Rod Reddy (born 1 March 1954) is an Australian former professional

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. With the nickname ‘’’Rocket’’’ he played in the

NSWRL 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 St. George Dragons between 1972 and 1983 and the Illawarra Steelers between 1984 and 1985. He also represented

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

in the State of Origin and the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

national rugby league team. He coached the Adelaide Rams for their only two seasons.

Playing career

Born in

Rockhampton, Queensland Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

, Reddy joined Sydney's St. George Dragons club in 1972 and stayed for 12 seasons. He was a member of premiership winning teams in

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

and

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

. Reddy made the first of 17 representative appearances for

in 1977, and is listed on the ''Australian Players Register'' as Kangaroo No. 497. He was selected to go on the 1978 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France and in the first Test was named man-of-the-match. Reddy was selected to play for

in the first State of Origin match played on 8 July 1980. He was one Australia's "Invincibles" in the

1982 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France The 1982 Kangaroo tour was the fifteenth Kangaroo tour where the Australian national rugby league team played a number of matches against British and French rugby league teams, in addition to the Rugby league#Competitions, Test matches. The Aust ...

. Reddy moved to the Illawarra Steelers in 1984 and played for one last season in 1985 before retiring.

Coaching career

Rod Reddy took on a

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

role at Barrow in 1987. Barrow earned promotion to Division One but that campaign saw Barrow manage only one league win and suffer a club record 90-0 defeat at Leeds. Reddy was sacked and Denis Jackson took over as a caretaker coach for the rest of 1989/90 After a successful coaching stint with

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, Reddy took on the reserve grade coaching duties position Brian Smith at St George. He was appointed Smith’s successor as coach in 1996 but embraced the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

concept and walked out on his former club before a match was played. After sitting out the 1996 season along with fellow St. George Super League loyalist Gorden Tallis while Super League successfully lodged its appeal, Reddy was the inaugural coach of the Adelaide Rams in 1997’s Super League season. After a poor start to the 1998 season, Reddy and his coaching staff were sacked by the Rams' administration, and the club folded at the end of the year. Reddy was the assistant coach at the Wests Tigers under head coach Jason Taylor but departed the club in 2015 being sacked by Jason Taylor in a cleanout. On 25 July 2019, Reddy labelled Wests player Robbie Farah the "Most selfish player I have ever been involved with while either playing the game or coaching bar none". Reddy went on to say "Well we were right he went to Souths and played reserve grade and that Wests Tigers team at the moment is a reserve grade team with 4/5 NRL players in it and Farah is not 1 of them". The comments came in the wake of Farah speaking about Reddy and Taylor to the media days earlier when Farah said "At the time I was told by him and 'Rocket' Reddy, I’d finish my career in reserve grade. But I’m here now – 'JT' is coaching reserve grade".

Family

He is the father of Perth Glory football goalkeeper Liam Reddy,

Adelaide Thunderbirds Adelaide Thunderbirds are an netball in Australia, Australian professional netball team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Since 2017 Suncorp Super Netball season, 2017 they have played in Suncorp Super Netball. Between 2008 ANZ Championship s ...

netball goalkeeper Bianca Reddy and

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 ...

rugby league back Joel Reddy.

Accolades

Reddy was awarded Life Membership of the St. George Dragons in 1981. On 20 July 2022, Reddy was named in the St. George Dragons District Rugby League Clubs team of the century.

References

External links

Rod Reddy at stateoforigin.com.au

Queensland Representatives at qrl.com.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reddy, Rod 1954 births Living people Adelaide Rams coaches Australia national rugby league team players Australian sportspeople of Indian descent Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Barrow Raiders coaches Barrow Raiders players Illawarra Steelers players New South Wales rugby league team players Queensland Rugby League State of Origin players Rod Rugby league locks Rugby league players from Rockhampton, Queensland Rugby league second-rows St. George Dragons players 20th-century Australian sportsmen