Ray Norman (1889–1971) 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 and coach. A

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 ...

state and Australia national representative, his club career was played with Annandale, the South Sydney and the Eastern Suburbs clubs in the

NSWRFL The New South Wales Rugby League Ltd (NSWRL) is an Australian rugby league football competition operator in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission.It was registered on 21 ...

Playing career

After playing rugby union for Annadale and Glebe, Norman switched to rugby league in

1910 Events January * January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military. * January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...

featuring in their inaugural season. He was one of four brothers, along with

Bernard Bernard ('' Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It has West Germanic origin and is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''be ...

, Roy and Rex Norman, who played in the NSW Rugby Football League first-grade competition. Both Rex and Ray represented the

Australia national rugby league team The Australian national rugby league team, the Kangaroos, have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competitions since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League Com ...

, becoming only the second set of brothers to do so behind Viv and Bill Farnsworth. In 1914, Norman played 12 games as South Sydney won the premiership that season by virtue of the first past the post rule. Norman was first selected for Australia in 1914 and after the war he toured

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in 1919. He retired from playing in 1921, and immediately joined the coaching ranks at Eastern Suburbs.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Norman coached the Eastern Suburbs which included a premiership in

1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

. He later coached 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 ...

for one year, in

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

, and the NSW Country representative side.

Death

The ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

'' said of Norman: "He was one of Rugby League's greatest tacticians". His funeral was held at St Peter's Church,

Watsons Bay Watsons Bay is a harbourside, Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Watsons Bay is located 11 km north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, ...

on 3 May 1971 and later at

Northern Suburbs Crematorium The Northern Suburbs Crematorium, officially Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, is a crematorium in North Ryde, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It was officially opened on 28 October 1933, and the first cremation t ...

.Sydney Morning Herald - Death Notice - 30 April 1971

References

External links

* 1889 births 1971 deaths Annandale rugby league players Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Country New South Wales rugby league team coaches Manly Warringah Sea Eagles coaches New South Wales rugby league team players Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league players from Sydney South Sydney Rabbitohs players Sydney Roosters coaches Sydney Roosters captains Sydney Roosters players South Sydney Rabbitohs captains 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1880s-stub