- Dick Dunn
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For other people named Richard Dunn, see Richard Dunn (disambiguation).
Richard 'Dick' Dunn OAM (1921–2006) was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership (NSWRFL).
Dunn played 134 matches for the Eastern Suburbs club in the years (1938–47). A local junior of that club, Dunn grew up idolising the senior players, carrying the kit bags of legends like Dave Brown and Ray Stehr; a few years later he was playing alongside of them. Dunn played most of his career in the centres though in later years he moved to lock forward. Dunn played in four premiership deciders in his career, winning in 1940 and 1945.
Dunn is best remembered for the 1945 Grand Final in which he scored 19 of Easts 22 points, a record that still stands today for the most points scored in a premiership decider. In an interview with Sean Fagan, Dunn recalls the final minutes of the match –
“Yeah well the situation was this, the game was very, very close. They led us 10 to 5 at half time and were playing very good football. The scores and play fluctuated and they led us with about four minutes to go by 18 to 17. We got a penalty on the half way line you know. Ray Stehr [captain] says "kick for the sideline". Wally O'Connell, who will verify this of course, he was closest to me. Stehr says "which side you going to kick, so I'll go over?" I said "Don't you want the two points - it'll put us in front!" He said "Its too far for you to kick it." Any rate I had a little bit of trouble in getting the ball onto a mound. In those days there was no sand or anything and I couldn't make a mound from the hardness of the centre, you know, the cricket pitch. So I said to Georgie Watt I'm going to kick this "Lomas style" - that's an upright position of the ball you know, standing up? He said "Oh you couldn't kick that Lomas style." And ah of course as soon as it left me boot, I said this a goer for sure. Some say it landed in the crowd. I know it landed well over the bloody post because we did have a bit of excitement by kicking it - we were winning! Ironically, when Balmain kicked off I anticipated Jorgenson's kick - he was a great footballer and a great goal kicker, probably a lot better than me. I says to myself he'll kick this right here, which was the 25 yard line. But of course even with us having possession of the ball there could have been a scrum and something could have happened, maybe they could've kicked 2 points with a field goal and all that. Anyway, sure enough, I've caught the ball fortunately and this is the truth and actual facts - I punted it from our own 25 to find the line 5 yards from the corner post under the SCG scoreboard! Right? We won the scrum against the feed and this is where Lisle and O'Connell put a move on that, I'm not quite sure what the name of the move was, any rate, they went bang, bang, bang and fortunately they just passed me the ball and I scored in the corner and that really won the game. It was 22-18 with about 10 seconds to play. Kicking for the conversion goal and I've always said it, people say "ah your bull!", I'm kicking for the goal and in my opinion no chance of missing. I had a lot of confidence and I went into the ball and just before I got into the ball the bell rang for full time you know. And it just put me off and grazed the outside upright so there was two more I would've scored!” .
Following his retirement from the game as a player he became a prominent administrator, serving as vice president of the NSWRL and chairman of rugby league's judiciary panel. He was also the coach of Easts in 1960, losing to St George in that year's Grand Final. For his services, Dunn was made a life member of the Eastern Suburbs, the NSWRL and Australian Rugby League (ARL) and was a recipient of the OAM.
Dunn was also a Sergeant in the AIF.
At the time of his death in 2006, Dunn was aged 85.
References
- Various yearbooks; David Middleton
External links
Eastern Suburbs squad - 1945 NSWRFL Premiers (9th title) 1. Ray Pratt · 2. Lionel Cooper · 3. Paul Tierney · 4. Johnny Hunter · 5. Ken Foster · 6. Wally O'Connell · 7. Sel Lisle
8. Ray Stehr (Ca./Co.) · 9. George Watt · 10. Jack Arnold · 11. Bert Rollason · 12. Sid Hobson · 13. Dick Dunn
Coach: Arthur HallowayEastern Suburbs squad - 1940 NSWRFL Premiers (8th title) 1. Doug Bartlett • 2. Rod O'Loan • 3. Stan Callaghan • 4. Dick Dunn • 5. Bill Brew • 6. Fred May • 7. Sel Lisle
8. Ray Stehr (c) • 9. Noel Hollingdale • 10. John Clarke • 11. Harry Pierce • 12. Sid Pearce • 13. Andrew Norval
Coach: Dave BrownNational Rugby League season top points scorers 1908 Horrie Miller • 1909 Arthur Conlin • 1910–12 Dally Messenger • 1913–14 Harold Horder • 1915 Wally Messenger • 1916–17 Charles Fraser • 1918 Harold Horder • 1919 A McPherson • 1920 Frank Burge • 1921 Rex Norman • 1922 Harold Horder • 1923 Arthur Oxford • 1924 Jack Courtney • 1925 Benny Wearing • 1926 Jack Courtney • 1927 Alf Blair • 1928 Benny Wearing • 1929–30 Jim Craig • 1931 Jack Lynch • 1932 Les Mead • 1933 Syd Christensen • 1934–1935 Dave Brown • 1936 Syd Christensen • 1937 Jack Beaton • 1938 Tom Kirk • 1939 Neville Smith • 1940 Tom Kirk • 1941 Neville Smith • 1942 Ray Lindwall • 1943–1944 Tom Kirk • 1945 Dick Dunn • 1946 Tom Kirk • 1947 Pat Devery • 1948 Jack Lindwall • 1949–50 Bill Keato • 1951–54 Ron Rowles • 1955–56 Doug Fleming • 1957 Darcy Russell • 1958 Harry Bath • 1959 Darcy Russell • 1960 Brian Graham • 1961 Bob Landers • 1962 Don Parish • 1963–65 Fred Griffiths • 1966 Bob Lanigan • 1967–70 Eric Simms • 1971 Graeme Langlands • 1972 Allan McKean • 1973 Graeme Langlands • 1974–76 Graham Eadie • 1977–79 Michael Cronin • 1980 Steve Gearin • 1981 Steve Rogers • 1982 Michael Cronin • 1983 Michael Eden • 1984 Steve Gearin • 1985 Michael Cronin • 1986 Terry Lamb • 1987 Ross Conlon • 1988 Gary Belcher • 1989 Andy Currier & Ricky Walford • 1990 Mal Meninga • 1991–94 Daryl Halligan • 1995 Matthew Ridge • 1996 Jason Taylor • 1997 Jason Taylor (ARL) Ryan Girdler (SL) • 1998 Ivan Cleary • 1999 Matt Geyer • 2000 Joel Caine • 2001 Andrew Johns & Ben Walker • 2002–04 Hazem El Masri • 2005 Brett Hodgson • 2006–07 Hazem El Masri • 2008 Luke Covell • 2009 Hazem El Masri • 2010 Michael Gordon • 2011 Benji Marshall
Categories:- 1921 births
- Australian rugby league players
- Sydney Roosters players
- Sydney Roosters coaches
- Australian rugby league coaches
- Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
- 2006 deaths
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