and drive 2000 kilometres to Sydney.
It took them a week, but at the end of the trip was an 1100-pound contract, a house, and a job.
One of the club’s staunch supporters was the Narrabeen Hotel and that’s where the Kellys camped for months, while Noel did odds jobs around the Peninsula, picking up glasses, attending to the amusement park on Manly wharf, and keeping his hand in as a qualified butcher.
That was the perfect job for ‘Ned’, selling meat Monday to Friday and making mincemeat of the opposition every Saturday.
Ned found a house on Collaroy Plateau and using his contract as collateral, it was the Kellys’ first Sydney home.
He found the Sydney comp to his liking, being instrumental in Wests reaching the SCG decider in each of his first three seasons, only to run into the Dragon buzzsaw nearing the end of their record-breaking 11 successive premierships.
But the 1963 grand final was special: played in torrential rain, on a mud heap, award winning photographer John O’Gready from the Sydney Morning Herald took the superb picture of rival captains Norm Provan and Arthur Summons leaving the field.
That photo is now the inspiration for the NRL premiers’ trophy.
There were 16 Kangaroos on duty that memorable day: Graeme Langlands, Reg Gasnier, Billy Smith, Eddie Lumsden, Monty Porter, Ian Walsh, Kevin Ryan, Elton Rasmussen, and Norm Provan as captain-coach of the Gladiators, and Summons as Wests captain with Don Parish, Peter Dimond, Denis Meaney, Kel O’Shea, and Kelly.
(But one of Wests’ props was Jack Gibson, who was to make an indelible mark as an innovating coach, winning two premierships with Easts, and three with Parramatta.)
Ned played a blinder that day and was selected for his second tour of England and France, captain-coached by Summons.
There had been ten previous Kangaroo tours to England that had never won the series. The 1963 Kangaroos broke the drought, 2-1, with Kelly playing all three Tests as prop.
They didn’t come any tougher or less compromising than Ned Kelly.
At Headingley, England and Australia came out of opposite doors into a dark tunnel. The 13 Australians looked ready for battle as they hit the turf, but two of the Englishmen were decidedly wobbly at the knees – Ned and another tough hombre, Peter Dimond, had whacked them in the tunnel.
Australia won the Test.
Kelly was sent off 17 times, but in explaining why, he said many early showers were for repeated scrum infringements.
“Referees of the day were down on us hookers, we actually hooked for the ball,” was the explanation.
Kelly was a legend of the game. The proof was being named in the Magpies Team of the Century, the Queensland Team of the Century, Rugby League’s greatest 100 players in history, and topped off by the recognition as hooker in the Australian Team of the Century.
The team was fullback Clive Churchill*, wingers Ken Irvine and Brian Bevan, centres Reg Gasnier* and Mal Meninga, halves Wally Lewis* and Andrew Johns*, props Arthur Beetson* and Duncan Hall, hooker Noel Kelly, second rowers Norm Provan and Ron Coote, with the lock Johnny Raper*.
The bench was Graeme Langlands*, Bobby Fulton*, Dally Messenger, and Frank Burge, with the inimitable Jack Gibson the coach.
(* denotes the eight Immortals, but Irvine, Meninga, Provan, Coote and Kelly should have long ago been inducted as Immortals.)
Only Johnathan Thurston would replace Johns among the current players.
After 111 games for Wests, eight for Queensland, six for NSW, and 25 for the kangaroos, Kelly spent his last season in Wollongong.
Next port of call was coaching North Sydney from 1973 to 1976, but the Bears never made the finals, finding new ways of losing every other week.
Ned will also be best remembered as a member of Channel Seven’s Sports Action program every Sunday morning – it was compulsory viewing watching Controversy Corner.
Dual international Rex Mossop was in the chair, Ned and Ferris Ashton were former Kangaroos, Alan Clarkson the highly-respected chief rugby league writer for the Sydney Morning Herald and Sun Herald, while Col Pearce was one of the all-time great referees.
Sadly, Ned Kelly is the last one standing, but he has very fond memories of an extraordinarily popular segment.
The day after Manly won their first grand final, skipper Freddie Jones was in the final of the show’s passing competition. Freddie was a no show, so Rex rang the Manly Leagues Club to find out if he was still there.
“He’s asleep on the floor,” came the barmen’s reply.
“Stick him in a cab for Epping immediately,” barked Rex.
Freddie arrived gonzo, Rex had to physically place him on the starting line for four passes from the right, and turn him around for four from the left.
Freddie threw eight hospital passes for seven bulls.
He came to on the Thursday and, knowing he’d obviously had plenty to drink, wondered how on Earth he had so much cold hard in his wallet. Teammates told Freddie a couple of days later he had won $700 cash in the passing competition.
I hadn’t seen Ned Kelly for 34 years until this week, and he hasn’t changed a scrap. At 81 he’s as sharp as a tack, and still a great bloke, with an acute sense of humour.
Noel Kelly with David Lord.
He watches a lot of sport on television, but can’t play golf anymore at Long Reef where he once had a handicap of nine. And he admires the current crop of league superstars, who are banking a million bucks a season.
“It makes my 1100 quid look a bit sick, but I wouldn’t change a thing,” he said.
“I never thought I’d reach the heights I did, it was one mighty ride,” was how he summed up a stellar career.
Long may Ned Kelly be around to keep telling the stories.