Dale Shearer

Dale Shearer
Personal information
Full name Dale Anthony Shearer
Nickname Rowdy[1]
Born (1965-07-25) 25 July 1965
St George, Queensland, Australia
Playing information
Height 180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 85 kg (13 st 5 lb)
Position Fullback, Wing, Centre, Five-eighth
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1985–89 Manly-Warringah 86 45 5 1 191
1987–88 Widnes 14 6 11 0 46
1990–91 Brisbane Broncos 27 15 48 0 156
1992–94 Gold Coast Seagulls 33 3 17 2 48
1995–96 South Queensland 10 5 1 0 21
1997 Sydney Roosters 11 2 0 0 8
1998 North Queensland 13 2 2 0 12
Total 194 78 84 3 482
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1985–96 Queensland 26 12 6 0 56
1986–93 Australia 20 12 9 0 66

Dale Shearer (born 25 July 1965 in St George, Queensland) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s. A Queensland State of Origin and Australian international representative of Aboriginal heritage, he played club football in Queensland, New South Wales and England. His playing career included a NSWRL Premiership win with Manly-Warringah in 1987 and a Rugby League World Cup final win in 1988. Ten years after his retirement, Shearer was still the all-time top try-scorer in State of Origin and he was named on the wing of the Indigenous Australian team of the century.

Playing career

Early career

At the age of 18, Dale Shearer caught the attention of many people during his time at the Queensland club, Sarina Crocodiles in the Winfield State League with some impressive performances. Shearer was a member of Mackay's second successful Foley Shield team in 1984, as well as representing Queensland in the match against New Zealand.[2]

Manly

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles coach and Rugby League Immortal Bob Fulton was quick to sign the 19-year-old before anyone else prior to the 1985 NSWRL season. Shearer made his debut for Manly in Round 1 of the season against Penrith before going on to make his State of Origin debut for Qld in the same year. playing mostly on the wing or in the centres, Shearer played 22 games in his debut season for Manly, crossing for 8 tries. It would prove to be the most number of club games he would play in a season in his 14-year career. He scored his first try for Manly at their home ground Brookvale Oval in their 24-4 win over the reigning premiers Canterbury-Bankstown in Round 3.

He made his test debut on the wing for Australia in 1986 against New Zealand at Carlaw Park in Auckland, scoring a try on debut, though an injury suffered in the game saw him unavailable for the final two tests against NZ at the Sydney Cricket Ground and Lang Park in Brisbane. His good form for Manly, Qld and Australia saw him selected on the 1986 Kangaroo Tour where he played 13 games on tour, including two tests against both Great Britain and two against France, scoring 12 tries. He scored a record four tries in the 2nd test against France in the final match of the tour in a then record 52–0 win.[3]

Although played at either fullback or in the centres for Manly by Fulton, Shearer was picked on the wing for both Qld and Australia in 1987, helping the Maroon's to regain the State of Origin shield from New South Wales, and playing in Australia's shock 6–13 loss to New Zealand at Lang Park. He was Manly's starting fullback in their 16-8 Winfield Cup Grand Final win over the Canberra Raiders in the last ever Grand Final played at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1987. Manly had finished the season as minor premiers with a 20-5-1 record (which included a 12-game winning streak), with Shearer playing 20 games (14 at fullback, 6 in the centres) and scoring a career high 13 tries to be the clubs leading try scorer for the season. Following the grand final victory he travelled with Manly to England for the 1987 World Club Challenge against their champions, Wigan at Central Park.

Widnes

In the following off season he also played 14 games in the championship-winning Widnes team in England for the 1987–88 RFL championship.

Post-playing

In 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his "outstanding achievement in rugby league". In August, 2008, Shearer was named at wing in the Indigenous Team of the Century, joining other legends such as Eric Simms, Steve Renouf, Lionel Morgan, Laurie Daley, Greg Inglis, Jonathan Thurston, Arthur Beetson, Cliff Lyons and John Ferguson in the team.[4]

Shearer was critically injured in a car crash at Peregian Springs on 21 February 2009.[5] The crash came one year after the death from cancer of his wife Delyse.[6]

In 2010 Shearer faced bankruptcy when ordered to repay approximately $1.5m to former State of Origin teammate Adrian Lam for an outstanding loan which dated back to 2005.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Rowdy's one of the best" dailymercury.com.au
  2. ↑ Dale Shearer at the SportingPulse Homepage for Northern Division
  3. ↑ "Unbeaten Kangaroos the 'Best Ever'". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Digital). 15 December 1986. p. 39. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
  4. ↑ "Modern stars join greats in Indigenous Team of Century". ABC News. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 10 August 2008.
  5. ↑ Ironside, Robyn (22 February 2009). "Former Queensland State of Origin star Dale Shearer in car crash". news.com.au. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  6. ↑ "Shearer mourns wife". leaguehq.com.au. 14 February 2008. Archived from the original on 15 February 2008. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  7. ↑ Elsworthy, Sophie (29 November 2010). "Former NRL star Dale Shearer ordered to pay former Queensland teammate Adrian Lam $1.5 million over unpaid loan". The Daily Telegraph (Australia: Herald and Weekly Times). Retrieved 29 November 2010.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, April 27, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.