Don Schofield 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 who played in the 1950s and 1960s. An Australia national and New South Wales state representative forward, he played his club football in the

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 ...

for Cessnock and in the

New South Wales Rugby League The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...

for Sydney's Western Suburbs. Schofield initially played in the

for the Cessnock club, appearing in their grand final victory of 1950. While playing for Cessnock, he was selected to represent

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

when they hosted the 1951 French touring side and lost. Schofield then played in the

New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sout ...

for the

Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies (legal name: Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd) are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly r ...

, scoring two tries in their

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. Sy ...

win in the 1952 season and was voted man of the match winning prize money of £10. He suffered a groin injury in that match which required surgery in the off-season. Schofield returned to Cessnock, playing in each of their

grand finals victories of 1954, 1955 and 1960. Towards the end of his career he captained the Newcastle team against the touring

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 ...

side in 1962. His son Michael Schofield played rugby league for the

Balmain Tigers The Balmain Tigers (also known as the Sydney Tigers from 1995–96) are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in t ...

and the Country New South Wales team. Don Schofield died in April 1999, aged 68. In 2011, the Cessnock club's centenary year, Schofield was named at second-row forward in a Cessnock 'Team of the Century'.

References

External links

Past Greats at cessnockrugbyleague.com.auDon Schofield at yesterdayshero.com.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schofield, Don 1931 births 1999 deaths Australian rugby league players Cessnock Goannas players Rugby league second-rows Western Suburbs Magpies players Australia national rugby league team players Newcastle rugby league team players Date of birth missing Place of birth missing Rugby league players from Cessnock, New South Wales