Con Sullivan was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 international rugby league

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 of the early twentieth century who played for various Australasian representative sides.

Playing career

Sullivan started his career in Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, where he was selected to tour Australia, winning an international cap for New Zealand against Australia in 1909. In 1910 he started playing for North Sydney

North Sydney Bears

The North Sydney Bears are an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. They currently compete in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 92 years of top-grade competition. The Bears are based on...

 in the NSWRFL Premiership. In his first year at the club he was selected to play for 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...

, Australia (including the first 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...

 test on Australian soil) and a combined "Australasia

Australasia rugby league team

-1911-12:Following individual tours by New Zealand and Australia in 1907-08 and 1908-09 respectively, the Northern Rugby Football Union invited an 'Australasian' team to tour Great Britain during the 1911-12 season...

" team against the first Great Britain Lions tourists

1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand

The 1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand was the first international tour of the Great Britain national rugby league team, "The Lions". They played the second ever Ashes series against Australia before travelling to Auckland to take on New Zealand...

. The following year he was selected to go on the 1911-12 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain

1911-12 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain

The 1911-12 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain was the second ever Kangaroo tour and was actually a tour by an "Australasia" team, which included four New Zealand players, rather than the Australian team alone...

, and played in 16 matches, for Australasia, including the third Test. Sullivan toured New Zealand with the New South Wales side in 1912-13 and played his last Test series against England in 1914 in teams captained by his clubmate and brother-in-law Sid Deane

Sid Deane

Sid Deane was a foundation Australian rugby league player. He was a Centre for the Australia national team. He played in 5 Tests between 1908 and 1914. In 1914 he became the ninth Australian national captain and the first from the North Sydney Club....

.

Later years

Sullivan later married Deane's sister with their son Bob continuing the family link with the club. Bob Sullivan made a Test appearance for Australia in 1954. His younger brother John also played for Norths in the 1950s as a versatile back.

Con Sullivan died in October 1964.

External links

• Con Sullivan at rugbyleagueproject.org