Reg Gasnier

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Reg Gasnier
Personal information
Full name Reginald William Gasnier
Nickname Puff, the Magic Dragon[1]
Born (1939-05-12) 12 May 1939
Mortdale, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Height 180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Position Centre
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1959–67 St. George Dragons 125 127 20 0 421
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1959–67 New South Wales 16 15 0 0 45
1959–67 Australia 39 26 0 0 78
Coaching information
Representative
Years Team Gms W D L W%
Australia

Reg Gasnier AM (born 12 May 1939 in Kogarah, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach, regarded as one of the 20th century's finest players.[2] He played in the centres for the St. George Dragons from 1959 to 1967. He also represented Australia in a record 36 Tests and three World Cup games and was the Captain of the national side on eight occasions between 1962 and 1967. Gasnier is the uncle of rugby league footballer Mark Gasnier.

Childhood and early career

Gasnier was born and raised in the southern Sydney suburb of Mortdale. At Sutherland Intermediate High School Gasnier began to hone his natural sporting ability playing rugby, cricket, baseball and athletics. Reg Gasnier later attended Sydney Technical High School in the St. George area suburb of Bexley as a local student. Whilst at 'Tech', he became a champion schoolboy sportsman in both rugby and cricket.

He was selected at age 13 in a New South Wales Schoolboy side in a curtain raiser to the 1952 Australia and New Zealand Test.

St. George Dragons

In 1957 at the age of eighteen Gasnier was forced to choose which sport to focus on having already achieved junior state representative honours in both cricket and rugby league.

He signed on to play for the St. George Dragons, his local rugby league club for the start of the 1958 season. His talents had been noticed while he was playing for junior club Renown United. His rise through the game was meteoric, after only six games in third grade he was selected for his first grade debut and after only five first grade games he was selected for New South Wales. By 1959 Gasnier had become an established member of both the New South Wales state side and the Australian international team. He was a vital member of the all-conquering Dragons team of the later 1950s and early 1960s that won 11 successive premiership victories. Gasnier himself enjoyed seven of those premiership victories

Before Gasnier the St George dynasty with three premierships to its credit had a backline that was well-drilled and competent but still one that deferred to the powerful Dragons forwards. After Gasnier donned the number 3 jersey, the backs came into their own as an irrespressible scoring machine.

Gasnier has been described as the ultimate all round rugby league player, possessing speed and a beautiful running style, good hands, a superb change of pace and great anticipation along with being a sound defender. He was dubbed 'Puff the Magic Dragon' by Dragons fans because of this. He finished his career with the Dragons in 1967 with 127 tries and 20 goals in only 131 appearances.

Upon his retirement the then ARL chairman Bill Buckley was quoted, "On his day, he was the greatest rugby league player I have ever seen. Gasnier had an amazing change of pace and great anticipation. He was also particularly unselfish. He was without peer."

Australia

Gasnier made his international debut for Australia against New Zealand in the 1st Test on 1959 in Sydney and played in all three Tests of that series.

At the end of the 1959 season Gasnier toured England with the Kangaroos a highlight being his three tries in the 1st Test against a star studded Great Britain team at Station Road, Swinton.

He became Australia's youngest ever captain in 1962 when he led Australia against England aged 23 years and 28 days, he also toured Europe on another two occasions in 1963 and 1967, the latter also as captain.

Gasnier's career was unfortunately ended on the 1967 European tour when in a minor game against a French provincial team he sustained a broken leg as he suffered his cruciate ligament injury in a game against the Parramatta Eels in early 1966 and never played competitively again, he was only 28 years old. He finished his international career as Australia's most capped player, with a total of thirty-six test caps, which remained a record until broken by Mal Meninga in 1992.[3] He also scored twenty-six tries for Australia and captained the side on eight occasions.

Retirement

Gasnier's retirement was forced by a broken leg[4] After leaving the playing field in 1967 Gasnier was involved in the media side of rugby league, writing about and becoming involved in broadcasting the game and showing that not only did he play the game beautifully but was a student of it and knew its intricacies. Gasnier provided expert analysis for many years on the ABC's Grandstand television coverage of the Saturday match of the day during the 1970s.

Honours

Since retirement he has been awarded a variety of honours. In 1985 he was selected as one of the initial four post-war “Immortals” of the Australian game with Churchill, Raper and Fulton and in December of that year he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. In 2002 he was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame.

In 2007 Gasnier was selected by a panel of experts at centre in an Australian 'Team of the 50s'.[5]

In February 2008, Gasnier 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.[6][7] Gasnier went on to be named as one of the centres, along with Mal Meninga, in Australian rugby league's Team of the Century. Announced on 17 April 2008, the team is the panel's majority choice for each of the thirteen starting positions and four interchange players.[8][9] In 2008 New South Wales announced their rugby league team of the century also, and Gasnier was again named at centre.[10]

He was made a life member of the Sydney Cricket Ground and a plaque in the Walk of Honour there commemorates his career. He is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

In 2010 a bronze statue of Gasnier was unveiled as the seventh inside the Sydney Cricket Ground precinct as part of the Basil Sellers Sports Sculpture project.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Toby Creswell and Samantha Trenoweth (2006). 1001 Australians You Should Know. Australia: Pluto Press. p. 669. ISBN 1-86403-361-4, 9781864033618 Check |isbn= value (help). 
  2. ↑ Century's Top 100 Players
  3. ↑ Gallaway, Jack (2003). Origin: Rugby League's Greatest Contest 1980 - 2002. Australia: University of Queensland Press. pp. 177–78. ISBN 0-7022-3383-8. 
  4. ↑ Legends of Australian sport: The Inside Story. Australia: University of Queensland Press. 2003. p. 79. ISBN 0-7022-3410-9, 9780702234101 Check |isbn= value (help). 
  5. ↑ AAP (1 August 2007). "Team of the 50s named". The Daily Telegraph (Australia: News Limited). Retrieved 6 October 2010. 
  6. ↑ Peter Cassidy (23 February 2008). "Controversy reigns as NRL releases top 100 players". Macquarie National News. Retrieved 2008-02-23. 
  7. ↑ "Centenary of Rugby League – The Players". NRL & ARL. 23 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-23. 
  8. ↑ Todd Balym (17 April 2008). "Johns, Meninga among Immortals". Fox Sports Australia. Retrieved 2008-04-17. 
  9. ↑ "Team of the Century Announced". NRL & ARL. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-17. 
  10. ↑ ARL (2008). "Australian Rugby Football League 2008 Annual Report" (pdf). Australian Rugby Football League Limited. p. 30. Retrieved 2009-07-19. 
  11. ↑ Ritchie, Dean (9 August 2010). "Reg Gasnier immortalised in bronze". The Daily Telegraph (Australia: Herald and Weekly Times). Retrieved 2 October 2010. 

Sources

External links

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