Ian Thomson (born 12 July 1955) is an Australian former 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 11 ...

footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s. An Australian international and New South Wales interstate representative front row forward, he played club football for Manly-Warringah, with whom he won the 1978 NSWRFL Premiership, as well as Balmain.

Playing career

Thomson came from a footballing family: his father

Jim Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring * ''Jim ...

and brother Gary were both Balmain players. His uncle, Allan Thomson was an Australian international. Ian played

President's Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

for Balmain in 1974. He then spent two seasons with Quanbeyan under coach

Don Furner Don Furner (26 December 1932 – 24 February 2020) was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. As a player, he represented Queensland on nine occasions and also toured with the 1956–57 Kangaroos. He began his coaching career as a pl ...

, earning representative honours with Country Firsts in 1976. He returned to Sydney, signing with Manly-Warringah for the

1977 NSWRFL season The 1977 NSWRFL season was the 70th season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership. Twelve clubs, including six of 1908's foundation teams and another six from around Sydne ...

. The following year he represented

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 was first selected to play for Australia in the first test against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The

1978 NSWRFL season The 1978 NSWRFL season was the 71st season of the NSWRFL Premiership, Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, and Australia's first. Twelve clubs, including six of 1908's foundation teams and another six from around Sydney compete ...

's Grand Final was to be played by the Manly-Warringah and Cronulla-Sutherland clubs. The game ended in a draw and resulted in a re-play which was won by Manly-Warringah, with Thomson playing in both matches. After that he went on the

1978 Kangaroo tour The 1978 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France comprised the Australia national rugby league team's fourteenth tour of Great Britain and ninth tour of France, and took place from September to December 1978. Coached by Frank Stanton and captai ...

. In the second-last round of the 1980 regular season, Thomson was sent off for a high tackle and was subsequently suspended by the judiciary for the rest of the season. In November 1980 Thomson agreed to play for two seasons with 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 i ...

, however he played only one season. The following year he returned to the Sea Eagles and reached the Grand Final which was eventually lost to 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 ...

. In 1983 Thomson broke his arm in the first minute of a mid-season match against Eastern Suburbs which resulted in a further break, four operations and the insertion of a steel plate, in 1984 Ian mode to England Rugby Club, Swinton Lions, where he represented Swinton Lions in the position of prop forward, playing 12 times, before moving back to Australia. eventually forcing his retirement in 1986. He then started coaching in the Newcastle area.

Post playing

In 2000 Thomson was appointed Chairman of the newly formed

Northern Eagles The Northern Eagles were a rugby league team, that competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) between 2000 and 2002. The club was formed during the rationalisation process of the NRL by the merger of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and the Nort ...

club, overseeing the demise of the merger with the

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in t ...

at the end of 2001 and the reversion of the franchise to the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. Thomson continued on at Manly, becoming Chief Executive.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Ian 1955 births Living people Australian rugby league players Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players New South Wales rugby league team players Australia national rugby league team players Balmain Tigers players Australian rugby league administrators Rugby league props Place of birth missing (living people)