Ken Thornett

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**Ken Thornett**
Personal information
Australian national rugby league player
Full name	Ken Thornett
Date of birth	1937
Nickname(s)	The Mayor of Parramatta
Relatives	John Thornett (brother) Dick Thornett (brother)
Club information
Position(s)	Fullback
Current club	Retired
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
1962-71 1961-62	Parramatta Eels Leeds	129 (63) ?
Representative teams
1963-67 1963-64	New South Wales Australia	3 (0) 12 (18)
Professional clubs coached
1965-66	Parramatta Eels
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only.

Ken Thornett is a former Australian rugby league player. He represented for the Kangaroos in 12 Tests in 1963-64 and on the 1963-64 Kangaroo Tour.

1 Club and representative career
2 Sporting family
3 Accolades
4 External links
5 Footnotes

[edit] Club and representative career

He was a Fullback with the Parramatta Eels in 1960s. He played 136 games for the club. Thornett was the leading Australian Rugby League fullback in the early sixties after Barnes and before Johns & Langlands.

Ken played in all six Tests of the 1963 Kangaroo Tour and in ten minor tour games. He made a further six Test appearances and by the end of his representative career in 1964 had played three Tests each against Great Britain and New Zealand, five against France and one against South Africa.

[edit] Sporting family

Ken and both of his brothers were all exemplary sportsmen. John Thornett was a Wallaby captain who played 37 Rugby Union Tests for Australia over a distinguished 13 year career from 1955. Dick Thornett represented Australia at water polo, rugby league and rugby union. Much of Dick and Ken's club football career was played together at Parramatta and they have the very rare distinction of having played three international rugby league Tests together on the 1963-64 Kangaroo Tour.

[edit] Accolades

In 1965 he was named NSW Player of the Year.

In February 2008, Thornett was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908-2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.^[1]^[2]