Barry 'Bunny' Reilly (24 March 1948 – 5 May 2021) was an Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s.

Career

He played in the

NSWRFL Premiership The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sout ...

for the

Eastern Suburbs Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

from 1966 to 1971 and 1973–79, and the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Sutherland Shire of Southern Sydney, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. Cronulla compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugb ...

in 1972. Reilly was also known as 'The Axe' because of his defensive technique, which it was said allowed him to chop down opposition attackers like an axe. Reilly was a member of the Eastern Suburbs premiership-winning sides in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

and

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. During the

1976 NSWRFL season The 1976 New South Wales Rugby League premiership, New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 69th season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Twelve teams, including six of 1908's foundat ...

, Reilly played as a prop forward for Eastern Suburbs in their unofficial

1976 World Club Challenge The 1976 World Club Challenge was an unofficial trial of what would later become the World Club Challenge concept, with the 1975 NSWRFL season's premiers, Eastern Suburbs hosting the 1975–76 Northern Rugby Football League season's Premiershi ...

match against British champions St. Helens in Sydney. Also a backrower, Reilly played almost 200 matches for the Roosters and was named as a bench player in that club's 'Team of the Century'. During the 1990 season, Reilly helped out the club as a caretaker coach. Reilly died on 5 May 2021 from kidney failure.

References

External links

The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players; Alan Whiticker & Glen Hudson 1948 births 2021 deaths Australian rugby league players Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks players Rugby league players from Queensland Sydney Roosters coaches Sydney Roosters players Sportspeople from Warwick, Queensland Rugby league second-rows Rugby league locks 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1940s-stub