Dick Poole

Flying Earlwood centre came into Newtown's first grade in 1950 as an 18-year-old but was given time to mature by the club after a tough first grade initiation in his debut season. Poole represented his state in 1954 and was five-eighth for NSW against Great Britain in the infamous match that was abandoned by referee Aub Oxford because of constant fighting. A non-playing reserve in the Third Test against the Lions that year, Poole made his Test debut in controversial circumstances against France in 1955. As the players were preparing to take the field, selectors told him that he was to replace Darcy Henry, whom they suspected was carrying a back injury into the deciding Test. At club level, Newtown finished runners-up to Souths in consecutive grand finals in 1954-55, the latter year with Poole as captain-coach. Poole captained NSW against Queensland and NZ in 1956 before playing in the centres in the Trans Tasman series. He then toured with the Kangaroos and played in all six Tests in England and France. Poole's greatest moment came as captain-coach of Australia's World Cup victory in 1957. Under Poole’s leadership Australia was undefeated in the four-nation competition, held in Sydney and Brisbane to mark the 50th season of rugby league in this country, and was awarded the title without the playing of a final. But the following year an injury to his achilles tendon effectively ended his representative career. A player-coach with Newtown in 1955-58 he left the club to captain Wests in 1959-60. Poole was forced to retire as a player midway through the 1961 season due to recurring asthma. After a stint as coach of the University Club in the NSWRL Second Division competition (1963) he returned to coach the ‘Blue Bags’ from 1966-68.