Max Krilich

Max Krilich

Personal information
Nickname	Thrower
Born	25 October 1949 (1949-10-25) (age 62) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Position	Hooker
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1970–83	Manly-Warringah	215	31	39	1	173
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1978–83	New South Wales	8	1	0	0	3
1978–83	Australia	13	1	0	0	3
Source: RLP

Max Krilich (born 25 October 1949 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1970s and 80s. He was a hooker for the Australia national team, playing in 13 Tests from 1978 to 1983 and as captain on 10 consecutive occasions in 1982 and 1983. He was the captain of the 1982 "Invincibles" Australian touring side.

Club career

Krilich played rugby union at school before joining the Harbord United Rugby League Club. He was graded by the Manly Sea Eagles in 1969. Australian World Cup hooker Freddie Jones was the Manly captain when Krilich joined the club. Krilich had to bide his time and played in over 100 reserve grade games till 1974 before he cemented the first grade hooker position. After the departure of Bob Fulton in 1976 Krilich assumed the club captaincy.^[1]

He played 215 first grade games with the club and 119 reserve grade games up till his retirement in 1983.

Representative career

Unusually Krilich was selected in the City 2nds while playing reserve grade for Manly in 1971. It would be another six years before he was selected for representative honours. In the 1978 finals series Manly played six matches in 16 days to make it through to the Grand Final and the subsequent Grand Final replay where they beat Cronulla. Krilich was selected in the Australian side that toured New Zealand weeks later. He played the first two Tests but season fatigue and injury affected his form and he was replaced by George Peponis for the 3rd Test. It would be four years later before Krilich would regain a Test spot and grab the Australian captaincy.

In 1982, after leading New South Wales into the 1st three-match State of Origin series, Krilich led Australia to victory in two Tests against New Zealand. He was then named as captain of the 1982 Kangaroos, the Frank Stanton-coached side which swept aside all before them in Great Britain and France to become known as "the Invincibles".

Krilich was forced to retire in August 1983 because of a chronic neck injury, taking on an administrative role with the Manly club. An attempted coaching career ended when his reserve grade side failed to win a match in 1991.^[2]

Matches played

Team	Matches	Years
Manly	334*	1970–1983
New South Wales	8	1977–1983
Australia (Tests)	13	1978–1983

• 215 1st grade ; 119 reserve grade

Sources

1. ^ Šutalo, Ilija (2004). Croatians in Australia: pioneers, settlers and their descendants. Wakefield Press. pp. 305. ISBN 1862546517, 9781862546516. http://books.google.com/books?id=vyv9ShOL7HwC&printsec=frontcover. 
2. ^ John MacDonald, Roy Masters and Daniel Williams (1991-09-15). "How your team went in season '91". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Digital): pp. 2. http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=smh&docID=news910915_0119_5471. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 

• Whiticker, Alan (2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney

External links

• Player Details at stateoforigin.com.au
• Max Krilich at Silvertails.net

Persondata
Name	Krilich, Max
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	25 October 1949
Place of birth	Sydney, New South Wales
Date of death
Place of death