John Elias (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
: جون إلياس ; born 10 December 1963) is a Lebanese-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 and coach. During the 1980s and 1990s he played for clubs in Sydney, Brisbane, England and France where he also coached. Elias also played and coached for the
Lebanon national team.
Background
Elias was born in
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
. As a child, along with his two older brothers and sister, he was taken by his mother to
Sydney following the death of his father. There he became an Australian citizen.
Playing career
1980s
After starting his first grade career with the
Newtown Jets
The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSW Cup competition, having left the top grade after the 1983 NSWRFL season. The Jets' home ground ...
in their final season in 1983, Elias then played 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 ...
in 1984. The following season he moved north, and in the
1985 Brisbane Rugby League season's grand final for the
Wayne Bennett-coached
Souths Magpies, Elias was named man-of-the-match for his performance in a shock 10-8 victory over
Wally Lewis
Walter James Lewis AM (born 1 December 1959) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 1980s and 1990s. He became a commentator for television coverage of the sp ...
'
Wynnum-Manly Seagulls
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. Sin ...
.
Elias joined the
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilit ...
in 1986 but departed from the club mid-way through the season to join 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 ...
. Early in the
1987 Winfield Cup season, Elias was sent off for a high tackle in a match against
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 ...
. He joined the
Eastern Suburbs Roosters
The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen ...
in 1988. Early in the
1988 Winfield Cup season while playing for Easts, Elias' jaw was fractured in a tackle during the first minutes of a match against Balmain. Part-way through the
1989 NSWRL season
The 1989 NSWRL season was the 82nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen clubs competed for the New South Wales Rugby League's J.J. Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup Premiership during the season, which culminated ...
, he left Eastern Suburbs to join 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 ...
club, where he stayed until 1994.
1990s
Elias left Balmain to re-join the Rabbitohs mid-way through the
1994 Winfield Cup season. That season Elias was involved in a match-fixing plot that involved four players from his Souths team and four players from Wests. Elias was jailed for nine months in 1995 after pleading guilty in the NSW District Court to two counts of supplying amphetamines, one count of possessing F1 sub-machinegun parts and one count of possessing prohibited articles, namely military-style flak vests. Elias was the inaugural captain of the Lebanese rugby league team when they made their début in the
1997 World Sevens tournament, going on to reach the quarter-finals. He later travelled to France to play for
Avignon and
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
.
Elias was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1999 at age 38, but postponed chemotherapy to play an international match for Lebanon against France. Later he underwent surgery to remove a tennis-ball sized
lymphoma
Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enla ...
which had burst inside his stomach, forcing him into retirement.
Coaching career
Instead of being Lebanon's captain for their campaign to join the
2000 World Cup, he served as their coach. Elias was refused entry into the United States for Lebanon's
2000 World Cup qualifier match due to his previous firearms conviction. Elias coached French club
Pia Donkeys
The Baroudeurs de Pia XIII, later known as the Pia Donkeys, are a French Rugby league team based in Pia, Pyrénées-Orientales in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. The ''Baroudeurs'' play in the Elite Two Championship during their existence the ...
in 2002 and 2003, taking them from last in the competition to runners-up, before returning to Australia.
In 2004 Elias was facing up to 25 years in jail after a jury found him guilty of maliciously shooting his business partner in the leg. He ended up serving four years in prison. In 2008, following Elias' release from prison, it was reported that he and
Arthur Beetson, who had advised Elias during the 2000 World Cup, were preparing a bid for a rugby league coaching job in Europe. In June 2009, following the conviction of
Greg Bird, Elias wrote an article published by
News Limited
News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,0 ...
detailing his time in prison. That year Elias coached Lebanon in the
2009 European Cup
The 2009 European Cup, known as the rugbyleague.com European Cup due to sponsorship, was a rugby league football tournament.
The revamped European Cup 2009 involved six teams competing in two groups of three. Participating teams were: Ireland, Sc ...
tournament.
After football
In 2010 Elias published his book, ''Sin Bin: The Untold Story of a True Footy Bad Boy'', which detailed his life of football and crime. In the 2011 pre-season, he was arrested under suspicion of involvement in the 2010
spot fixing case perpetrated by
Ryan Tandy
Ryan Tandy (20 September 1981 – 28 April 2014) was international rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He played as a in the National Rugby League for the St. George Illawarra Dragons, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Wests Tige ...
, but was found not guilty.
In August 2014 Elias was found guilty of assault and given a five-month suspended jail sentence.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elias, John
1963 births
Living people
Australian expatriate rugby league players
Australian expatriate sportspeople in France
Australian people convicted of assault
Australian rugby league coaches
Australian rugby league players
Balmain Tigers players
Baroudeurs de Pia XIII coaches
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players
Expatriate rugby league players in France
Lebanese emigrants to Australia
Lebanese rugby league players
Lebanon national rugby league team captains
Lebanon national rugby league team coaches
Lebanon national rugby league team players
Leigh Centurions players
Limoux Grizzlies players
Newtown Jets players
Rugby league players from Sydney
Rugby league second-rows
South Sydney Rabbitohs players
Souths Logan Magpies players
Sporting Olympique Avignon players
Sportsmen from New South Wales
Sportspeople of Lebanese descent
Sydney Roosters players
Toulouse Olympique players
Western Suburbs Magpies players