On this day in rugby league history, Tonga becomes a top-four nation, Russell Crowe puts his financial clout behind the Bunnies and the Moose gets life.
Remembering those who departed in 2020 A Set the default text size A Set large text size
Replay A Set the default text size A Set large text size
2020 was both a year to remember and a year we all want to forget.
Before it’s too far gone, let’s take some time to remember some of the rugby league players who left us for good in 2020.
1. Paul Fisher
A Souths-Sunnybank junior and a very accomplished and highly regarded player in the Brisbane competition, Paul Fisher was equally at home at either halfback, hooker or fullback. He was selected in the Queensland residents team in 1992 under coach Paul Vautin.
Brian James
1943-January 10, 2020
A high-quality winger for South Sydney who represented Australia at the 1968 World Cup before retiring at the age of 26.
The son of former Cootamundra Maher Cup prop Jack Swifty James, he came to rugby league via rugby union after attending Newington College and playing a season of first grade with the St George rugby club.
He switched to rugby league with St George in 1961 where he played centre and wing but top-grade opportunities were scarce in the Dragons’ star-studded backline, so he made the decision to transfer to South Sydney in 1966.
He was quickly vindicated, playing more first-grade games in his first season with Souths (18) then he did in four years at St George (16). A winger of above average pace (he pursued professional sprinting in the off-season), James earned his first representative jersey with City Seconds in 1967 before making City Firsts the following year.
Brett Kitching AFTER the rain last week, the Ipswich track was not even in the heavy range this morning. There was however a further 10 millimetres of rain midmorning prior to the racing commencement and this rain pushed the track rating back to the heavy range. There was an upgrade after race 4 back to a soft 7 giving further clear evidence of the newly free-draining Ipswich surface of 2020. Despite being rated in the heavy range, the times of the early races were more like good to soft ratings as the first was run in 1.10.4 for the 1200 metre journey - less than half a second outside of the class record. These times continued and hence the track reverted back to the soft range.