Jim Craig (rugby league)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
_1924.jpg)
 |
||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | James Hampton Craig | |
| Date of birth | 1895 | |
| Date of death | 1959 | |
| Senior clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (points) |
| 1915-1921 1922 1923-1928 1929-1930 |
Balmain Tigers University Ipswich Western Suburbs |
53 (108) 12 (23) 25 (155) |
| Representative teams | ||
| 1920 & 1929 1923-1928 1921-1928 |
New South Wales Queensland Australia |
3 (19) 23 (100) 7 (12) |
| Professional clubs coached | ||
| Western Suburbs North Sydney Canterbury |
||
|
* Professional club appearances and points |
||
James Hampton Craig (1895–1959) was an Australian rugby league player and coach. He was a versatile back for the Australian national team. He played in 7 Tests between 1921 and 1928 as captain on 3 occasions.
Contents |
[edit] Club career
Craig grew up in Balmain in Sydney and made his first grade debut as a winger in 1915 with the Balmain Tigers. He played five seasons with the club excluding 1918 when he was on military duty. Balmain won the premiership in all five of those years.
Following his Kangaroo Tour representative appearances in 1922 he played a season with the University club in Sydney. Then in 1923 he relocated to Queensland and took the captain-coach position with Ipswich for the next six seasons.
The last two seasons of his sixteen year career were with the Western Suburbs Magpies. He led the side to their maiden title over St George in season 1930 in the first ever Grand Final played to determine the premiership.
[edit] Accolades
Jim Craig was a player of unparalleled versatility. It is known that he represented in Tests at fullback, centre, halfback and hooker with some of his club & tour football played at winger, five-eighth and lock forward. Whiticker's reference reports that the great Dally Messenger regarded Craig as the greatest player Messenger ever saw. [1].
Craig was the NSWRL's top points scorer in seasons 1929 and 1930.
[edit] Representative career
He first represented for New South Wales against a touring English side in 1920. While a Queensland resident from 1923-28 he represented that state on 23 occasions and then in 1929 he twice again represented for New South Wales.
He was selected on the 1921-22 Kangaroo Tour of England and made his Test debut in the first Test at Leeds. He appeared in 23 minor tour matches notching a total of 58 points as a try scorer and goal kicker.
In the 1924 domestic Ashes series against England Craig was named as Australian captain in all three Tests. Again in 1928 he played in all three Tests of the domestic Ashes series in sides lead by his Queensland rival Tom Gorman.
[edit] Post playing
After football Craig coached Wests, Norths and Canterbury during the 1930s, helping Canterbury to their maiden premiership in 1938.
In February 2008, Craig was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908-2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. [2]
[edit] Matches played
| Team | Matches | Years | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balmain | 53 | 1915 - 1921 | 108 |
| University | 12 | 1922 | 23 |
| Ipswich | 1923 - 1928 | ||
| Western Suburbs | 25 | 1929 - 1930 | 155 |
| Queensland | 23 | 1923 - 1928 | 100 |
| New South Wales | 3 | 1920 & 1929 | 19 |
| Australia (Tests) | 7 | 1921 - 1928 | 12 |
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- Whiticker, Alan (2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney
- Andrews, Malcolm (2006) The ABC of Rugby League Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
