Phil Blake (born 24 November 1963) is a British-born Australian former

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 and a professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

coach. Originally a , Blake developed into a utility player and played first grade matches in all the backline positions, as well as at and

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

. He represented

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

on one occasion. Blake has held coaching positions with the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby, Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competitio ...

Manly RUFC Manly Rugby Union Football Club is a rugby union club based in Manly, a suburb of Sydney's Northern Beaches. The club was formed in 1883 and competes in the New South Wales Rugby Union competitions, the Charter Hall Shute Shield. Manly, known ...

and

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

Early life

Blake was born in London, England, but moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

with his family at an early age. While attending Christian Brothers College in Manly, Blake played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1981. Phil Blake is the younger brother of former Manly,

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

and South Sydney player Michael Blake.

Playing career

Manly

Blake made his début for the

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League sea ...

in Round 12 of the 1982 season, coming off the bench for the Sea Eagles in their 20–19 win over Eastern Suburbs at

Brookvale Oval Brookvale Oval, currently known as 4 Pines Park for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Brookvale, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The ground is owned by Northern Beaches Council and is primarily used by the M ...

. Blake played 14 games in his rookie year, playing five-eighth, centre and halfback. He scored 9 tries in 1982, and was a try scorer for Manly in their 21–8 loss to defending premiers

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

in the 1982 Grand Final. Blake won the Dally M Rookie of the Year award. Blake's good form continued in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, cementing his position as the club's first choice halfback. He broke the Sea Eagles club record for the most tries scored in a season with 27 the top try scorer in the league. Blake's 27 tries were scored from just 23 games played and was only surpassed in 2021 as the Manly club record for most tries in a premiership season. Manly won through to the 1983 Grand Final, again against Parramatta, and for the second time in two seasons. After playing 21 of his 23 games at halfback in 1983, he played there only 10 times in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, spending most of his time at centre as coach Fulton tried to cover his defensive lapses. This also allowed Fulton to play others (such as halfback

Des Hasler Desmond John Hasler (born 16 February 1961) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of the Gold Coast Titans in the National Rugby League and a former player. Primarily a , he initially played for the Penrith Pan ...

who had joined the club from Penrith) in their preferred positions. After scoring 27 tries in 23 games in 1983, Blake scored only 11 tries from 23 games in 1984. Blake broke his arm during the opening round of the 1985 season against Penrith. He returned to the field in Round 9 against

, but was again used in various backline positions and only scored 3 tries in 11 games. During the 1985/86 off-season Phil Blake traveled to England and played for

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

, he played at (replaced by substitute Mark Forster) in

's 8–34 defeat by

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

in the 1985 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1985–86 season at

Knowsley Road Knowsley Road is a former football stadium in Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside. It was the home ground of St. Helens from 1890 until its closure in 2010. St Helens Town FC played their home fixtures at Knowsley Road from 2002 until 2010. For ...

, St. Helens, on Sunday 13 October 1985, In the 1986 NSWRL season, Blake was again the league's top try scorer with 13, sharing the mark with Balmain's

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

international import

Garry Schofield Garry Edward Schofield OBE (born 1 July 1965) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s, and is a member of the British Rugby League Hall of Fame. At the time of his retirement he was the most- ...

and despite having that statistic, for the second time in a

Kangaroo Tour Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australia national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France, tours to New Zealand and the one-off tour to Papua New Guinea (1991). The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours too ...

year, he was overlooked for selection on the

1986 Kangaroo tour The 1986 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France was the sixteenth Kangaroo tour in which the Australian national rugby league team (known as the Winfield Kangaroos due to sponsorship) plays a number of tour matches against British and Frenc ...

. However, after four seasons under Fulton, he was unwanted by Manly and following the season signed to play for the South Sydney Rabbitohs from

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

Souths

In 1987, Blake joined Rabbitohs and went on to play four seasons for the club. Returning to his schoolboy position of , Blake was instrumental in Souths winning the minor premiership in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

. He played 75 games for Souths. He returned to England to play for Wigan for the 1988/89 season. After returning from England, Blake, and Souths went from being minor premiers in 1989 to finishing with the wooden spoon in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, the biggest slide from grace in the competition's history.

Nomad

After three seasons at Souths, Blake joined the

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears are an Australian rugby league football club based in Cammeray on Sydney's North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The club currently competes in the NSW Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL s ...

for

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

, however despite the Bears reaching the finals for the first time since 1982, he only played eleven games for the club and moved again at the end of the year, joining the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugb ...

. Blake moved again at the end of the 1992 season, joining the

St. George Dragons The St. George Dragons are an Australian rugby league, rugby league football club from the St George, Sydney, St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales Rugby League, New South Wales competition ...

. He came off the reserves bench for the Dragons in the 1993 Grand Final who lost their second Grand Final in two seasons to the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

. It was Blake's 3rd Grand Final loss in his 3rd attempt after having lost the 1982 and 1983 Grand Finals with Manly. In 1995, he joined the new

Auckland Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

franchise, and was in their inaugural run-on side. He played three seasons for the club, his longest spell at one club since the Rabbitohs. Phil Blake, who played in the Warrior's first game against the Broncos at

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

Mount Smart Stadium Mount Smart Stadium, currently known as Go Media Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Penrose, Auckland, New Zealand. It is the main home ground of the New Zealand Warriors of the National Rugby League a ...

before 29,220 fans, scored the new club's first ever try in the game's 21st minute after a dash down the left wing by

Whetu Taewa Whetu Taewa (born 19 October 1970) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who represented New Zealand six times between 1989 and 1996. Playing career New Zealand Whetu was born on the West Coast, New Zealand and started p ...

. Blake, as always there in support, had an easy 10m run to the line. Despite this the Warriors went down narrowly to the two time premiership winners 25–22.

Representative career

Despite narrowly missing out on a Kangaroos jersey in 1982 and again in 1986, Blake never established himself at representative level. In 1988, he played for

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

, and in 1989 he came off the bench in a State of Origin match for

, but that was the extent of his representative career. Along with Ian Roberts and

James McManus } James "Jim" McManus (born March 22, 1951) is an Americans, American teacher, writer and poker player living in Kenilworth, Illinois. He is a professor in the Master of Fine Arts program for writers at the Art Institute of Chicago. Poker and ' ...

, he is to date one of three British-born players to play State of Origin. In 1988, Blake was selected at fullback for an Australian select side called the President's XIII to play the touring

Great Britain Lions The Great Britain national rugby league team represents Great Britain in rugby league. Administered by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the team is nicknamed The Lions. For most of the 20th century, the Great Britain team toured overseas, p ...

. On a wet and muddy day at the

Seiffert Oval Seiffert Oval is an enclosed rectangular playing field in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia. It has a grass playing surface and an official capacity of 15,000, 1,500 of which is seated capacity in the grandstand. The oval has been used for ...

, the President's XIII defeated the Lions 24–18.

Retirement

Blake trained with the Manly team at the start of the 1998 season before announcing his retirement. He finished his career having played 261 games, scoring 138 tries as well as kicking eight goals and fifteen field goals.

Matches played

Coaching career

Rugby league

Blake was appointed the sprint coach at the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, Maroubra that competes in the Nat ...

for their return season in 2002. When Craig Coleman was fired as head coach at the beginning of the 2003 season, Blake was appointed the temporary head coach until he was replaced by

Paul Langmack Paul Langmack (born 10 May 1965) is an Australian former rugby league coach and representative and premiership-winning player. Langmack won three premierships with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the mid-eighties. He later joined the Weste ...

.Rabbitohs' chook raffle
ABC, 5 March 2003

Rugby union

In 2006, Blake began his rugby union coaching career as assistant coach of the Southern Districts first grade side. He joined Manly as head coach a year later. Blake suffered from a series of potentially life-threatening blood clots in 2008 and spent some time in hospital. In 2010, he underwent triple heart bypass surgery. After taking Manly into the semi-finals in 2010, Blake was appointed as defence and skills coach to the

under head coach

Robbie Deans Robert Maxwell Deans (born 4 September 1959) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player, currently the head coach of Japanese club Saitama Wild Knights. He was head coach of the Australian national team between 2008 and 2013. Deans prev ...

. He joined the

as defence and skills coach for the 2011 season. When Richard Graham was stood down as head coach of the Force during the 2012 season, Blake became the interim head coach before Michael Foley was appointed for the 2013 season. Blake returned to Manly as head coach in 2013. In 2014, he was appointed as head coach of the North Harbour Rays for the inaugural

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

season. However, on 2 June 2014 it was announced that he had been appointed as defence coach for

in the English Premiership. Blake incurred a six-month ban from rugby for breaching RFU betting rules after placing eight separate bets on two Tigers games while he was the defence coach at the club.

References

External links

Soaring Eagles Phil Blake Biorugbyleague.co.nz Phil Blake Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Phil 1963 births Living people Australian expatriate rugby league players in England Australian people of British descent Canberra Raiders players English emigrants to Australia English rugby league coaches English rugby league players English rugby union coaches Leicester Tigers coaches Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players New South Wales City Origin rugby league team players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players New Zealand Warriors players North Sydney Bears players Prime Minister's XIII players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from London Rugby league utility players South Sydney Rabbitohs captains South Sydney Rabbitohs players St. George Dragons players Warrington Wolves players Western Force coaches Wigan Warriors players 20th-century English sportsmen