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Noel Kelly Tribute(links to www.centenaryofrugbyleague.com.au)

Thanks Tony and Greg from the Era. Pay their site a vist. Click on the pic below.



The Era of the Biff highly recommends a visit Tony Lewis and Greg Willis great Western Suburbs Magpies website, Kelly's Kids, honouring Noel Kelly's time at the helm at the Magpies.

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I remember reading a very funny article on Noel 'Ned' Kelly many years ago. I believe it was a very early edition of Rugby League Week.

The reporter was discussing the fact that Noel had been marched by the referees on so many occassions for discretions. Noel was quoted to the answer of the reporters question with something like, " I have been sent off that many times, when I am in the front yard doing the gardening and the postie goes by and blows his whistle, I just get up and go and have a shower."

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NOEL KELLY MAKES WESTS TIGERS TEAM OF THE CENTURY

From West Tigers website

On the 20th April 1908 the first official game of Rugby League was played in the Sydney Premiership. The combatants were the Western Suburbs Magpies and the Balmain Tigers. Since that time, there have been a total of 15 Premierships won between the clubs and a host of State of Origin, Kangaroo and Premiership stars produced. A wealth of legendary moments played out by some of the true legends of the game. To celebrate the history and prestige associated with two of Australia's most famous Rugby League Teams, as well as embrace their recent unification into the Wests Tigers, it is time to celebrate the. Wests Tigers TEAM OF THE CENTURY

A panel of judges spanning the different eras from both Clubs will select nominees according to strict criteria. The panel comprised Keith Barnes (Balmain), Kevin Humphreys (Balmain), John 'Chow' Hayes (Wests), Rick Wayde (Wests) and Ian Heads (Independent). A Western Suburbs and a Balmain Tigers team has been selected by the panel representing each club, before the unenviable task of selecting the best combined team took place.

Wests Tigers Team of the Century

Fullback: Keith Barnes (c)

Wingers: Peter Dimond, Alan Ridley

Centres: Charles Fraser, Harry Wells

Five-Eighth: Vic Hey

Halfback: Keith Holman

Lock: Wayne Pearce

Second Row: Paul Sironen, Arthur Beetson

Front Row: Steve Roach, Noel Kelly

Hooker: Ben Elias

Reserves: Kel O'Shea, Jim Craig, Tom Raudonikis, Harry Bath

Coach: Norm "Latchem" Robinson

The Western Suburbs Team of the Century was

Fullback: Frank McMillan

Wingers: Peter Dimond, Alan Ridley

Centres: Cliff Pearce, Harry Wells

Five-Eighth: Vic Hey

Halfback: Keith Holman

Lock: Les Boyd

Second Row: Arthur Clues, Kel O'Shea

Front Row: Jack Donnelly, Ed Courtney

Hooker: Noel Kelly

Reserves: Bill Carson, Neville Charlton, John Dorahy, Tom Raudonikis

Coach: Roy Masters.

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Ned Kelly was a hard man but his presence at North
Sydney as coach in the early 1970s was a positive, though ultimately
disappointing, one.

The 70s were not a kind decade for the Bears but
he made the most of the talent he had (Pickup, Walker, Moritz, Warner,
Foye etc.) and almost got them to the finals in 1974. Kelly is certainly
remembered fondly by Bears fans.

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ARTICLE BY PERMISSION OF TONY LEWIS...... (thanks Tony)

PRATTEN PARK REUNION 2003.

Four great West's men from the past were presented with special Pratten Park Magpies blazers for their services to West's and the Pratten Park Magpies. All four are West's men through and through. These 4 men have given great service to West's both on and off the field.

Don Graham played for West's in the 1950's. He was also was the first director to be voted on to the committee of the Leagues Club in 1955.

Bill Keato played for West's between 1938 and 1950, he played 124 first grade games and scored 772 points along the way.Bill was also treasurer from 1951 until 1974.

Ron Watson played at West's from 1950 until 1956. He was a tough forward who played in West's last premiership winning team in 1952. Ron coached West's in 1970 the year after Noel Kelly left West's .

Noel Kelly what can I say. My pick for the greatest player to pull on the Black and White jumper. Noel played 114 games between 1961 and 1969 and scored 6 tries not bad for a frontrower. He was the first hooker / prop forward to make 3 Kangaroo Tours. Noel of course coached West's between 1966 and 1969.


Don Graham, Noel Kelly, Bill Keato, and Ron Watson

Noel Kelly talking about Don Graham

Thanks Tony and Greg for allowing the Era to use the above article. Pay their site a vist. Click on the pic below.



The Era of the Biff highly recommends a visit Tony Lewis and Greg Willis great Western Suburbs Magpies website, Kelly's Kids, honouring Noel Kelly's time at the helm at the Magpies.

- why not share your memories with other members of Team Era, just click here -

Drinking in the Time & Tide Hotel in Dee Why West, Sydney in the 80's.

Noel 'Ned' Kelly used to frequent the pub a bit as he was running a butcher shop just down the road and come in after work for a quiet one.

Monday nights on SKY channel saw myself and the mates gather around the TV to watch the old test matches
(Australia v the Poms,etc).

This night Ned came in at the start of a 1961 Test v the Poms and as we saw his name read out yelled out to him at the bar to come over and have a look.

He replied to us "which test is it?" and when finding out replied "naa I won't worry about it" to our dismay but when we saw the 1st scrum pack down which erupted in a full on BIFF "poor" old NED was sent off in what was the quickest dismisal in test match history. (Only to be beaten by Adrian Morley on that hit on Robbie Kearns).

We bagged NED for weeks after that. !!!!

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A couple of comments about yarn of the month 11 (and previous Kelly entry)

Slight error in that the match the guy talks about is not the one that Noel Kelly was sent off in the quickest time on record, although the story I am sure is true as Noel did drink at the Time and Tide for years and did get sent off pretty early in quite a few games.

The match where he was sent off in record time was against New Zealand at the SCG.

The Kiwis kicked off, the ball is gathered by Johnny King and Robyn Orchard (NZ) belts him with a crushing coat hanger. Noel marches up to Orchard and hits him on the chin with one of his best ever lefts. He got his marching orders on the spot.

Two funny things about it are that on the ABC footage, the commentator (Norman May I think) is reading the names of the players that are still showing on the screen as all this happens and actually stops at about number 9 and says "hang on, what's going on here, Noel Kelly has been sent off" before he even finished reading out the team.

Secondly, Noel had organised some tickets to the members stand at the SCG for this match for a couple of his mates that had come down from Queensland to watch him play. The blokes had got stuck at the Captain Cook Hotel, Moore Park (as you do) and made their way into the members trying to look inconspicuous about 10 minutes after kick off only to find Noel sitting there waiting for them !

all the best
Paul

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courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

A scrum blew up and punches were flying everywhere. I wan't about to miss out on the action and started to let rip. But as I started to wind up for one big sway at a Parramatta bloke, our second rowere Kel O'shea popped his head up and I caught him flush on the eye. He ended up having to leave the field with a gash that required six stitches. I couldn't believe it! He was a mess. He wasn't too happy at the time, but he forgave me.

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courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

"I believe it was the world's best football team. We were a gun side ... You wouldn't have got one better. Guys like Gasnier, Kenny Irvine and Chang (Graeme Langlands) were dynamic out wide .. if you threw the ball over your head, someone was there on the burst to pick it up. It just happened that way when you played in that side. You had to push blokes out of the way to get to the ball, there was support everywhere and they all knew where each other were going."

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courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

Mr Davies (English Referee) hadn't seen the head-high tackle from English prop Keith Bowman that caused the injury (the broken nose) but Kelly had it filed away for future reference. The get-square came 20 minutes later, with Kelly cracking Bowman across the head in a tackle. The Englishman lay prone for some three minutes on the Wembley turf before being carried off.

"It certainly got equalled up" Kelly says with a grin. "He had it coming. I always said if someone punches me, I'll punch them back, that was my nature."

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courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

Kelly's uncomprising style upset more than one French referee and led to his infamous double sending off in the match against Prvence at Avignon. Describe by Noel Kelly as follows.

"It was unbelievable really and the sort of thing that could probably only happen in France. Over there you're liable to strike the same ref six or seven games in a row and that's what happend to me. I'd had this bloke, Monsieur Casson, time and again and we'd built up this great hatred for each other. It got to the stage where every time the ball went into the scrum and I won it, he'd recall it and make the ball go in again. I had cauliflower ears and a broken nose so I didn't fancy spending so long in the scrum, particularly as the ref was often just waiting for the other bloke to win the ball off me.

"Finally, in the Avignon game, I got fed up and asked (Australian utility back and later successful Manly and Australian Coach) Frank Stanton, who spoke more french then the rest of us put together , how to call this bloke a'so and so'. He told me and I gave the ref a mouthful. He sent me straight off but I just said I wasn't going. I sat down and then moved back to the second row. He tried to send me off again for something else but I just sat down again. Eventually he gave up and I finished the game.

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courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

The Englishmen returned to Australia with a new look team in 1966 and, with Kelly out injured, won the first test 17 -13. That match gave Kelly his first look, albeit from the sideline, of a man who was to prove his nemises for several years to come, the cheeky British halfback, Tommy Bishop.

"Bishop used to go on with all sorts of antics. He'd throw haymakers, jump on blokes backs, kick them ... he'd do anything to upset you," Kelly recalls. "I remember seeing him for the first time when I was out injured that game and he was using every trick in the book. I'd never seen anything like it. I hated him immediately and thought if he tries this against me, I'll kill him.

Kelly got his chance in the second test in Brisbane. "Play was only going a minute when he started carrying on so I gave him a back hander. it was on from there. I gave him a boot up the arse a couple of times. He kept giving me cheek but we won the match 6 - 4."

Australia eventually retained the Ashes with a 19 -14 win in the third test, in Sydney. Bishop, however, was to have the last laugh on Kelly a little over a year later.....

Kelly had been selected to make a third tour to the UK and Fance and therefore becoming the first front rower to make three tours..

Kelly was sent off twice during the tour including once in the third test at Swinton, but despite his absence, Australia won the game to retain the Ashes.

Kelly was fuming at the circumstances that led to his dismissal. His old foe, Bishop, had again been baiting him and at one stage, fell to the ground clutching his face and screaming as if he had been hit. Kelly immediately shown the way back to the dressing room by the referee, despite swearing he never laid a hand on the "injured" halfback.

It was a crazy thing," he recalls. "It was right at the end of the game and I didn't touch him. I should never have got sent off but the ref couldn't get rid of me quick enough. It was a sad way to end my career against the Poms."

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courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

Kelly admits he regarded getting sent off as an occupational hazard.

"I got marched a lot I suppose but I never lost any sleep over it. I played it hard and once you've got a reputation they go looking for you. There were plenty of games when the refs couldn't unload me quickly enough. I may have been sent off 15 times but maybe half to them were for alleged repeated scrum infringements. What a joke that was. When a ref got sick of you, he'd just "tip-toe" you and there was nothing you could do about it.

"There were times when the league told the refs to put a blitz on scrums and then we hookers knew we were in trouble. One day when we played Balmain I met their hooker Dick Wilson at the gate on the way onto the field. We'd both read in teh paper that day that the blitz would be on.

"As we ran onto the field I said to Dickie; "I think we're going to be having an early shower today if we're not careful. What are we going to do about this?"

He replied, "What about if we both keep our feet back (in the scrums) and let them sort it out for themselves..'

"It sounded a good plan. 'That'll do me, I said as we took up our positions for the kick off. We both stuck to our word but it didn't do us much good. After a handful of scrums the referee dismissed us both ... for repeated scrum infringements! We watched the game from the grandstand.

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From a Roy Masters article in the Sydney Morning Herald, August 6, 2004

Noel Kelly (Western Suburbs Prop), recalling a game against Souths when he hit George Piggins as they were running to a position on the field where Wests' Peter Dimond had also been flattened.

Kelly said: "Referee Laurie Bruyeres asked me what happened as we both stood over Peter and I said Piggins had suffered sunstroke.

"I've forgotten the name of the Souths bloke who hit Peter but I told Laurie, 'If I was you sir, I'd send him off'."

Bruyeres says: "I took the report from the touch judge and told Kelly, 'If he goes, you're going with him."'

Kelly and Bruyeres agree on what happened next.

Kelly says: "I yelled out, 'Peter. He's going to send me off. Quick. Get up."'

As Bruyeres says: "I was never going to send either of them off.

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Prop John Wittenburg, playing in his first Test, was flattened by British front-rower Brian Edgar early in the match, Australian centre Graeme Langlands laid out little English halfback Tommy Bishop with a copybook "coat-hanger", Dick Thornett and Billy Smith tag-teamed on British forward Jim Mantle, and former Queenslander Noel "Ned" Kelly and fearsome Englishman Cliff Watson fought a running battle.

From Memorable Match No31- click here to read more.

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The 1st test series I remember was as a small boy reading about the 1962 series.

1963 was the first series I saw on TV.

The 1st test was played at Wembley, but only highlights were shown on TV, although I think Reg Gasnier scored 3 tries.

The match at Swinton was the first test I saw live.

It left an indelible imprint on me, which remains to this day.

Australia have never played better in my opinion. Langlands, Irvine, Gasnier, Raper would walk into any greatest team that I could think of.

The abiding memories are of Ken Irvine's chase down of Neil Fox, with John Stopford scoring a try.

But watching Australia that day was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters.

Raper never played better. Chang wasn't far behind. Still the best team I've ever seen.

As memorable was the 3rd test (Battle of Headingley) when the fists flew. Noel Kelly was indeed a very hard man. A scrum broke up and he delivered a couple of beauties on one of the English props.

Cliff Watson got sent off in the same game.

I have highlights of the 63 Tour on DVD and it's a prized possession.

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Ned was the best all-roubder - tough, no backward step, skilled, smart. Started to lose the smarts later in career (when getting slower probably). I saw him sent off early in a game at the Sports ground. The ref was crooked of course.

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