Cec Fifield

Cec "Dicky" Fifield^[1] (born Cecil Richard Henry Fifield in Sydney, New South Wales) was an Australian rugby league footballer of the 20th century.

Fifield was born to Sara Ann (née Compton) and George Fifield in Adelong on 23 September 1904. He played for West Wyalong as a teenager in Group 9. From there he was recruited to Balmain where he played for two seasons. He then played for Western Suburbs. He was selected to play on the 1929–30 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain. The team sailed on the Orsova via the Panama Canal and played an exhibition game in New York before arriving in England. The first test was played at Hull, Yorkshire. The second test at Wembley and the third test at Swinton in which there was a big controversy over a try. After much deliberation it was decided to play a fourth test at Rochdale. This was the first and only time that a fourth test has been played on any Kangaroo tour. In this match Cec broke his ankle and was unable to play the remainder of the tour.

On returning to Australia he recommenced playing for Western Suburbs where he played 100 first grade games. It was in 1931 that Cec returned to play football for Hull, Boulevard. Owing to the difference in seasons, he played there until it was time to depart England and returned to Australia and play for Junee.

Cec continued to play for Hull, playing 224 games and scoring 80 tries, gaining England Championship honours in 1936 and in 1937 he returned to Australia. He then played two seasons with Canterbury-Bankstown and then World War II intervened. Five games into the 1944 NSWRFL season Fifield replaced Ron Bailey as first grade coach.^[2]

In 1950 Cec was approached by English club Rochdale Hornets to be Manager-Coach and to select several young players to help strengthen their team. He selected Tom Duffy, Wally Elliot, Cec "Babe" Kelly, Reg Stanford and Ron Stanford. They arrived in Rochdale in September 1950 and commenced training. The Australian Rugby League lodged a complaint against the five boys playing for Rochdale owing to the then current 'poaching' ban being in place. The Rugby League case was lost because these boys were only Junior Rugby Union players and were not affiliated to any Rugby League Club, but they had played Rugby League as teenagers. The boys had a successful career before returning to Australia.

Cec is listed in the ARL, Kangaroos Register as player number 152.

In 2008 he was named as one of the Australian Rugby League's 100 Greatest Players of all Time.

Cec never had any sons. Jack and George Fifield were his nephews born to Norman. They both started playing Rugby League in Sydney. Cec coached Parramatta in 1956. He died 7 December 1957.

His Epitaph reads: "He was the most marked man on the field but the most respected off".

References