Kelvin Joseph "Kel" O'Shea (13 July 1933 – 22 January 2015) was an Australian representative

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, a second-rower from

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_ ...

whose club career was played with 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 ...

in Sydney. He is rated among the nation's best players of the 20th century.

Club career

O'Shea first came to prominence from Queensland in 1954 when while playing for Ayr Colts he was selected for

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 ...

. He remained in Queensland for the 1955 season but in 1956 accepted an offer to move to Sydney to join the

who at that time were buying up a talent roster including

Arthur Summons Arthur James Summons (13 December 1935 – 16 May 2020) was an Australian representative rugby union and rugby league player, a dual-code rugby international fly-half or five-eighth. He captained the Australian national rugby league team in fiv ...

, Harry Wells, Dick Poole and Ian Moir in their pursuit of an elusive premiership title - an approach which earned the club their tag as "the Millionaires". He played in three of the Magpies' four

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 ...

losses to

St.George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

;

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

and

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

. O'Shea left Wests for Newcastle at the end of 1963 and came out of retirement in 1965 to captain-coach Maitland in 1965. Playing in the Newcastle Grand final he converted his club's winning try after the bell as spectators invaded the field.

Representative career

He debuted for

in 1954 called into the forward pack to partner

Norm Provan Norman Douglas Somerville Provan (18 December 1932 – 13 October 2021) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach. Also nicknamed "Sticks", he was a second-row forward with the St George Dragons during the first ten of t ...

against the touring British Lions. Over the next four years O'Shea and Provan formed a solid partnership that saw them represent against all of the rugby league playing nations. O'Shea first represented for

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 ...

in 1956 after moving to Wests. He played 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 ...

in 1956 Trans-Tasman series and at the end of that year was selected 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 ...

playing in all six Tests and eight minor matches of the 1956-57

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 played against Great Britain in the 1954

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 ...

campaign and in 1957 was a member of Australia's victorious World Cup squad. All up O'Shea made fifteen Test and five

appearances for his country.

Accolades

In 2004 O'Shea was named at second-row in the

team of the century. In 2007 O'Shea was selected by a panel of experts at second-row in an Australian 'Team of the 50s'. In February 2008, O'Shea was named in the list of Australia's ''100 Greatest Players'' (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

and

ARL ARL may refer to: Military * US Navy hull classification symbol for repair ship * Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK * United States Army Research Laboratory * ARL 44, a WWII French tank Organizations * Aero Research Limited, a UK adhesives comp ...

to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. In 2009, he was inducted into th
Queensland Sport Hall of Fame
for his achievements in Rugby League.

Death

Kel O'Shea died on 22 January 2015, aged 81.http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/kangaroos-great-kel-oshea-who-linked-with-norm-provan-is-mourned/story-fniabjcr-1227195046095

Sources

* Andrews, Malcolm (2006) ''The ABC of Rugby League'' Austn Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney, AUS * Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) ''The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players'', Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney, AUS
Kelvin O'Shea profile
nqsports.com.au; accessed 10 September 2014.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oshea, Kel 1933 births 2015 deaths People from North Queensland Australian rugby league players Queensland rugby league team players New South Wales rugby league team players City New South Wales rugby league team players Western Suburbs Magpies players Maitland Pickers players Australia national rugby league team players Rugby league players from Queensland Rugby league second-rows