Edward Root

Eddie Root
Personal information
Full name Edward Root
Playing information
Position Second-row, Prop
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1923–29 South Sydney 68 29 1 0 89
1930 Newtown 12 7 1 0 23
1931–33 South Sydney 31 5 0 0 15
1935–36 St. George 24 3 0 0 9
Total 135 44 2 0 136
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1927–32 New South Wales 18 4 4 16
1929–30 Australia

Eddie Root was an Australian rugby league footballer of the 1920s and 30s. A State and Australian national representative, his club career was played in Sydney with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the Newtown Bluebags and the St. George Dragons. Enlisted in World War I at the age of just 16 years, he had the distinction of being the last representative footballer to go to the Great War.[1]

Playing career

A South Sydney junior, Root started playing first grade for the Rabbitohs in 1923, becoming a mainstay in the side in 1926. That year he first tasted premiership success with the Rabbitohs, who also won the following two years' competitions. He was sent off in the 1926 decider against University.

He made his representative debut for New South Wales in 1927 and was regularly selected for the Blues over the next six seasons.[2] He was selected to tour Great Britain with the 1929-30 Kangaroo tour playing in fifteen tour matches but no Tests.[3]

When the NSWRL changed the South Sydney/Newtown boundary distinction in 1930 Root spent the following season with Newtown due to the strict residential criteria of the time. He then returned to the Rabbitohs and played in the back-to-back premiership-winning Souths sides of 1931 and 1932. In 1935 he was signed by St. George and played in the record-breaking 91-6 win over competition newcomers Canterbury-Bankstown before later becoming the club's captain-coach.

References

  1. ^ "History of St. George". http://www.showroom.com.au/dragons/dragonshistory/history_players_pqr.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-06. 
  2. ^ Whiticker p473
  3. ^ Andrews p256

External links