Joe Jorgenson

Infobox rugby league biography
playername = Joe Jorgenson
fullname = Cecil Keith Jorgenson
nickname = Joe


caption =
dateofbirth = 12 September. 1921
placeofbirth = Berry, New South Wales
countryofbirth =
dateofdeath = 7 May, 1993
countryofdeath =
height =
weight =
position = Rlp|CE
club1 = Port Kembla
year1start = 1939
year1end = 42
appearances1 =
tries1 =
goals1 =
fieldgoals1 =
points1 =
club2 = Wollongong
year2start = 1943
year2end =
appearances2 =
tries2 =
goals2 =
fieldgoals2 =
points2 =
club3 = Balmain Tigers
year3start = 1944
year3end = 1953
appearances3 = 98
tries3 =
goals3 =
fieldgoals3 =
points3 = 734
club4 = Junee
year4start = 1947
year4end =
appearances4 =
tries4 =
goals4 =
fieldgoals4 =
points4 =
club5 = Parramatta Eels
year5start = 1954
year5end =
appearances5 = 5
tries5 =
goals5 =
fieldgoals5 =
points5 = 22
teamA = New South Wales
yearAstart = 1941
yearAend = 1946
appearancesA = 11
triesA =
goalsA =
fieldgoalsA =
pointsA = 82
teamB = Australia
yearBstart = 1946
yearBend =
appearancesB = 3
triesB =
goalsB =
fieldgoalsB =
pointsB = 8
updated =
source =
new = yes

Cecil Keith "Joe" Jorgenson (1921 - 1993) was an Australian rugby league footballer. He was a three-quarter for the Australian national team. He played in three Tests in 1946, two as captain.

Club career

Born in Berry, New South Wales, he started playing rugby league after he left school at 16. In 1939 he played with the Port Kembla club in the Wollongong competition. He missed the 1940 season through illness but returned in 1941 in which he year he debuted in country and New South Wales representative sides.

In 1944 he joined the Balmain Tigers in Sydney and scored over 100 points assisting the side to a premiership win. They were runners up to Easts in 1945 and triumphant again in 1946 with Jorgenson scoring two tries in the premiership decider against St George.

In 1947 after having played the regular season in the country as captain coach of Junee, Jorgenson returned to Balmain lower grades for the finals and in the Grand Final against Canterbury his sole first grade appearance for the year, he scored all of the team's points in the 13-9 victory comeback after trailing 0-9.

Jorgenson in all had a nine year career with Balmain playing 98 games and scoring 734 points.

Goal kicking pioneer

At the time goalkickers tended to stand the ball up in a divot in the ground made with the player's boot heel. Whilst some kickers experimented with laying the ball down, Jorgenson introduced the idea of laying the ball on a mound of dirt and kicking toe first with a straight follow through.

He had enormous success with this new method and some statistics include:
* 25 goals in the four NSW v Queensland interstate games of 1945-46
* 8 goals from 9 attempts in the muddy interstate game at the Sydney Cricket Ground May 1945.

Representative career

In 1945 and 46 he was a regular in state representative sides and captained New South Wales in the fixtures of 1946 against Queensland and against the visiting British Lions.

Jorgenson was then selected for and made captain of the Australian Test side of 1946 for the first post-World War II Ashes series. He was captain for the 1st and 3rd tests of the series with Ron Bailey skipper in the 2nd. The selectors felt that the captaincy pressure affected Jorgenson's kicking style, a possibility supported by the fact that he landed only one goal in the first Test from six attempts.

He did not represent at state or national level again.

ources & Footnotes

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