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Stats available from 1976 on -

this is another story, totally unsubstantiated, as related to me by my western suburbs contact from my days on the far south coast of New South Wales.

Lets call him "X" again. Now "X" played several years with the Maggies before he moved down the coast.

Those who met Dallas knew him as a jolly giant that he really enjoyed life to the max. Now "X" told me of the time that when he was in Sydney it was a ritual after training to have a few beers, as you did in those days, followed by a trip to the take away on the way home. Now "X" told me that this particular intersection had several ethnic takeaways on each corner and the Big guy would have a bit of a habbit of reaching over the top of the bae maries when the owner was not looking and grab a small cooked chook and shove as much of the whole critter as he could into his mouth, leaving what is left of the carcass hanging out. Usually leaving the manager speechless.

You could imagine the sight .............

This practice continued for some time until one of the takeaway owners decided he had had enough, so one night when the boys entered to get some food, Big Dallas was introduced by the owner to his new friend, a riffle. No more chooks were to be eaten from that establishment.......

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Leaving the Leagues club late one night in pouring rain Tommy Raudonikis saw a little kid stading near the car park with a hotdog stand.

He looked very wet and miserable, so Raudonikis said to him that he might as wll go home as there was little chance of him selling many more at that time of night and in that weather "

You're kidding," the kid said "John Donnelly hasnt come out yet, and he always has twelve!"

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DONNELLY MAKES WESTERN SUBURBS TEAM OF THE CENTURY

From West Tigers website - to visit click here

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.

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: John Donnelly, Ed Courtney

Hooker: Noel Kelly

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

Coach: Roy Masters

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I currently reside in the United Kingdom, in the Rugby League town of Warrington.

I emmigrated to Sydney in 1978 where i played junior league in the Western suburbs comp, playing for the Royal Sheaf Hotel in Burwood.

At the end of my first year i played Presidents cup footy and was then graded by Wests later that year and played under the then under 23 coach Stan Shipley.

Wests under 23 team were struggling to find form having been the premiers the previous year, under i think was Warren Ryan another great coach.

Myself and Bruce Bruiser Clarke, Tony Armstrong, and Robert Gooch who were all local lads, having been called up managed to turn around a seven game losing streak into seven game winning run, which only really ended when our exceptional players like Terry leabeater, Geoff Spotswood and Peter Lima amongst others were called to reserve and then onto first grade leaving us a bit short in depth.

Sorry i am getting carried away with history and forgetting my good friend Dallas. John was very often my inspiration, he would find his way into our team talks and when Stan was not looking he would gesture to me, what he would like me to do to a certain member of the opposite side.

I always tried to achieve these objectives, legitimately of course as John would not have it any different ha ha. Jokes asisde, John was a wonderful man, very often misunderstood and of course miss represented as a thuggish type person.

I found this nothing near the truth, John was never too good to come and speak to people he did not know, and he would give them his time. He was a regular visitor to Begnell oval near Enfield wher he would support the junior rugby league. He was a fine man with many friends. He had a front row partner in Bruce Gibbs.

Teams feared this front row, none more than Manly, who brought about their own demise of that era by calling us Westies, the fibros, who out of pride and passion rarely lost to them with this team in tact.

I would just like to pay my debt of gratitude to John Donnelly, i would like to visit his grave sight, which i presume is in Gunnedah, his home town, in NSW, and pay my respects to him on my return to Oz hopefully in the near future.

Thanx again John, very often im my thoughts, yet truthfully, he did not know me that well but impacted my life.

Gary Worrall.

Western Suburbs through and through, the VICTA days.

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I remember the famous Battle of Brookvale from the 1979 season.

As defending premiers, Manly struggled in 1979 after so many of their players were selected in the previous year's Kangaroo Tour.

Rex Mossop took a lot of flak for selecting the game for his weekly Sunday night telecast despite there being better games available (per the standings). Rex as always though had a great intuition.

The game was being played hard, when a scuffle broke out between Tom Mooney (Manly winger) & Les Boyd (Wests second rower). The Manly captain, max Krilich stepped in to seperate the 2 players, when this freight train charged in from the left hand side of the screen & king hit Krilich.

It was the fastest I ever saw Donnelly move.

After that it was on for 'young & old' with players fighting over the top of the unconscious Krilich.

Randall (Manly) & Donelly were both sent off with the papers calling the game the day after 'The Battle of Brookvale'.

Max Krilich appeared on the nightly news during the week & couldn't move his neck. As you guessed he was available & played for Manly the next weekend. Some truely tough men appeared in that game.

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As a supporter for 40years there was no meaner pack of club forwards than the magpies of the 70s.

Boyd,Cooper,Gibbs,Brown,Foster and Dallas Donnelly.

Teams never liked going to lidcombe oval as not only they got beat but also beaten up.

Dallas would stand on the sideline and hurl abuse at the opposition as they ran onto the field then do to them what he promised throughout the match.

Then when they cme off badly smashed the loudspeakers would play ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST.

GREAT MEMORIES GREAT ERA.

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Dallas donnely's training was two walks around Lidcome oval... A few St George greats was many schooners the night before the game and then a jog in the morning

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“During the Roy Masters era at Wests, Terry Lamb was sitting alongside Dallas Donnelley in the dressing room before a particularly important match.

The atmosphere was white hot, and coach Masters was pacing around the room asking each player what he was going to do to his opposite number once he got out onto the paddock.

Masters finally got to Dallas Donnelley and enquired “Dallas, what are you going to do?” Dallas replied, I’m going to get him and rip his head off and poke his eyes out and bite him and kick him and punch him. I’m really going to get into him”. “Good stuff!” said the coach.

Masters then asked of Lamb: “Terry, what are you going to do to your bloke when you get hold of him?”

Baa baa didn’t bat an eyelid. “I’m going to give mine to Dallas” he said."

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I remember watching Wests when they had their meanest pack ie.donnelly boyd,cooper,gibbs ect.

Donnelly gets the ball on the burst and randall is there waiting and just hit him that hard that donnelly, at full speed, just stopped dead.

It overshadowed the Wally Lewis hit against the kiwis player .

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Dallas Donnely was renowned for his ability to play league, to be rough, tough, one of the alltime hard men of league.

There was definitely a soft side of Dallas that I admired in the man, and that was his love for kids.

Dallas was my daughters godfather, and as we attended the christening at the church, there were a lot of kids there at the time and they knew of Big Rough Tough Dallas.

The minister decided to have a story time, with all the sound affects, Dallas was given the tambourine to be the roaring thunder when the cue was his.

You can imagine, a church full of people looking at this big burly bloke, jumping up and shaking the tambourine everytime the minister said "and the thunder roared".

The church erupted in laughter, and good time was had by all, especially Dallas It will be memory that I will always treasure, and he is definitely one of the hardmen of league

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My memories are over 20 years old so i might be a bit rusty!! i was about 8 years old when my dad introduced me to "Dallas" and Tania, and i remember this huge guy in a flowery shirt, tall as a house with the biggest head id ever seen!

hed come over to England with a few freinds to play rugby, from that moment i saw him i loved him, they used to come to our house almost every weekend, i laughed at some of ur stories about Dal and his food, i remember him eating raw potatoes out of a saucepan!! and for a big guy he was petrified of our two Alsatians, he would always stay behind tania, if the dogs where in the house!

i also remembering on our local feild, playing rugby with all of the kids, they all loved him.

i remember when dallas and tania left for Australia, my family missd them both so much. not long after they returned dallas sadly passed away, which left many people from all different countries, including me and mine completely devestated.

my experience of dallas maybe vaige, but as we all would agree long or short time, dallas without a doubt will stay in our hearts forever..god bless.xxxxxxx

im so glad we now have somewhere, where we can say our last goodbyes, sending our love to the family

Tania if u read this please get in contact. ive tried to find you, sab197725@aol.com

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As a young lad growing up in the heart of the Western Suburbs, I had the chance to regularly bump into the likes of John Dorahy (at his butcher shop), Tommy Raudonikis, and everyones local hero, Dallas Donnelly.

Dallas had moved in up the road from my place, into Rod Taylor's (the movie actor) old house.

Dallas would often bum a ride with me into town (the 300 metre walk was way too much for either of us!), and the old saying "thighs like trunks of oak" must have been written with him in mind.

Dallas had always enjoyed a drink or two, and like the rest of us, liked to play up a little (no harm ever intended). Occasionally the boys from Wests would get a week or two's "rest" from one of the local drinking holes after playing a bit hard (I've heard Dallas got barred from the old Roony's Pub in Lidcombe after swinging from the lights!).

However, there was only one person in town that the boys were afraid of, and that was Ma Bishop, who used to work at the Railway Hotel. If there was any trouble, she would put them, including Dallas, in their place quick smart.

As many of the other stories have indicated, Dallas was a true gentleman, and always had time to chat with the kids, including me.

His sudden death was a huge shock to all who lived in Lidcombe, and I imagine that he will be in good company now with the recently deceased Steve Rogers.

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Souths vs Wests at Lidcombe Oval in 1976

I remember going to the match with several schoolmates. It was a Sunday, and the crowd was so big that we spilled onto the cycle track inside the fence before first grade started.

I remember it was just a hard match. Wests absolutely hammered Souths in the first half. The game never seemed to be more than 30 metres from Souths line but they hung in. Wests had John Donnelly, Les Boyd and Geoff Foster and with Tommy Radonikus and John Dorahy were a formidable side - just watching them! I remember Bernie Lowther took an intercept and ran the length of the field to score. Souths seemed doomed simply by the weight of defence they had to produce but they just always got someone to the next tackle. It was the game that George Piggins scored a memorable try in the 2nd half, driving through the middle of the ruck to score by the posts. I remember the atmosphere and noise was amazing. I have supported Balmain all my life but I simply remember this game as being one that was the most memorable I ever saw live.

Best Regards with the site

Dean Gibson

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Whilst working as a Policeman years ago in Parramatta NSW I had the pleasure of meeting and becoming a personal friend of Dallas.

Dallas used to party hard as was well known and on one occasion that I was working in Burwood, I was called to a brawl at the Western Suburbs Rugby Club.

Upon arrival I saw Dallas and a friend outside the club and a bouncer approached and said that he had asked Dallas and mate to leave. I approached Dallas and his mate gave me the biggest gobfull of insults you could imagine.

We asked them to move on and within the hour we passed Dallas again standing in Burwood Road. I stopped to enquire what was happening and asked what was wrong with his mate lying on the ground.

Dallas said "No-ones gonna talk to the cops like that, especially to a mate of mine, so I knocked him out."

To avoid any further disturbance we picked up his mate and Dallas and took them home, afterall it was now 4am.

There are many more stories of his mateship and why it meant so much to this larrakin some that I can't relate, but this mate will always be loved and remembered.

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When Peter Kelly first moved from Eden (I think) to
Sydney a journo wrote him up as 'Texas, bigger than Dallas' as the
Bulldogs were to take on Wests that weekend.

Anyway much was written in
the build up to the game about the clash of the old bull v's the young
bull.

Kel told me that the first time he took the ball up he lifted his
eyes off the ball and saw Dallas, Bob Cooper and co coming at him and
dropped the ball at Dallas' feet to which Dallas said "Shit yourself
didn't ya Texas".


True story

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I was fortunate enough to know John Donnelly in his final year with the Magpies before he finished his career in England. When I first met Dallas I thought I was meeting his twin because I had only seen him on television and thought he was a thug.How wrong could I be Dallas was and still is one of the nicest blokes I have had the pleasure to know even if it was for a brief time.

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Having read the other entries and laughed myself stupid i can only add that i had the pleasure of knowing johnny at school, Gunnedah High.

John, like all Gunnedah Donnelly's were natural's (Brian and Terry (Qld rep), two of his cousins, never saw Garry or Mick play, his uncle played for Newtown Bluebags ~1954).

His mates in Gunnedah would have many a story, my contribution ... i went on a few "training runs" with John, Terry and co. These were held at night and included laneways that ran between the backyards of many Gunnedah blocks. These 'runs' were held at the same time of year as when the fruit on the many fruit trees in the backyards were ready for picking.

Each of us (14 year/olds) had a turn at jumping the backfence and pinching some fruit.

It was Terry's turn ... he jumped the fence and steathily approached the plum tree near the back door ... as he started to grab the fruit, Johnny started to yell "thief, thief" ... Terry dropped the fruit, sprinted to us at the back fence and started to leap over, to be met halfway by John, who prevented him from getting off the top of the fence ... meanwhile the back light had come on, a man with what appeared to be a golf club in hand started to approach us, johnny still holding terry on the wrong side of the fence and yelling.

At the last moment johnny, and the rest of us, sprinted away ... Terry with the sudden loss of resistance, CRASHED to the ground with a almighty thump, then joined us up the lane ... terry and johnny collapsed on the ground laughing so much ... JOHN DONNELLY, a one and only

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Just a few stories on the great Dallas Donnelly, I like Gary Worrell played with the Royal Sheaf Hotel in the West Juniors in the mid to late 70's.

Would be great to hear from Gary again. 

I was a Police Officer at the time whilst at Wests and stationed at Burwood Police Station.  We received a call one night that a large male had ripped a table from its bolted down fitting of a pizza shop in Burwood Road.  I attended and observed that the large male in question was one Dallas Donnelly, my partner at the time stated to S*it bricks when he saw Dallas, little did he know that I had been a drinking partner of Dallas on numerous occassions with another legend of that time, Geoff Foster (also a Police Officer). 

We conveyed Dallas back to the Police station and after my partner had cleaned himself up, Dallas was allowed to go, as the Pizza Shop owner decided against taking action, he made a lot of money out of Dallas. 

The first time I met Dallas was the night that Wests won the AMCO Cup a mid week competition, I think it was either 1977 or 1978, Geoff Foster invited me to have celebratory drinks with the players at West League Club and when I walked in there I was gobsmacked, I was in a shout with Tommy Raudonikis, Graeme O'Grady, Dallas, John Dorahy, Geoff Foster and the rest of the team (A young westie supporters greatest moment)

Dallas a great, fun, jolly bloke who would lend you his last quid.

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I remember being 8 years old in 1981,and sneaking down to lidcombe oval,following the crowd and the roar of the already capacity crowd following the lower grades before 1sts ran on.I lived in Auburn,near where the now mosque is built,and would do this dissapearing act every odd sunday at about 11am.Id hide my bike up behind the big palm tree,and crawl through the fence to watch a day of great footy.

One day Wests had an open day or footy fair,I was 9 by now and mum had found out my goings on,in particular,the hole in the fence trick.I got to the footy fair and back then the players and kids were free reign.

I was in the change rooms having a good snoop around, when Dallas with a booming voice said hoy, what are you up to mate. Of course I jumped 6 feet of the gound an appologised,for what i dont know,but back then kids had manners.

I got to talking with dallas,and he showed me around for a minute or so,then I said,"mum doesnt let me come to the games no more",and ill never forget this,he simply said,"tell mum DALLAS said its ok".I got a rough up on the top of the head,as he walked off,and I was then an even more devoted magpie fan and subject of dallas.

Nothing else mattered,except getting to those games,what ever excuse,what ever means.

Great memories and just lucky to have an experience like that with such a legend.Bring back wests in the nrl.

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