Percy Lennard (1900–1975) was an Australian

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player.

Early life

Lennard was born in Inverell in 1900. As a young child, he moved to Kurri Kurri where he attended a local public school. At the age of 18, despite having shown potential in rugby league.

Club career

Rothbury

Lennard played for the Kurri Kurri under-18 team as captain in 1918 before starting his senior team at Rothbury in 1919.

Cessnock

After one year with Rothbury, Lennard joined Cessnock where he spent the rest of his career at. He helped the club to honours that included the Stevenson, Kerr and Ellis Cups, and in 1928 and 1929 the State League Premiership Cup. In his Cessnock career, he played 492 senior games and scored 210 goals for Cessnock.

International and state career

Lennard represented

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 ...

twelve times, scoring twice. He made his Australian debut against New Zealand in 1923 where he scored Australia's first ever international goal on home soil. Lennard was inducted into the City of Cessnock Hall of Fame on 6 December 2006, he was also inducted in the Hunter Region Sporting Hall of Fame. Lennard represented New South Wales interstate and internationally, and in 1923, was selected to play for

in three exhibition matches 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 ...

, and scored two goals. These matches were the first played in Australia by an international football team, and the first full A Grade international football matches played in the country. Given that he scored the first goal in the first match of the series, Lennard scored the first ever Australian international football goal on home soil. He played for Australia in nine further internationals. Lennard's son

Jack Lennard Jack Lennard (2 April 1930 – 22 July 2003) was an Australian football (soccer) player. Jack Lennard began his first grade career with Cessnock in 1947, when he was 17 years old. From 1948 to 1955, he played with Lysaghts Orb (Mayfield United) ...

also represented Australia in international football.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Australia goal.''

Death

Lennard died in Cessnock in 1975, aged 74.

References

External links

HALL OF FAME - SPORT
Australian men's soccer players 1900 births 1975 deaths Men's association football forwards Australia men's international soccer players Sportsmen from New South Wales People from Kurri Kurri Soccer players from New South Wales {{Australia-footy-bio-stub