Dennis Ward (27 January 1944 – 11 December 2021) was an Australian professional

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 112 ...

footballer. He was a who played first grade in the NSWRFL Premiership for

Canterbury-Bankstown Canterbury-Bankstown is a customary region of Sydney, Australia, in the south-western suburbs. The area is located around the Bankstown railway line, to the west of the St George region and to the south of the Inner West region. The suburbs ...

and

Manly-Warringah The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

from 1965-1972, winning the 1972 Grand Final with Manly. He also played for City Firsts,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in representative football.

Early life

Dennis Ward was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia.

Club career

Ward played for Canterbury-Bankstown for three seasons between 1964-1965 and 1967,

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

for five seasons between 1968-1972,

in 1969 and 1973 and for the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

national team in six test matches and four world cup matches between 1969-1972. He was named man-of-the-match in Manly-Warringah's 1972 grand final victory. Ward later became the Queensland Rugby League coaching director and the National Coaching Director for the

New Zealand Rugby League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood ''T ...

. After retiring from the NSWRFL at the end of the 1972 season, Ward played 63 first grade games from 1973 to 1975 for

Newcastle Rugby League The Newcastle Rugby League is a local rugby league football competition in Newcastle, Australia. It is one of the oldest rugby league competitions in Australia, founded in 1910. A Newcastle representative team was also assembled from players in ...

side

Western Suburbs Rosellas The Western Suburbs Rosellas, Western Suburbs, Wests, The Rosellas, 2/10 - J Baker are a Rugby league club based in the Newcastle, NSW region of Australia. It was a foundation member of the Newcastle Rugby League in 1909 and has been one of th ...

, and was the club's captain-coach from 1973 to 1974. In 1973 he was the first player selected directly from Wests for a

Kangaroo Tour Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France, tours to New Zealand and the one-off tour to Papua New Guinea (1991). The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours to ...

. He is listed on the ''Australian Players Register'' as Kangaroo No. 435. Dennis Ward was subsequently named at halfback in Wests Rosellas' team of the century.

Representative career

Ward first played representative football when he was chosen for the City Firsts side in 1969. It would be the only time he played in the

City vs Country A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

game. He was also chosen for NSW in the 1969 and 1972 Interstate series against

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. Ward gained selection for Australia the 1969 tour of New Zealand and played in two tests against the Kiwis. He next played for the Kangaroos in the 1972

Rugby League World Cup The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament contested by the top national men's representative teams. The tournament is administered by the International Rugby League and was first held in France in 1954, which was ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, including playing in the World Cup Final 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 is ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. During the WCF, Ward was involved in "the greatest try never scored", later shown on TV to be legitimately scored by Australian fullback

Graeme Langlands Graeme Frank Langlands, MBE, (2 September 1941 – 20 January 2018), also known by the nickname of "Changa", was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. and coached in the 1970s. He retire ...

who chased and dived to catch Ward's bomb in mid-air, but it was disallowed by French referee Georges Jameau who believed the Australian captain to be offside. Ward was then chosen from Newcastle to the 1973 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France, and although playing a number of games on the tour he did not play in a test match against either Great Britain or

Coaching

In 1977, Ward coached the

Wynnum-Manly The Wynnum-Manly Seagulls are an Australian rugby league football club based at Kougari Oval, in Brisbane's bayside suburb of Manly West, which neighbours the suburb of Wynnum. They competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1951 to 1997. Since ...

club in the

Brisbane Rugby League The Brisbane Rugby League is a rugby league football competition in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first held in 1922 and for every year until 1997. The competition was reinstated in 2001, known as the FOGS premiership under the Queen ...

premiership. In the 1990s he became the Coaching and Development Director for the Queensland Rugby League.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Dennis 1944 births 2021 deaths Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players Australia national rugby league team players Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league players from Sydney