Garry Jack
| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Jimmy[1] | |||||
| Born | 14 March 1961 Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia | |||||
| Playing information | ||||||
| Height | 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) | |||||
| Position | Fullback | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1980 | Wests (Illawarra) | 18 | 8 | 24 | ||
| 1981 | Wests Magpies | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 1982–95 | Balmain Tigers | 244 | 59 | 1 | 1 | 232 |
| 1987 | Salford | 50 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 56 |
| 1992-93 | Sheffield Eagles | 10 | 40 | |||
| 1993–1995 | Salford | 50 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 56 |
| Total | 367 | 106 | 1 | 1 | 411 | |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1984–89 | New South Wales | 17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 1984–88 | Australia | 22 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| Coaching information | ||||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Gms | W | D | L | W% |
| 1993–95 | Salford | 61 | 29 | 2 | 30 | 48 |
| Source: NRL Stats, RLP | ||||||
Garry Jack (born 14 March 1961 in Wollongong, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He was a representative in the Australian national team and star player with the Balmain Tigers. Jack was a Fullback for the Tigers during the late 1980s and early 1990s, under the captaincy of Wayne Pearce and the coaching of Warren Ryan. Jack also represented the New South Wales State of Origin side on 17 occasions.
Club career
His junior football was played in Wollongong with Wests Illawarra and in 1980 he was graded with them. He trialled with the Western Suburbs Magpies in 1981 and debuted in first grade in the latter part of that season aged 20.
His association with English rugby league began at the end of the 1986 Kangaroo tour when he stayed on to play for Salford before returning to the Tigers. He was member of the consecutive Balmain sides which fell at the final hurdle to firstly Canterbury-Bankstown in the 1988 Grand Final and then to Canberra in 1989.
1991 saw the departure of Warren Ryan as Balmain coach and the arrival of former Wallaby coach, Alan Jones. The years playing under Jones at Balmain were unhappy ones for Jack and eventually after he had left the club in 1992 and launched an attack on Jones’ ability as a coach following his ‘surprise’ reappointment for a third year.[2]
His final Balmain game at Leichhardt Oval in 1992 saw 17,365 mostly Tigers fans come out to pay homage to him and other retirees Steve Roach and David Brooks. When his Australian club career ended having surpassed Keith Barnes' club record for first grade matches, he returned to England to play his final season with the Sheffield Eagles.
After accepting a manager-coach position with Salford, Jack was relieved from the coaching duties before being sacked as club manager in early 1995. This saw him return to Australia that year to help out the struggling Sydney Tigers (Balmain) side.
Representative career
In the 1984 State of Origin series Jack made his New South Wales debut and played in all three games of that year's series. He was thereafter the Blues' first choice fullback for the next six years, aside from the 1987 fourth game exhibition match in Los Angeles when he made himself unavailable, and game I of 1988 when Cronulla's Jonathon Docking was preferred.
Jack made 17 appearances for New South Wales in State of Origin series between 1984 and 1989.
In 1984, he also made his international debut in the three match Ashes series against Great Britain. He played twenty successive Tests (nine versus Britain, seven against New Zealand and two each against France and Papua New Guinea) as well as the 1988 World Cup final against New Zealand and the Bicentenary International against a Rest of the World side.
On the 1986 Kangaroo tour, Jack played in all six Tests and seven minor Tour matches. He became the first Australian fullback to score three tries in a Test against France in the second Test.
On 20 July 1988, Jack played for Australia in their record 62-point win over Papua New Guinea, scoring a try.[3] After Jack broke an arm in a 1989 pre-season match the door opened for his great State of Origin rival Queenslander Gary Belcher who from that point was the favoured Australian representative for the fullback position.
Post playing
Garry Jack was appointed coach of English club Salford in July '93 but departed following their relegation from the top flight at the end of the 1994–95 Rugby Football League season.
Personal life
Jack's sons Kieren and Brandon both play for the Australian Football League's Sydney Swans.[4][5] Another son, Rhys Jack, played in the Bulldogs Toyota Cup side and Balmain in the New South Wales Cup.
In July 2016, it was reported Jack and his wife were in a feud with son Kieren. It was reported that Kieren did not invite his parents to his 200th AFL game. [6] Former Swan and radio personality Ryan Fitzgerald criticised Jack and his wife for airing the feud publicly on Twitter. [7]
Footnotes
- ↑ Bill Harrigan with Daniel Lane (2003). Harrigan: the referee in a league of his own. Australia: Hachette.
- ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s551929.htm
- ↑ "O'Connor helps set Test records". The Age. 21 July 1988. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- ↑ Richard Hinds (14 December 2005). "Jack of a new trade joins Swans". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
- ↑ http://www.theroar.com.au/2013/06/08/brandon-jack-an-afl-bolter-like-kieren/
- ↑ http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/kieren-jacks-bitter-family-dispute-escalates-on-social-media-20160705-gpzba5.html
- ↑ http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/kieren-jacks-mother-has-reportedly-sent-his-girlfriend-appalling-text-messages/news-story/4681f699a896a1b7cb7922c915bcd21b
Sources
- Big League's 25 Years of Origin Collectors' Edition, News Magazines, Surry Hills, Sydney
- Alan Whiticker & Glen Hudson (2007). The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players. Wetherill Park, New South Wales: Gary Allen Pty Ltd. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-877082-93-1.
- Gary Lester (editor) (1983). The Sun Book of Rugby League - 1983. Sydney, New South Wales: John Fairfax Marketing. p. 12. ISBN 0-909558-83-3.