Greg Pierce
Encyclopedia
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...
identity - a former player and coach and a current administrator. He played at Lock forward for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
Cronulla Sharks
The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are Australian professional Rugby league team based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales...
in the National Rugby League
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...
competition and for Australian national side. He captained his country on one occasion.
Junior football
Pierce grew up in Marrickville on the outskirts of inner Sydney and played his junior football for Sydenham in the Newtown JuniorsNewtown Jets
The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSWRL Premier League competition, having left the top grade after the 1983 NSWRFL season...
as well as for the Belmore Old Boys in the 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...
junior league. He was recommended to join Gymea in the fledgling Cronulla Sharks
Cronulla Sharks
The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are Australian professional Rugby league team based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales...
junior league after Sydenham were unable to field a team in his age group.
Pierce was at university studying civil engineering when he was graded by Cronulla in 1969.
Club career
Tommy BishopTommy Bishop
Tommy Bishop is an English former rugby league footballer and coach of the 1960s and 70s. He played for St. Helens in the English Rugby Football League Championship and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...
also arrived at Cronulla in 1969 and after the departure of Ken Kearney
Ken Kearney
Ken "Killer" Kearney was an Australian rugby footballer – a dual-code international player – and a rugby league coach. He represented the Wallabies in seven Tests and the Kangaroos in thirty-one Test matches and World Cup games. He captained Australia in nine rugby league Test matches in 1956 and...
as coach in 1970, Bishop took over as captain and coach. The first half of Pierce's top grade career was played under the tutelage and ball-playing wisdom of Bishop.
Pierce was in the Cronulla side who made it to the Grand Final
Grand 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 1973 to be beaten 10-7 by Manly in a game still regarded as one of the most brutal Grand Finals ever fought out.
Pierce became Cronulla captain in 1975, a role he would hold till his retirement in 1980.
In Cronulla's successful 1978 finals campaign Pierce was sent-off in the major semi-final win over Wests
Western Suburbs Magpies
The Western Suburbs Magpies are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly referred to, were one of the nine foundation clubs of the first New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...
and given a four match suspension. Along with Dane Sorenson who had been suspended in the final premiership round, Pierce missed the 11-all Grand Final draw against Manly and the midweek replay three days later. Cronulla missed their presence and as a result the club again failed to taste premiership success.
Pierce led the Sharks to victory in the final of the midweek Amco Cup
Amco Cup
The Amco Cup was a mid-week rugby league competition held in Australia between 1974 and 1989. The format was usually a straight knock-out, but various group formats were used between 1979 and 1982...
in 1979.
He retired at the end of the 1980 season to take on the full-time coaching responsibility of the club.
In total Pierce made 210 first grade appearances between 1969 and 1980 for the Sharks. This tally currently stands in sixth place on the Sharks all time list for most appearances.
Representative career
On the night of Cronulla's 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...
loss to Manly the 1973 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...
ists were announced and Pierce leapfrogged the usual City and NSW selection ladder to be named in the squad. He made his representative debut in the first Test against France in Perpignan
Perpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
in the process becoming Cronulla's first national representative player. He played one Test and seven minor matches on the tour.
Pierce played in the 1975 and 1977 World Series for a total of five 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...
appearances.
In 1978 Pierce captained both the City representative side and 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...
before being announced captain for the trans-Tasman series against 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...
. His captaincy was a surprise to the critics and to himself since Bob Fulton
Bob Fulton
Robert "Bob" Fulton AM is an Australian rugby league football identity. Fulton played, coached, selected for and has commentated on the game with great success at the highest levels and has been named amongst Australia's greatest rugby league players of the 20th century.As a player Fulton won...
was also in the side with over ten Test appearances under his belt to that stage and ten years club captaincy experience.
Pierce captained Australia to a 24-2 victory in the first Test of that series becoming the first Cronulla player to do so. Steve Rogers is the only other Shark to have done so since.
Pierce was replaced by Queenslander Lew Platz for the second Test. The Whiticker source suggests this was so that the captaincy could be easily handed to Fulton since the selectors were then thinking about the upcoming year end 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...
.
Pierce was back as vice-captain in the third Test of that 1978 series against New Zealand and was also announced as vice-captain for the 1978 Kangaroo Tour. He appeared in four matches before a knee injury cut short his tour and prevented any further Test appearances.
Post playing
Pierce followed Tommy BishopTommy Bishop
Tommy Bishop is an English former rugby league footballer and coach of the 1960s and 70s. He played for St. Helens in the English Rugby Football League Championship and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...
as coach of the Sharks in 1981. They made the semi-finals that year but finished eighth in 1982 and Pierce left the club.
He coached junior football on the Central Coast, New South Wales
Central Coast, New South Wales
The Central Coast is an urban region in the Australian state of New South Wales, located on the coast north of Sydney and south of Lake Macquarie....
for a time, including coaching a Country Under 17s side. He moved to Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...
for a period where he was the island's operations manager.
He returned to an active involvement with the Cronulla club in 1994 and was named one of the club's "Immortals " in 2003. From 2003 he waged a courageous and successful battle against cancer.
His grandfather, Arthur Folwell, was a 1933-34 Kangaroo Tourist who played two rugby league Tests for Australia. His father Richie Pierce was a successful referee and touch judge in the Newtown Juniors, and also for the New South Wales Rugby League
New South Wales Rugby League
The New South Wales Rugby League is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and is a member of the Australian Rugby League. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was known as the New South Wales Rugby Football League until 1984 when forward thinking marketing managers decided...
.
1st Grade matches played
| Team | Matches | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Cronulla Sharks | 210 | 1969-80 |
| New South Wales | 6 | 1976–1979 |
| Australia (Test & World Cup) | 8 | 1973-78 |
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