Richard Norman Thornett (23 September 1940 – 12 October 2011) was one of five Australians to have represented their country in three sports. He was an Olympic water polo player before becoming a

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 ...

and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player – a dual code international representative.

Olympian

Thornett also represented Australia at Water polo at age 20 in the

1960 Rome Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

giving him the truly rare sporting distinction of being a triple international (see also Michael Cleary).

Water Polo career

As his summer sport, Dick followed in the footsteps of his two older brothers and was drawn to playing water polo for Bronte Amateur Water Polo Club. Under the leadership of his brother John Thornett and the expert coaching of ex-Hungarian international Bert Vadas, Dick became an excellent water polo player with a legendary shot at goal, and was a member of Bronte’s inaugural 1st Grade water polo winning team in the NSWAWPA Premiership season of 1958/59, which they repeated in the 1959/60, 1960/61 and 1961/62 seasons. Representing Bronte at the age of 17, Dick was chosen in the NSW State water polo team in 1958 where he competed at the Australian Water Polo Championships in Sydney, and was selected to represent NSW on three other occasions at the Australian Water Polo Championships in Perth (1959), Melbourne (1960) and Adelaide (1961). Dick was also selected to represent Australia at water polo at age 20 for the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. Unfortunately, he was later banned from playing water polo by the Australian Swimming Union after he turned ‘professional’ by joining Parramatta Rugby League Club in 1962.

Rugby Union career

Randwick DRUFC Randwick District Rugby Union Football Club, also known as the Galloping Greens, is an Australian rugby union club which competes in the Sydney premier grade rugby union competition. The club was formed in 1882 and since then has won 32 first gr ...

forward, in his two senior seasons in rugby union in 1961 and 1962 Thornett made eleven national representative Tests appearances for the Wallabies. On the Wallabies 1961 tour of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Thornett was in the squad with his brother

John Thornett John Edward Thornett, MBE (30 March 1935 – 4 January 2019) was an Australian rugby union player, who played 37 Tests for Australia between 1955 and 1967 and made an additional 77 representative match appearances. He captained Australia in 16 ...

and they played Test matches together. Dick left the amateur code after two years to join his brother

Ken Thornett Ken Thornett (27 November 1937 – 16 August 2016), also known by the nickname of "The Mayor of Parramatta", was an Australian rugby league . He represented the Kangaroos in twelve Tests during 1963 and 1964 and on the off-season Kangaroo Tou ...

at the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

Rugby League career

Thornett was a second-rower, and joined his brother Ken at the Parramatta Eels in 1963. He played there until 1971, making 168 appearances for the club, being a master ball player informing the style-changing ball skills that Arthur Beetson would bring to forward play shortly after Thornett. In a club game against

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

in 1968 Thornett matched the then standing club record of four tries in a match. In 1969 he appeared as a guest player for

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

in a match against the

New Zealand national rugby league team The New Zealand national rugby league team ( Māori: Tīma rīki motu Aotearoa) has represented New Zealand in rugby league since 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of ...

to mark 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 '' ...

’s diamond jubilee.Coffey, John and Bernie Wood ''Auckland, 100 years of rugby league, 1909-2009'', 2009. . p.p.207-208 He made national representative appearances for the

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 ...

in Tests against South Africa in 1963, on the 1963–64 Kangaroo tour and in three matches of the 1968

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. His international rugby league debut in the First Test against South Africa in Brisbane on 20 July 1963 saw Thornett become Australia's 28th dual code rugby international, following Michael Cleary and preceding Jim Lisle. Ken Thornett also appeared in that Test match, making the brothers the first to play together in an Australian test side since Bill and Viv Farnsworth in 1912. Thornett's final two club seasons at Parramatta were affected by a bout of

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes ( jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal ...

and he saw out the final year of his career with a season at Easts. While playing rugby, Thornett also served in the

New South Wales Police Force The New South Wales Police Force (NSW Police Force; previously the New South Wales Police Service and New South Wales Police) is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Divided into Police Area Commands (P ...

and in 2008, rugby league's centennial year in Australia, he was named as a reserve in a NSW Police team of the century.

Sporting brothers

Thornett was born into a family of legendary footballing brothers.

was an acclaimed Wallaby captain who played 37 Rugby Union Tests for Australia over a distinguished 13-year career from 1955.

was the leading Australian rugby league fullback in the early sixties. Ken earned 12 Test caps for Australia and played alongside Dick at Parramatta over a 136-game club career. John and Dick Thornett both played together in Wallabies sides in 1961–62; Dick and Ken Thornett played together in three test matches on the 1963–64 Kangaroo Tour.

References

Bibliography

* Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) ''The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players'', Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney * Andrews, Malcolm (2006) ''The ABC of Rugby League'' Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney

External links

*
Dick Thornett at eraofthebiff.com

Dick Thornett at menofleague.com

Richard Thornett - a Tribute
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thornett, Dick 1940 births 2011 deaths Olympic water polo players of Australia Australian rugby union players Australian police officers Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league players Dual-code rugby internationals Sydney Roosters players Parramatta Eels players Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Australia international rugby union players Rugby union locks Auckland rugby league team players Water polo players at the 1960 Summer Olympics Australian male water polo players Rugby league players from Sydney Thornett family Rugby union players from Sydney