Ross Birrell

Last updated

Ross Birrell
Personal information
Full nameRoss Lindsay Birrell
Born(1948-12-17)17 December 1948
Died16 March 2015(2015-03-16) (aged 66)
Playing information
Position Centre, Fullback, Wing
Club
YearsTeamPldTGFGP
1972–75 South Sydney 5610381107
1973Hull KR 18214034
Total7412521141
Source: [1]

Ross Lindsay Birrell (17 December 1948 - 16 March 2015) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Contents

Biography

Born in 1948, Birrell started out as rugby union player and toured overseas with the Emerging Wallabies team, before making the switch to rugby league. [2]

Birrell was a member of South Sydney's first-grade team from 1972 to 1975, playing as a centre, fullback and winger. Occasionally he served as the team's goalkicker and amassed 17-points in a win over Balmain in 1972. [3] During his time at South Sydney he also had a stint in England with Hull Kingston Rovers. [4]

In 1976 he left South Sydney to coach the Wagga Magpies. [5]

Birrell died from cancer in 2015, at the age of 66. A real estate agent, he was the founder of Thornton Realty in Maitland, which he had established in 1996. [6]

Related Research Articles

Trevor Martin Chappell is a former Australian cricketer, a member of the South Australian Chappell family which excelled at cricket. He played 3 tests and 20 One Day Internationals for Australia. He won the Sheffield Shield with New South Wales twice, and scored a century for Australia against India in the 1983 World Cup. His career was overshadowed, however, by an incident in 1981 in which he bowled an underarm delivery to New Zealand cricketer Brian McKechnie to prevent the batsman from hitting a six.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Griffith, New South Wales</span> City in New South Wales, Australia

Griffith is a major regional city in the north-western Riverina region of New South Wales, known commonly as the food bowl of Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra, and extensions to the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. Griffith was named after Arthur Hill Griffith, the then New South Wales Secretary for Public Works. Griffith was proclaimed a city in 1987, and at the 2021 census had a population of 20,569.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Group 9 Rugby League</span>

Group 9 is a rugby league competition based in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia, and surrounding areas. The competition is played in six grades, with these being Under 16s, Under 18s, Women's Tackle, Women's League-Tag, Reserve-Grade and First-Grade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cootamundra</span> Town in New South Wales, Australia

Cootamundra, nicknamed Coota, is a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia and within the Riverina. It is within the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council. At the 2016 Census, Cootamundra had a population of 6,782. It is located on the Olympic Highway at the point where it crosses the Muttama Creek, between Junee and Cowra. Its railway station is on the Main Southern line, part of the Melbourne-to-Sydney line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NSW Cup</span> Australian rugby league competition

The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve grade competition, and is now the premier open age competition in the state. The New South Wales Cup, along with the Queensland Cup, acts as a feeder competition to the National Rugby League premiership. The competition is the oldest continuous rugby league competition in the Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory</span>

Australian rules football has been played continuously in the Australian Capital Territory since 1911 and was the most popular football code in the nation's capital Canberra between 1978 and 1982. The current governing body is AFL Canberra founded 1922, while the development body is AFL NSW/ACT established in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian rules football in New South Wales</span>

In New South Wales, Australian rules football dates back to the 1860s colonial era, with organised competitions being continuous since the 1880s. Today, it is popular in several regions of the state, including areas near the Victorian and South Australian borders—in the Riverina, Broken Hill, and South Coast. These areas form part of an Australian cultural divide described as the Barassi Line. To the west of the line it is commonly known as "football" or "Australian Football" and to east of the line, it is known by the acronym "AFL" used by the AFL Commission. There are more than 15 regional leagues though some are run from other states, the highest profile are AFL Sydney and the Riverina Football Netball League. AFL NSW/ACT is the main development body. With 71,481 registered players, it has the third most of any jurisdiction.

Johnny Cecil King is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He was a winger with the St. George Dragons for the last seven years of their eleven consecutive premiership-winning run from 1956 to 1966. He was a representative in the Australian national team from 1966 to 1970, earning 15 Test caps. He has been named among the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union</span>

{{maplink|frame=yes|text=ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union jurisdiction|raw={

 "type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [  { "type": "Feature",  "properties": {"fill": "#ff0000","fill-opacity": 0.3,"stroke-width": 0},  "geometry": {"type": "Polygon",  "coordinates": [[

The Clayton Cup is a trophy that was awarded by the Country Rugby League to the NSW country rugby league team with the best overall record for that season. To be eligible, the team must win the highest level of competition in its region. Usually the winner of the Clayton Cup goes through the season undefeated. In late 2019, the Country Rugby League was absorbed by the New South Wales Rugby League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. G. Ball Cup</span> Australian junior rugby competition

The S. G. Ball Cup is a junior rugby league football competition played predominantly in New South Wales, between teams made up of male players aged under 19. Teams from Canberra and Melbourne, and Auckland also participate. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales a team from Perth also participated. The competition is administered by the New South Wales Rugby League. The competition includes both junior representative teams of NRL and NSW Cup clubs that do not field a team in the NRL competition.

Greg Hawick was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. A fine utility back for the champion South Sydney Rabbitohs teams in the 1950s and a representative player in the Australian national side, he was named at five-eighth in an Australian 1950s rugby league team of the decade.

Steve Martin is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s, and coached in the 1990s. He was a representative player at both state and international levels and played in the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) competition for Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, and the Balmain Tigers. Martin primarily played in the halfback position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Weissel</span> Australian rugby league footballer

Eric Weissel (;) (1903–1972) was an Australian rugby league footballer, a state and national representative goal-kicking five-eighth. He played his club career in country New South Wales and is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

The Country New South Wales rugby league team is a representative rugby league football team. Between 1987 and 2017 there were two tiers: the Origin team that consisted of professional players who originated from clubs of the Country Rugby League and a representative team of amateur and semi-professional players. The Country Origin team played annually in the City vs Country Origin competition against the City New South Wales rugby league team, which was made up of players originating from Sydney. This match was discontinued in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Entrance Tigers</span> Australian rugby league club, based at The Entrance, NSW

The Entrance Tigers are a rugby league club based at The Entrance, New South Wales, Australia.They are competing in the 2024 Denton Engineering Cup & Central Coast Division Rugby League. They have previously competed in the Jim Beam Cup (2003-2007) and Ron Massey Cup (2010-2014). Their jersey is traditionally an all gold jersey with two black 'V's. In recent years they have included white in their jersey.

This page list all the four squads which took part to the 1957 Rugby League World Cup.

Ian Johnston (1927−2013) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s, and coached in the 1960s. He played for Parramatta Eels and Western Suburbs Magpies as a centre. Johnston was the first ever Parramatta player to represent Australia.

Darren Brown is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Western Suburbs Magpies and the Penrith Panthers. Brown also played for Trafford Borough in England and for the Salford City Reds in the Super League. He spent most of his career as a lock or second rower, but could also play in the backline.

The 1954 Great Britain Lions tour was a tour by the Great Britain national rugby league team of Australia and New Zealand which took place between May and August 1954. Captained by Dickie Williams, the tour involved a schedule of 32 games: 22 in Australia and 10 in New Zealand, with two three-match Test Series against both nations.
The tour began inauspiciously, with Great Britain losing four of their first seven matches, including the First Test against Australia in Sydney. Moving into the Queensland leg, the Lions' results improved, and they won all nine of their matches in the state. This included victory in the Second Test in Brisbane.
A common feature of many of the tour matches was rough play, punches being throw in and out of tackles. The July 10 match against New South Wales was abandoned by the referee seventeen minutes into the second half due to persistent brawling by the players.
One week after the abandoned game, Australia won the Third Test to claim the Ashes by a 2–1 margin.
Moving to New Zealand, Great Britain lost the Second Test, but recovered to win the Third Test and the series, by a 2–1 margin.
The tour concluded with three matches in five days back in Australia at Sydney, Canberra and Maitland.
Despite being a British team – five of the squad were Welsh, two from Scotland and hooker Tom McKinney from Northern Ireland – the team played, and were often referred to by both the press at home and away, as England.

References

  1. Collis, Ian (2018). The A to Z of Rugby League Players. New Holland Publishers. ISBN   9781921024986.
  2. "Ross L. Birrell". ESPNscrum.
  3. "South Sydney into finals". The Canberra Times . 14 August 1972. p. 15. Retrieved 2 June 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  4. "Birrell joins Rovers RL club". Sydney Morning Herald . 30 August 1973.
  5. "Brentnall in Wagga line-up at Seiffert". The Canberra Times . 12 February 1976. p. 22. Retrieved 2 June 2019 via National Library of Australia.
  6. Norris, Sam (30 March 2015). "Obituary: Real estate industry bids farewell to Rossco". The Maitland Mercury .