Garry Jack (born 14 March 1961) is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He was a representative in the Australian national team and star player with the Balmain Tigers. Jack was a fullback for the Tigers during the late 1980s, and early 1990s, under the captaincy of Wayne Pearce and the coaching of Warren Ryan. Jack also represented the New South WalesState of Origin team on 17 occasions.
Jack commenced his first grade career with Western Suburbs Magpies in 1981. The following year he moved to Balmain Tigers where he played for the rest of his Australian first grade career.
His association with English rugby league began at the end of the 1986 Kangaroo tour when he stayed on to play for Salford before returning to the Tigers. He was member of the consecutive Balmain teams which fell at the final hurdle to firstly Canterbury-Bankstown in the 1988 Grand Final and then to Canberra in 1989.
1991 saw the departure of Warren Ryan as Balmain coach and the arrival of former Wallaby coach, Alan Jones. The years playing under Jones at Balmain were unhappy ones for Jack and eventually after he had left the club in 1992, he launched an attack on Jones' ability as a coach following his 'surprise' reappointment for a third year.[4]
When his Australian club career ended having surpassed Keith Barnes' club record for first grade matches,[citation needed] he returned to England to play his final season with the Sheffield Eagles.
Representative career
In the 1984 State of Origin series Jack made his New South Wales début and played in all three games of that year's series. He was thereafter the Blues' first choice fullback for the next six years, aside from the 1987 fourth game exhibition match in Los Angeles when he made himself unavailable, and game I of 1988 when Cronulla's Jonathon Docking was preferred.
In 1984, he also made his international début in the three match Ashes series against Great Britain. He played twenty successive Tests (nine versus Britain, seven against New Zealand and two each against France and Papua New Guinea) as well as the 1988 World Cup Final against New Zealand and the Bicentenary International against a Rest of the World team.
On the 1986 Kangaroo tour, Jack played in all six Tests and seven minor Tour matches. He became the first Australian fullback to score three tries in a Test against France in the second Test. [citation needed]
On 20 July 1988, Jack played for Australia in their record 62-point win over Papua New Guinea, scoring a try.[5] After Jack broke an arm in a 1989 pre-season match [citation needed] the door opened for his State of Origin rival Queenslander Gary Belcher who from that point was the favoured Australian representative for the fullback position.
Post playing
Jack was appointed coach of English club Salford in July 1993, but departed following their relegation from the top flight at the end of the 1994–95 Rugby Football League season.
In July 2016, it was reported Kieren Jack had a falling out with his parents. It was reported that Kieren did not invite his parents to his 200th AFL game.[9] Former Swan and radio personality Ryan Fitzgerald criticised Garry Jack and his wife for airing the feud publicly on Twitter. [10]
On 22 January 2021, Jack suffered a cardiac arrest. A friend was able to apply CPR until an ambulance arrived.[11][12]
The Balmain Tigers are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in the history of the premiership, with eleven titles. In 1999 they formed a joint venture club with the Western Suburbs Magpies club to form the Wests Tigers for competition in the National Rugby League (NRL). They no longer field any senior teams in the lower divisions. At the time of the joint venture only South Sydney Rabbitohs and the St George Dragons had won more titles than the Tigers.
Mark Bradley Geyer is an Australian radio host and former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative second-rower, he is a rugby league media identity. Geyer's club career was played primarily with Penrith, with whom he won a premiership in 1991, as well as the Balmain Tigers and the Western Reds. He is the brother of fellow former professional rugby league footballer Matt Geyer and the father of current Penrith Panthers player Mavrik Geyer.
Stephen David Roach, nicknamed Blocker or Blocker Roach, is an Australian former professional rugby league who played as a prop forward in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Ben Elias is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played primarily as a hooker for Balmain in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership. He was one of the leading hookers from the mid-1980s until his retirement at the end of the 1994 season. Along with Wayne Pearce, Paul Sironen and Steve Roach, Elias and his Balmain teammates formed one of the best forward packs in the modern era during the late 1980s.
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William Keith Barnes AM, also known by the nickname of "Golden Boots", was a Welsh-born Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s, and coached in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was a fullback for the Australian national team and for the Balmain Tigers. He played in 14 tests between 1959 and 1966, as national captain on 12 occasions. He was known as "Golden Boots" due to his exceptional goal-kicking ability. After his playing days he became a referee and later co-commentated on the Amco Cup on Network Ten with Ray Warren in the 1970s. He is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.
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Craig Hancock is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. A wing, he played club football for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and Balmain Tigers. He played one game for New South Wales in the State of Origin.
Fred de Belin was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and an RAAF Flying Officer who saw active service over Germany during WWII. An Australian international and New South Wales interstate representative forward, he played club football in Sydney for Balmain, winning the 1946 NSWRFL Premiership with them and later being appointed their captain.
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