Percy Vernon John McNamara (1870–1940) was a pioneer

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 in the

New South Wales Rugby Football League 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 ...

. He was also a noted rugby union player, initially with

Randwick DRUFC Randwick District Rugby Union Football Club, also known as the Galloping Greens, is an Australian rugby union club based in Randwick City Council, a Local Government Area in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The team competes in the Sydney premier ...

, and later with the 'Pirates', who won state wide fame, and also represented New South Wales against New Zealand (in 1897) and Victoria before switching codes. He played with the Eastern Suburbs club in the codes inaugural season - 1908, as a 38-year-old.

Playing career

Known as "Percy Mac", he was an outside back and played in the NSWRL's first premiership final. The match was played between Eastern suburbs and South Sydney resulting in a 14–12 victory to Souths. McNamara kicked a

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, ...

in the deciding match. McNamara played 9 matches for the Eastern Suburbs club in the years (1908–09), he scored 21 points - 3 tries and kicked 6 goals. He was also a Cricketer with Waverley and Australian Rules Player.

Death

A press article from 1935 noted that he suffered severe injuries from slipping on a banana peel on a Sydney Street. His funeral was held on 8 October 1940 and he was cremated at Northern Suburbs Crematorium.Sydney Morning Herald- Funeral Notice: 08/10/1940 (page 6)

References

* 1870 births 1940 deaths Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby union players from Sydney Sydney Roosters players Randwick DRUFC players New South Wales rugby union team players Footballers who switched code Rugby league centres {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1870s-stub