Ken Kearney

Infobox Rugby biography
name = Ken Kearney


caption =
birthname = Kenneth Howard Kearney
nickname = Killer
dateofbirth = 1924
placeofbirth = Penrith, New South Wales, Australia
dateofdeath = 2006
placeofdeath = Gold Coast, Queensland
height =
weight =
ru_position = Hooker
ru_amateuryears = 1942&1947-48
ru_amateurclubs = Parramatta Two Blues
ru_amupdate = 31 December 2007
ru_nationalteam = flagicon|AUS Australia
ru_nationalyears = 1947–1948
ru_nationalcaps = 7
ru_nationalpoints =
ru_ntupdate = 31 December 2007
ru_clubyears =
ru_proclubs =
ru_clubcaps =
ru_clubpoints =
ru_clubupdate =
super14 =
super14years =
super14caps =
super14points =
ru_currentclub =
super14update =
ru_province =
ru_provinceyears =
ru_provincecaps =
ru_provincepoints =
ru_provinceupdate =
ru_sevensnationalyears =
ru_sevensnationalteam =
ru_sevensnationalcomp =
ru_sevensupdate =
ru_coachclubs =
ru_coachyears =
ru_coachupdate =
rl_position = Hooker
sooyears = 1952–1958
sooteam =
soocaps = 33
soopoints = (12)
sooupdate = 31 December 2007
sooteam pre-1980 = yes
rl_nationalteam = leagueicon|Australia|16 Australia
rl_nationalyears = 1952–1958
rl_nationalcaps = 31
rl_nationalpoints = (3)
rl_ntupdate = 31 December 2007
rl_amateuryears =
rl_amateurclubs =
rl_amupdate =
rl_clubyears = 1948–1951
1952–1961
rl_proclubs =
rl_clubcaps = 95
156
rl_clubpoints = (6)
(58)
rl_clubupdate = 31 December 2007
other = yes
occupation = Insurance Sales
family =
spouse =
children =
relatives =
school =
university =

Kenneth Howard Kearney (born 3 May, 1924, died 18 August, 2006) was an Australian rugby footballer - a dual-code international player - and later coach. He represented the Wallabies in 7 Tests and the Kangaroos in 31 Tests and World Cup games. He captained Australia in 9 Rugby League Test matches in 1956 and 1957. He was a hooker and captain-coach with the St. George Dragons in the first half of their eleven year consecutive premiership winning run from 1956 to 1966. He is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century. [ [http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/02/22/Controversy_reigns_as_NRL_releases_top_100_players Century's Top 100 Players] ]

Rugby union

Kearney was born in Penrith, New South Wales. He joined Parramatta's 1st grade rugby union side from school before serving in the Royal Australian Air Force in WWII. After discharge he resumed Rugby Union and debuted for the Wallabies against the All Blacks playing two Tests in June 1947 then toured Europe with the 1947-48 Wallabies playing against each of the five European rugby nations.

Rugby league

Club career

Kearney returned to England at the end of the Wallabies tour and swicthed tot eh professional code. After three seasons with the Leeds RLFC he returned to Australia in 1952 and joined St George. He played 156 games from 1952 to 1961, captained the club in five winning Grand Finals (as captain-coach for the latter four) and coached them to further victory in 1961.

Kearney brought tactics and strategy from English rugby league and is often credited with masterminding the Dragons successful run. He was able to inspire loyalty in his players by leading from the front and to develop a level of fitness and ruthless, mistake free football. This discipline was the foundation for the famous straight line brick-wall defence that kept the St George team at the top through those years.

In 1956, the commencing year of the Dragons' record breaking run Norm Tipping had coached the team to an excellent season result of 15 wins, four losses and 1 draw but regardless would be ousted from the coaching job shortly after the grand final victory. He was the loser in a power struggle with Kearney, who led the side on-field and who that year had captained Australia to a three Test whitewash of New Zealand, had captained New South Wales to state victory over Queensland, won the Sunday Telegraph's Player of the Year award and ultimately captained the Saints to premiership victory. The St George committee chose to back Kearney's fine football brain and his advanced strategies on attack, defense and conditioning in choosing him as their captain-coach to go forward. In the process they laid the foundation for the club's eleven year premiership stranglehold.|

Representative career

.

He went on the 1953 tour of New Zealand playing in all three Tests and the following year represented in the inaugural World Cup in France.

Following his premiership success with St George as both captain and coach, Kearney was selected as captain-coach of Australia for the 1956 trans-Tasman series against New Zealand with Clive Churchill unavailable due to injury. Australia won the series 3-0 to regain the trans-Tasman trophy that the Kiwis had held since 1935.

Kearney stayed on a captain-coach for the 1956 Kangaroo tour in spite of the availability and tour selection of Churchill with whom he reportedly enjoyed an uneasy relationship. The touring side won all three Tests in France but lost against Great Britain 2-1. Kearney played in all Tests on tour. He played in an exceptionally talented Australian side who win the 1957 World Cup under skipper Dick Poole and the 1958 domestic Ashes series under captain Brian Davies before retiring from international football.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player Kearney coached the Parramatta Eels to the semi finals in 1962-1964 and was the foundation coach for the Cronulla Sharks in their first three seasons from 1967. He was a Freemason and worked in insurance sales in Sydney for 25 years. He retired to the Gold Coast where he died of a heart attack aged 82.

Accolades

In 2006 he was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame. [ [http://rl1908.com/Hoffame/index.htm Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame] ] . In February 2008, Kearney 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. [cite web|publisher="NRL & ARL"|title=Centenary of Rugby League - The Players
url=http://www.centenaryofrugbyleague.com.au/site/the-players.aspx?cat=3&list=true|accessdate=2008-02-23|date=2008-02-23]

Footnotes

ources

* Whiticker, Alan (2004) "Captaining the Kangaroos", New Holland, Sydney
* Writer, Larry (1995) "Never Before, Never Again", Pan MacMillan, Sydney

External links

* [http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=123527 NineMSN "St George great 'Killer' Kearney dies" August 19, 2006]
* [http://www.stgeorge.org.au/news/static/article_210.asp St George Leagues Club Journal Tribute November 2006]