| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Albert Aaron Rosenfeld | |||||
| Nickname | Rozzy | |||||
| Born | 1885 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
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| Died | 1970 Huddersfield, England |
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| Playing information | ||||||
| Height | 166 cm (5 ft 5 in) | |||||
| Weight | 73.5kg | |||||
| Position | Stand-off/Five-eighth | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1908 | Eastern Suburbs | 6 | 1 | 0 | 20 | |
| 1909–21 | Huddersfield | 1,164 | ||||
| 1922 | Wakefield Trinity | |||||
| 1922–23 | Warrington | |||||
| 1924 | Bradford Northern | |||||
| Total | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1908–1909 | Australia | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Source: [1] | ||||||
Albert Aaron Rosenfeld (1885–1970) was a pioneer Australian rugby league footballer, a national representative whose club career was played in Sydney and in England. During his 16-year English career he set a number of try-scoring records including the standing world first-grade record of 80 tries in a season in 1911–12.
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Born in Sydney, the son of a Jewish tailor, Rosenfeld was a foundation player for the Eastern Suburbs club in the Australian inaugural season 1908 and in 1909. He played on Easter Monday 1908 in the Easts team that beat Newtown 32–16 on the first day of rugby league premiership football in Australia.
A Stand-off/Five-eighth, Rosenfeld represented his country in four Test matches . He made his Test début in Australia's first ever international series against New Zealand in 1908 where he appeared in all three matches. He was selected for Australia's inaugural Kangaroo Tour of 1908–09, making one Test appearance and playing in 13 minor representative matches.
Whilst on tour Rosenfeld signed with English club Huddersfield after falling in love with Ethel Barrand a local mill manager's daughter whom he later married. He was moved to the wing position by his new club and became a try scoring sensation. In the English season of 1911–12 he set a new try scoring record for one season with 77 tries only to better it the following season by scoring 80.[1] To date neither mark has been beaten in England or Australia. The nearest anyone has come was 72 by, coincidentally another Australian and former Eastern Suburbs player, playing in England Brian Bevan in the 1952–53 season.
In England he played for Huddersfield, Wakefield Trinity, Warrington and Bradford Northern.
Rosenfeld's phenomenal try-scoring record is all the more extraordinary considering his career was interrupted by three years of active service. He enlisted in the British Army in 1916 and saw service in the Mesopotamian campaign. He was discharged in 1919.
Rosenfeld played rugby league until he was thirty-nine and then, still married to Ethel he lived out his life in Huddersfield, working variously as a van driver and in a local dye house.
Aged 85 years, Rosenfeld was the last of the inaugural Kangaroo Tourists to pass away.
During his career (1908–24), Rosenfeld scored 391 tries. His try scoring feats earned him in 1988 a place in the British Rugby League Hall of Fame. In 2005, Rosenfeld was accepted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame with his official induction to take place at the 2009 Maccabiah games. He is one of only two rugby league players to be so honoured.
In February 2008, Rosenfeld 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.[2][3]
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