Paul Dawson 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 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1970s, spending his entire career with Newtown in the NSWRL competition as a second-rower. He is the twin brother of Chris Dawson who also played for Newtown.

Early life

Dawson attended

Sydney Boys High School Sydney Boys High School (”SBHS”), otherwise known as The Sydney High School (“SHS”) or High, is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Single-sex school, single-sex Selective school (New South Wales), academically s ...

and he played

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 its m ...

for

Eastern Suburbs Eastern Suburbs may refer to: Places *Eastern Suburbs (Mumbai), India *Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Australia **Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney, Australia Sports clubs ;Association football *Eastern Suburbs AFC, Auckland, New Zealand * Eastern ...

before switching to play rugby league.

Playing career

Dawson made his first grade debut for Newtown in 1972. In 1973, Jack Gibson was made the new head coach at Newtown and the club qualified for the finals that year. Dawson played in all of Newtown's finals matches as the club reached the preliminary final before losing to Cronulla. Dawson enjoyed his best season personally as he finished with 8 tries. After Gibson departed the club, Newtown failed to qualify for the finals and in Dawson's two final years at the club they finished last on the table claiming the wooden spoon. 1977 would be Dawson's final year in first grade and he retired at the end of the season.

Post playing

After his Rugby career finished Dawson and his twin brother Chris both became

Physical Education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

teachers at public high schools in the northern beaches of New South Wales, with Paul teaching at The Forest High School. He married Marilyn in 1969 and they had three daughters The Dawson brothers and families moved to Queensland in 1985 with Paul working at

Coombabah State High School {{Unreferenced, date=October 2008 Coombabah State High School is a public secondary school located in the northern suburb of Coombabah on the Gold Coast, Queensland, in Australia. Backing onto the Coombabah Lakelands Conversation Area, The campus ...

. Dawson's twin brother

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), N ...

was found guilty on August 30, 2022 of murdering his wife

Lynette Dawson Lynette Joy Dawson (born 1948) was an Australian missing person who disappeared on 9 January 1982, leaving two daughters and her husband, former rugby league footballer Chris Dawson. Her whereabouts are unknown, but two coronial inquests found ...

in 1982, after a judge-only trial in the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. Whilst the Supreme Court i ...

. There are multiple allegations of Paul having sex with students. He has denied wrongdoing.

References

1948 births Living people Australian rugby league players Newtown Jets players Rugby league second-rows Rugby league players from Sydney Australian twins {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1940s-stub