Bernie Purcell (1928–2001) was an Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

premiership winning footballer and coach. He was a goal-kicking second-row forward of the 1950s for the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league club based in Redfern, a suburb of inner-southern Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are one of nine existing tea ...

, the Australian national representative and the New South Wales state sides.

Club career

He played 178 games with South Sydney between 1949 and 1960, scoring 36 tries and 509 goals for a total of 1,126 points. A Souths junior, he was the Australian first forward in the game to score over 1,000 career points. He was also the first Australian forward to kick over 500 career goals a record only matched by three other players up till 2011. He played in the

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and 1954 - 1955 victorious

Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league club based in Redfern, a suburb of inner-southern Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are one of nine existing team ...

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...

teams shouldering the goal-kicking responsibilities in each of those matches. In 1959 he overtook Tom Kirk's record for the most points scored in an NSWRFL career (1,042); Purcell's eventual total of 1,152 stood as the new career record for three seasons until it was bettered by

Ron Willey Ronald William Willey (1929−2004) was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. He was a representative for the Australian national side. Post-playing, Willey had a long and successful first grade and State representative coaching care ...

in 1962.

Representative career

Purcell represented Australia in one

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

(1950) and appeared four times for New South Wales (1951–1956). Purcell's sole Test appearance was in the third Test against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

in 1950. This was the famous 5-2 victory that gave Australia

the Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first ...

for the first time in thirty years. He was selected to represent Sydney against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

during their 1951 tour of Australasia in a match that ended in a 19-all draw. Purcell also toured Great Britain with the 1956-57 Australian

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

, playing seven tour matches against British sides but no Tests.

Coaching career

Purcell coached the Rabbitohs (1964–1966) after his retirement as a player, the highlight being the 1965 Grand Final against St. George played at the Sydney Cricket Ground in front of a record crowd of 78,056. Souths lost a hard fought encounter 12-8 against the then nine-times champions. Bernie Purcell died on 31 December 2001, 19 days short of his 74th birthday.Rugby League Project
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References

Sources

* ''The Encyclopaedia of Rugby League Players - South Sydney Rabbitohs'', Alan Whiticker & Glen Hudson, Bas Publishing, 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Purcell, Bernie 1928 births 2001 deaths Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league journalists Australian rugby league players New South Wales rugby league team players Place of birth missing Rugby league second-rows South Sydney Rabbitohs captains South Sydney Rabbitohs coaches South Sydney Rabbitohs players Western Suburbs Magpies players