Bob McCarthy
Encyclopedia
Bob McCarthy MBE is an Australian former rugby league
footballer and coach. He played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs
, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, New South Wales
and for the Australian
national side. He later coached in Brisbane, taking Souths Magpies to a premiership in 1981 and coaching the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants upon their entry to the Winfield Cup
. in Since 2001 he has been the Chairman of both the Australian and NSW state
selection panels.
and two tours of New Zealand. He played 211 first grade games for Souths (1963–1975 and 1978), scoring 100 tries. He played in three grand final victories (1967, 1970 and 1971) and in two losing grand finals (1965 and 1969).
in front of a record breaking crowd of 78,065 at the Sydney Cricket Ground
. Along with McCarthy the nucleus of this side was John O'Neill
, Eric Simms, Manuel Patrick Hammond, Mike Cleary and John Sattler
who went on to feature in Australian representative teams for the next six years and who would help create a golden period for South Sydney at the end of the 60s and in the early years of the next decade.
The advent of the four tackle rule in 1967 was tailor made for the athletic, barrel-chested McCarthy and his coach Clive Churchill
gave him license to stand wide in attack to make best use of his tank-like charges.
One of the most spectacular tries in Grand Final history came from such positional play when just before halftime in the 1967 decider against Canterbury
McCarthy intercepted a pass out wide from Canterbury hooker Cliff Brown and ran the length of the field to score and to take the Rabbitohs to a two point lead which they didn't give up by game's end.
He missed Souths 1968 Grand Final victory, played in the 1969 loss to the Balmain Tigers
and was a member of the 1970 and 1971 premiership sides. It was primarily McCarthy's retribution which saw Manly's John Bucknell leave the field before half-time in the 1970 Grand Final after Bucknell had earlier broken the jaw of Souths captain John Sattler
and the Souths forwards had regrouped to protect and avenge their skipper. In the 1971 Grand Final against St George McCarthy made a break late in the game and gave the inside pass to Ron Coote
which resulted in the final try to seal Souths 16–10 win.
In 1975 McCarthy became only the second forward in the history of the game after Frank Burge
to surpass the 100 career try tally.
McCarthy moved to Canterbury for the 1976 and 1977 seasons where he played at Prop forward and played 37 games for the club helping them to the semi-finals in both years. He returned to the Rabbitohs in 1978 to finish his career in a brief five game season ended by injury.
He had to wait until the 1969 tour of New Zealand
before he made a national senior squad but thereafter, for the next five years barring injury, he was one of the first players selected for Test and World Cup
squads.
He played in both Tests of the 1969 New Zealand tour. In the 1970 domestic Ashes
series against Great Britain he appeared in the third Test and later that year in the World Cup in England where he played in all four of Australia's games including the victorious final.
He played three Tests in 1971–72 against New Zealand and appeared in one match in the 1972 World Cup in which campaign he was competing for the second row spots with his club teammates Paul Sait
and Gary Stevens
.
McCarthy was named as vice-captain to Graeme Langlands
on the '73 Kangaroo Tour
and his sole honour as Australia's Test captain was in the vital second Test in Leeds which the Kangaroos needed to win to keep the series alive. McCarthy scored a try early in the second half to help win the game but on the frozen ground he dislocated his shoulder in the process and his tour was over. He scored three tries in his two Test and 4 minor tour match appearances but had played a pivotal role in Australia's successful Ashes campaign.
In 1974 Test series at home against Great Britain, McCarthy was selected in the deciding 3rd game in a veteran pack including his old Souths teammates Coote, Stevens, and John O'Neill and captained and coached by Langlands. The old war-horses won the match 22–18 to retain the Ashes and McCarthy was one of the players who chaired Langlands from the field and who along with eight others were unknowingly making their farewell Test appearance.
In 2004 he was named by Souths in their South Sydney Dream Team, consisting of 17 players and a coach representing the club from 1908
through to 2004
.
In February 2008, McCarthy was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest
Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL
and ARL
to
celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.
Since 2001 he has been the Chairman of both the Australian and NSW
State of Origin selection panels.
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
footballer and coach. He played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs
South Sydney Rabbitohs
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Redfern, a suburb of South-central Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League premiership and are one of nine existing teams from the state capital...
, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, New South Wales
New South Wales Rugby League team
The New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against arch-rivals, the...
and for the Australian
Australian national rugby league team
The Australian national rugby league team have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League, the Kangaroos' are ranked number one in the RLIF World Rankings...
national side. He later coached in Brisbane, taking Souths Magpies to a premiership in 1981 and coaching the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants upon their entry to the Winfield Cup
Winfield Cup
The Winfield Cup was an Australian rugby league trophy awarded to the winner of the New South Wales Rugby League premiership's Grand Final from 1982 to 1994, and to the winner of the Australian Rugby League Grand Final in 1995...
. in Since 2001 he has been the Chairman of both the Australian and NSW state
New South Wales Rugby League team
The New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against arch-rivals, the...
selection panels.
Career highlights
A fast and strong second-row forward McCarthy played ten Tests for Australia and five matches in two World Cups. He made the 1973 Kangaroo TourKangaroo Tour
Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France. The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours took place every four years and involved a three-Test Ashes series against Great Britain and a number of tour matches...
and two tours of New Zealand. He played 211 first grade games for Souths (1963–1975 and 1978), scoring 100 tries. He played in three grand final victories (1967, 1970 and 1971) and in two losing grand finals (1965 and 1969).
Club career
Born in inner city Surry Hills, New South Wales in Sydney, McCarthy was a South Sydney junior with the Moore Park Club and made his first grade debut in 1963. In 1965 he was in the team of young Rabbitohs who challenged St George in the Grand FinalGrand Final
Grand Final is a predominantly Australian sport term used to describe a match that decides a league champion.It originated in Victoria and South Australia and has become specifically significant Australian culture...
in front of a record breaking crowd of 78,065 at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
. Along with McCarthy the nucleus of this side was John O'Neill
John O'Neill (rugby league footballer)
John O'Neill was an Australian representative rugby league prop forward whose club career was with the South Sydney and Manly-Warringah during the 1960s and early 1970s...
, Eric Simms, Manuel Patrick Hammond, Mike Cleary and John Sattler
John Sattler
John William Sattler is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1960s and '70s. He was a rugged Prop forward who led his club, South Sydney to four premiership victories between 1967 and 1971 and who played four tests for Australia – three as the national captain...
who went on to feature in Australian representative teams for the next six years and who would help create a golden period for South Sydney at the end of the 60s and in the early years of the next decade.
The advent of the four tackle rule in 1967 was tailor made for the athletic, barrel-chested McCarthy and his coach Clive Churchill
Clive Churchill
Clive Bernard Churchill AM was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach of the mid-20th century. An Australian international and New South Wales and Queensland interstate representative fullback, he played the majority of his club football with and later coached the South Sydney Rabbitohs...
gave him license to stand wide in attack to make best use of his tank-like charges.
One of the most spectacular tries in Grand Final history came from such positional play when just before halftime in the 1967 decider against Canterbury
Canterbury Bulldogs
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership, as well as New South Wales Rugby League junior competitions...
McCarthy intercepted a pass out wide from Canterbury hooker Cliff Brown and ran the length of the field to score and to take the Rabbitohs to a two point lead which they didn't give up by game's end.
He missed Souths 1968 Grand Final victory, played in the 1969 loss to the Balmain Tigers
Balmain Tigers
The Balmain Tigers are a rugby league football 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...
and was a member of the 1970 and 1971 premiership sides. It was primarily McCarthy's retribution which saw Manly's John Bucknell leave the field before half-time in the 1970 Grand Final after Bucknell had earlier broken the jaw of Souths captain John Sattler
John Sattler
John William Sattler is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1960s and '70s. He was a rugged Prop forward who led his club, South Sydney to four premiership victories between 1967 and 1971 and who played four tests for Australia – three as the national captain...
and the Souths forwards had regrouped to protect and avenge their skipper. In the 1971 Grand Final against St George McCarthy made a break late in the game and gave the inside pass to Ron Coote
Ron Coote
Ron Coote AM is an Australian former representative rugby league player whose club career was played with the South Sydney and Eastern Suburbs, both of whom he won premierships with. He is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century...
which resulted in the final try to seal Souths 16–10 win.
In 1975 McCarthy became only the second forward in the history of the game after Frank Burge
Frank Burge
Frank 'Chunky' Burge was one of the greatest forwards in the history of rugby league in Australia. Later he was one of the game's finest coaches....
to surpass the 100 career try tally.
McCarthy moved to Canterbury for the 1976 and 1977 seasons where he played at Prop forward and played 37 games for the club helping them to the semi-finals in both years. He returned to the Rabbitohs in 1978 to finish his career in a brief five game season ended by injury.
Representative career
Bobby McCarthy first tasted representative football in 1964 scoring two tries for a New South Wales Colts side against a touring French team.He had to wait until the 1969 tour of New Zealand
New Zealand national rugby league team
The New Zealand national rugby league team has represented New Zealand in rugby league football since intercontinental competition began for the sport in 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of that name...
before he made a national senior squad but thereafter, for the next five years barring injury, he was one of the first players selected for Test and World Cup
Rugby League World Cup
The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league competition contested by members of the Rugby League International Federation . It has been held nearly once every 4 years on average since its inaugural tournament in France in 1954...
squads.
He played in both Tests of the 1969 New Zealand tour. In the 1970 domestic Ashes
Rugby League Ashes
The Ashes is the name given to the trophy awarded to the winner of a best-of-three series of rugby league football test series between Great Britain and Australia...
series against Great Britain he appeared in the third Test and later that year in the World Cup in England where he played in all four of Australia's games including the victorious final.
He played three Tests in 1971–72 against New Zealand and appeared in one match in the 1972 World Cup in which campaign he was competing for the second row spots with his club teammates Paul Sait
Paul Sait
Paul Sait was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. A versatile Centre or running forward of the 1970s for the South Sydney Rabbitohs...
and Gary Stevens
Gary Stevens
Gary Michael Stevens is a retired English footballer who is best remembered playing in defence for a successful Everton side of the 1980s, as well as for the England national football team....
.
McCarthy was named as vice-captain to Graeme Langlands
Graeme Langlands
Graeme 'Changa' Langlands, MBE, is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach of the 1960s and 70s. He retired as the most-capped player for the Australian national team with 45 from 1963 to 1975, and captained his country in 15 Test matches and World Cup games. Langlands was the...
on the '73 Kangaroo Tour
Kangaroo Tour
Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France. The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours took place every four years and involved a three-Test Ashes series against Great Britain and a number of tour matches...
and his sole honour as Australia's Test captain was in the vital second Test in Leeds which the Kangaroos needed to win to keep the series alive. McCarthy scored a try early in the second half to help win the game but on the frozen ground he dislocated his shoulder in the process and his tour was over. He scored three tries in his two Test and 4 minor tour match appearances but had played a pivotal role in Australia's successful Ashes campaign.
In 1974 Test series at home against Great Britain, McCarthy was selected in the deciding 3rd game in a veteran pack including his old Souths teammates Coote, Stevens, and John O'Neill and captained and coached by Langlands. The old war-horses won the match 22–18 to retain the Ashes and McCarthy was one of the players who chaired Langlands from the field and who along with eight others were unknowingly making their farewell Test appearance.
Accolades
He was honoured with his MBE in 1977 for services to rugby league, only the second player after Langlands to be so honoured while still playing.In 2004 he was named by Souths in their South Sydney Dream Team, consisting of 17 players and a coach representing the club from 1908
New South Wales Rugby League season 1908
The 1908 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the inaugural season of Australia's first rugby league football club competition, which was based in Sydney, New South Wales...
through to 2004
National Rugby League season 2004
The year 2004 NRL season was the 97th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the seventh run by the National Rugby League. Fifteen clubs competed for the Telstra Premiership...
.
In February 2008, McCarthy was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest
Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
and ARL
Australian Rugby League
The Australian Rugby League is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in Australia. It is made up of state bodies, including the New South Wales Rugby League and the Queensland Rugby League...
to
celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.
Post-playing
McCarthy commenced coaching with Brisbane Souths in 1980 taking them to the Brisbane Rugby League Grand Final that year and to premiership victory in 1981. He was the inaugural coach of the Gold Coast Seagulls in 1988 and for that club's first three seasons. In 1994 he was briefly the coach of the South Sydney Rabbitohs before he stood aside for health reasons.Since 2001 he has been the Chairman of both the Australian and NSW
New South Wales Rugby League team
The New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against arch-rivals, the...
State of Origin selection panels.
1st Grade matches played
| Team | Matches | Years |
|---|---|---|
| South Sydney | 217 | 1963–75 & 1978 |
| Canterbury | 40 | 1976–77 |
| New South Wales | 11 | 1969–1974 |
| Australia (Test & World Cup) | 15 | 1969–74 |
Sources
- Whiticker, AlanAlan WhitickerAlan J. Whiticker is an Australian non-fiction author with currently over 30 published books.Whiticker writes primarily on matters pertaining to the history of the sport of rugby league in Australia, but has also published works on subjects as diverse as the Wanda Beach Murders and an adaptation...
(2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney - Andrews, Malcolm (2006) The ABC of Rugby League Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney