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

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer, a second-rower from

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

whose club career was played with the

Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies (legal name: Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd) is an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as the club is commonly ...

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 country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. 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, 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 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. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

losses to St.George: 1958; 1961 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 Cove ...

. 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 ...

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 New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in 1956 after moving to Wests. He played against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in 1956 Trans-Tasman series and at the end of that year was selected for the Kangaroos playing in all six Tests and eight minor matches of the 1956-57 Kangaroo tour. He played against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

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 name is ...

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 and ARL 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.Kangaroos Great Kel Oshea Who Linked With Norm Provan Is Mourned
''The Courier Mail''

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; Retrieved 10 September 2014.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oshea, Kel 1933 births 2015 deaths Sportspeople from Ayr, 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 20th-century Australian sportsmen