Craig Field

Nippy, emotion-charged halfback showed flashes of brilliance and a rugged competitiveness with Souths in the early 1990s. Promoted to captain in 1994 Field tried hard to inspire an inconsistent and inexperienced Rabbitohs outfit but often let his frustrations surface on the playing field. In 1995 he was fined $10,000 for missing training and was stripped of the captaincy. It was no surprise then to see him leave the Rabbitohs at the end of 1996 but if ever a player was unsuited to the high-flying Manly club it was Field. In his two seasons with Manly, the spoiling, improvised style of the little halfback did not impress coach Bob Fulton (who had Test halves Geoff Toovey and Cliff Lyons to choose from) or the fickle Sea Eagles fans who never warmed to his obvious talent. In early 1999 Field successfully gained a release from his contract and within the week, guided Balmain to a gutsy win over his old club. One of the key members of the newly merged W’Tigers in 2000 he was banned for the remainder of the 2001 season after returning a positive drug test for recreational drugs. Fined, and later cut from the club after an incident at Balmain Leagues Club in September, he successfully appealed against his sacking but was not included in the Tigers’ playing roster in 2002. Late in 2002 Field came out of retirement to play for Pia in the south of France. In February 2003 he took over the coaching duties following the sacking of John Elias and led Pia in the club’s 16-14 loss in the French Cup final at Villeneuve. Later that year he returned to Australia where he captained Newtown in the Premier Division competition before returning to France.