Eddie Burns was an Australian 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 and coach of the mid 20th century. A New South Wales representative prop-forward, he played for the Canterbury-Bankstown club of the NSWRFL Premiership, later becoming their coach.

While still a teenager, Burns played in the Canterbury-Bankstown club's first ever season and was sent off in his first match.

He retired in 1950 as the Canterbury club's top try-scorer, with 65, a record not bettered until Chris Anderson in 1978.

Burns' career as coach of Canterbury-Bankstown was subject to a two-year interruption when 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...

was selected as the club's coach.