Johnno Stuntz

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Johnno Stuntz
Australian Rugby league founding player
Australian Rugby league founding player
Personal information
Full name Johnno Stuntz
Date of death 1916
Senior clubs*
Years Club Apps (points)
1908-1910
1909-1910
1911
1913
Eastern Suburbs
Warrington Wolves
Western suburbs
South Sydney
6 (21)

6 (3)
4 (11)
Representative teams
1909
1911
Australia
New South Wales
0 Tests
6 (3)

* Professional club appearances and points
counted for domestic first grade only.

Johnno Stuntz (Sydney, Australia) (died 1916) was a pioneer Australian rugby league player, a national and state representative whose club career was played with Eastern Suburbs, Western Suburbs and South Sydney as well as one season with English club, Warrington Wolves.

One of rugby league's founding players, Stuntz was a member of the 1907 rebel side that played against the New Zealand 'All Golds' in the series that helped to establish rugby league in Australia. He played 14 matches (all grades) with Easts in the years (1908-10). In Easts' first match - the opening game of club rugby league in Australia, he scored four tries. This tally remains, equally, the most tries scored on debut in Australian premiership history. In the following season Stuntz was selected to represent Australia against a touring New Zealand Maori side. In 2004 the Australian Rugby League granted Stuntz retrospective representative status for the international games played against the Maori.

During the, Australian off-season, the 1909-10 English season, Stuntz signed with the Warrington Wolves club for 125 pounds and a further 3 pounds 5 shillings a week during the season. A winger, Stuntz also played for both the South Sydney (1911) and Western Suburbs (1913) clubs. While playing for South Sydney in 1911 Stuntz represented for New South Wales.

Stuntz died in 1916, one of the many that fell on the Western front during the first World War.

[edit] Sources

  • Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players, Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney
  • Lester, Gary The Story Of Australian Rugby League
  • Mideleton, David (2005) Big League Annual 2005
  • Warrington Wolves website