Noel Cleal

Noel Cleal

Personal information
Full name	Noel Harvey Cleal
Nickname	Crusher
Born	16 October 1958 (1958-10-16) (age 53) Warialda, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Position	Second-row, Centre
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1980–1982	Eastern Suburbs	70	26	1	0	80
1983–1989	Manly-Warringah	125	43	10	0	192
1985–1986	Widnes	16	12	0	0	44
1989–1990	Hull	31	15	0	0	60
	Total	242	96	11	0	376
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1985–1986	Australia	10	5	0	0	20
1984–1988	New South Wales	12	3	0	0	12
1987	Country Origin	1	1	0	0	4
Coaching information
Club
Years	Team	Gms	W	D	L	W%
1991	Hull
Source: Rugby League Project Yesterday's Hero

Noel Harvey "Crusher" Cleal (born in Warialda, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who also had a successful coaching career. A destructive Second Rower for the Manly Sea Eagles, he also represented New South Wales in the State of Origin Series and the Australian national rugby league team.

Club career

Noel Cleal along with his brother Les came to Sydney first-grade rugby league having already established a name for himself in the country. He had captain-coached the Wondai side to a country premiership in Queensland, and steered an undefeated Sawtell Panthers to a Clayton Cup^{[citation needed]} and maiden premiership, then represented for New South Wales Northern Division against a touring Great Britain side in 1979.

His Sydney career started with the Eastern Suburbs Roosters in 1980 where he played at Centre. He had three seasons with the Roosters before following coach Bob Fulton to Manly in 1983. Fulton switched Cleal to Second Row, a move which assisted Cleal's ascendancy to State and National representative honours. He tasted premiership success with Manly in 1987.

Following from a 1985-86 stint with the Widnes club, Cleal returned to English rugby league in 1989 and saw out his career with Hull.

Representative career

Cleal represented the NSW Blues in 12 State of Origin games between 1984 and 1988. Some of Cleal's best football was played at the State of Origin level, he was the NSW forward who troubled Queensland most at a time when the Blues were just beginning to match the passion of their interstate rivals. He is commonly known as the man who coined the inspirational phrase "Dare to Dream" which was an extract from the game and series winning pep talk given by him during half time of game 2 of the 1985 state of origin series.

Cleal played 8 Tests for Australia in 1985 and 1986 including the 1986 Kangaroo tour.

Post playing

As coach of Hull, Cleal took the club to British premiership victory in 1991. On his return to Australia in 1992 he was appointed junior development and recruitment officer with the Parramatta Eels. Since 2004 he has been in a similar role with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.

Accolades

In 1984 he was the runner up in the Rothman's Medal competition. In 1985 was runner up as the Dally M Second Rower of the year.

In 2000 Cleal was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his representative career for his country and state, and his supportive of Junior League at Local and regional level.

In 2005 he was named one of the 25 greatest ever players for NSW.

Matches played

Team	Matches	Years	Tries
Eastern Suburbs Roosters	70	1980–1982	26
Manly Warringah	125	1983–1989	43
Widnes	16	1985–1986	12
Hull	31	1989–1990	15
Country	1	1987	1
New South Wales	12	1984–1988	3
Australia (Tests)	8	1985–1986	3
Australia (World Cup)	2	1985–1986	2

His son Kane made his first grade debut with Manly in 2004. Kane is currently playing for Canterbury Bulldogs in 2007.

External links

• Noel Cleal at stateoforigin.com.au

Persondata
Name	Cleal, Noel
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	16 October 1958
Place of birth	Warialda, New South Wales
Date of death
Place of death