Cec Fifield

Cec "Dicky" Fifield (1903-1957)^[2] was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. An Australian international and New South Wales interstate representative centre, he played in the NSWRFL premiership for Sydney clubs, Western Suburbs, Balmain and Canterbury-Bankstown, as well as in England for Hull FC. Following his playng career, Fifield returned to the NSWRFL premierhsip as coach, first with Canterbury-Bankstown then with Parramatta.

Background

Cecil Richard Henry Fifield was born to Sara Ann (née Compton) and George Fifield in Adelong in Adelong, New South Wales, Australia on 23 September 1903. He played for West Wyalong as a teenager in Group 9.

Club career

Fifield was recruited to play in Sydney' NSWRFL premiership with the Western Suburbs club, playing the 1923, 1925–26,1929 and 1936 seasons. He played over 100 first grade games with the Magpies. He was selected to play for the New South Wales rugby league team in 1925 and 1929, then was selected to play on the 1929–30 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain. The team sailed on the Orsova via the Panama Canal and played an exhibition game in New York before arriving in England, becoming Kangaroos number 152. The first Test was played at Hull, Yorkshire. The second Test at Wembley and the third Test at Swinton in which there was a big controversy over a try. After much deliberation it was decided to play a fourth Test at Rochdale. This was the first and only time that a fourth test has been played on any Kangaroo tour. In this match Fifield broke his ankle and was unable to play the remainder of the tour.

Kangaroos 1st Test 1929.

On returning to Australia in 1930 Fifield played for and captained the Balmain Tigers. It was in 1931 that he returned to England to play football for Hull, Boulevard. Owing to the difference in seasons, he played there until it was time to depart England and returned to Australia and play for Junee. Fifield continued to play for Hull, playing 224 games and scoring 80 tries, gaining England Championship honours in 1936 and in 1937 he returned to Australia. He played one season with Canterbury-Bankstown in 1937 before he then returned to Western Suburbs Magpies as captain-coach for the 1938 NSWRFL season.^[3]

Coaching career

After a couple of years' involvement with Canterbury-Bankstown, (he coached the team in 1944), Fifield returned to England. In 1950 he was approached by English club Rochdale Hornets to be Manager-Coach and to select several young players to help strengthen their team. He selected Tom Duffy, Wally Elliot, Cec "Babe" Kelly, Reg Stanford and Ron Stanford. They arrived in Rochdale in September 1950 and commenced training. The Australian Rugby League lodged a complaint against the five boys playing for Rochdale owing to the then current 'poaching' ban being in place. The Rugby League case was lost because these boys were only Junior Rugby Union players and were not affiliated to any Rugby League Club, but they had played Rugby League as teenagers. The boys had a successful career before returning to Australia. Fifield's last appointment was coach of the Parramatta Eels for one year in the 1956 NSWRFL season.^[4]

Accolades

In 2008 he was named as one of the Australian Rugby League's 100 Greatest Players of all Time.

Cec never had any sons. Jack and George Fifield were his nephews born to Norman. They both started playing Rugby League in Sydney in the late 1940's.

Death

Cec "Dick" Fifield died suddenly at his Earlwood home on 7 December 1957 at the age of 54. After a largely attended funeral, he was cremated at Rookwood on 11 December 1957.^[5]

His Epitaph reads: "He was the most marked man on the field but the most respected off".

References