|
Graham Eadie (born November 25, 1953, Woy Woy, New South Wales), affectionately known as "Wombat" to his fans, was one of the greatest rugby league players during the 1970s and probably the best fullback to emerge under the six-tackle rule. His 1,917 points in first grade and 2,070 points in all grades were both records at the time of his retirement, and he was a key factor behind Manly-Warringah's dominance of the competition during the 1970s. November 25 is the 329th (in leap years the 330th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...
Woy Woy is a coastal town 85 km north of Sydney, on the Central Coast of New South Wales and an important centre of population within the municipal boundaries of Gosford City Council. ...
Rugby league (short for Rugby league football) is a full-contact team sport played by two teams of thirteen on a rectangular grass field. ...
A typical rugby league team consists of thirteen players on the field plus four substitutes on the bench. ...
The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles are a team in the National Rugby League (NRL), the premier rugby league football competition in Australia. ...
Eadie was graded by Manly in 1971 and showed immediate promise in the lower grades that season. The following year with the retirement of Bob Batty, he established himself as the team's first grade fullback and his powerful running style was already a serious danger to all Manly's opponents. Though not excessively tall at just under 180cm, Eadie's solid build of around 97kg (15 stone) gave him abundant pace and so much strength that once he was on the move, few opposing defenders were ever able to stop him when he ran into the backline. At the same time, Eadie was an accurate line kicker and extremely safe under the high ball in an era when the "bomb" was coming into prominence. A centimetre (American spelling centimeter, symbol cm) is a unit of length that is equal to one hundredth of a metre, the current SI base unit of length. ...
The U.S. National Prototype Kilogram, which currently serves as the primary standard for measuring mass in the U.S. It was assigned to the United States in 1889 and is periodically recertified and traceable to the primary international standard, The Kilogram, held at the Bureau International des Poids et...
The stone is a unit of mass in the Imperial system of weights and measures used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and most Commonwealth countries. ...
Although he had been used as a goalkicker in some games in 1972, it was only in 1973 that Eadie became Manly's major point scorer. That year, he kicked 14 goals in a match against Penrith, and for the following three years he was the leading point scorer in the competition, reaching a high of 242 points (14 tries and 100 goals) in 1975. He toured with the Kangaroos in 1973 and, after an injury to the veteran Graeme Langlands, took over as Test fullback for the last two Tests. Though Eadie was to remain Australia's regular fullback until he retired from representative rugby league in 1980 after the first ever State of Origin match, he was never a prolific pointscorer at Test level because Mick Cronin was always given the goalkicking duties. Australia team jersey The Australian national rugby league side represents Australia at rugby league. ...
Graeme Changa Langlands was an Australian rugby league player. ...
The Rugby League State of Origin is an annual series of three interstate rugby league matches between the Maroons, representing the state of Queensland and the Blues, representing the state of the New South Wales. ...
Cronin had an amazing career. ...
In 1974 Eadie won the prestigious Rothmans Medal as Sydney rugby league's best-and-fairest player, and at the end of the controversial 1978 finals series he produced one of the finest performances ever by a fullback in the grand final replay, scoring a try, nearly scoring another, and charging consistently through an extremely strong Cronulla defence. Two years earlier, his accurate goalkicking under pressure won Manly a grand final where they scored only one try to Parramatta's two. The Dally M Medal is the premier individual award in the National Rugby League, which is given to the best and fairest player in the competition for that year. ...
The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Cronulla in the Sutherland Shire, south of Sydney. ...
The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. ...
Despite Manly declining in surprising fashion to miss the semi-finals for the first time in twelve years in 1979, Eadie's form remained excellent, and even a major injury that forced him to miss half of the 1981 season failed to dim his brilliance: at the end of 1982 commentators were noticing how he was "more involved in the game than at any stage since 1973." Thus his retirement from Sydney rugby league after Manly's loss in the 1983 grand final was regretted by most lovers of the game - a fact born out by his remarkable comeback for English club Halifax FC three years later, when he scored sixteen tries (a record for a fullback) and helped Halifax to the 1986-1987 Club Championship and 1987 Challenge Cup. The first ever Challenge Cup Final, 1897: Batley(l) vs St Helens(r) The Challenge Cup is a knockout competition for rugby league clubs in Europe. ...
After this Eadie occasionally wrote articles for such magazines as Rugby League Week and attempted to carve a career as a coach. His first attempt with Halifax was short-lived, and in 1991 he returned to Australia as coach of the Gold Coast reserve grade side. Given that he took them to fourth position, it seems surprising that Eadie was never given an offer by any Winfield Cup club to coach first grade. Steve Roach, Tina Turner, and Martin Bella, Rugby League Week front cover 1990, No. ...
Gold Coast were a rugby league team which played in the NSWRL competition from 1988-1994, the ARL from 1995-1997, and the National Rugby League (NRL) in 1998. ...
The Winfield Cup was an Australian rugby league trophy awarded to the winner of the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) Grand Final from 1982 to 1994, and to the winner of the Australian Rugby League (ARL) Grand Final in 1995. ...
His son, Brook Eadie, won a President's Cup premiership with the South Queensland Crushers in 1996, but plans for a top grade career were thwarted by the demise of that club due to the Super League wars. Eadie still lives on the Gold Coast today, where he works as a sales representative for a local brewery. The South Queensland Crushers were a rugby league team who played in the NSWRL/ARL competition from 1995–1997. ...
Super League was a rugby league competition that was held in Australia in 1997. ...
Gold Coast is a city and local government area in the southeast corner of Queensland, Australia. ...
Career
Manly 1971-1983: 233 games, 1,917 points (71 tries, 847 goals, 3 field goals)
Australia 1973-1979: 12 Tests, 16 points (2 tries, 5 goals)
References - Whiticker, Alan and Hudson, Glen; The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players (3rd edition); published 1998 by Gary Allen Pty. Ltd.; 9 Cooper Street, Smithfield, New South Wales, 2164.
External Links |
Feeds |
Contact