George Bishop (rugby league)

Bishop initially came from Goulburn and made his first grade debut for Balmain against rivals Glebe in Round 16 1923 at Birchgrove Oval. Bishop then departed Balmain and signed with Parkes in the country competition. The following season, Balmain won the premiership after defeating South Sydney 3-0 in the grand final.

After 3 seasons with Parkes, Bishop returned to Balmain. Bishop finished as Balmain's top try scorer on his first season back with the club.

In the same year, Bishop earned his first representative honour as he was selected to play for Metropolis and New South Wales. In 1929, Bishop was selected to play for Australia and featured in test matches against Great Britain.

Over the coming years, Bishop would be continue to be selected at representative level but premiership success would elude him with Balmain only reaching the finals once in his entire playing career. Towards the end of his career in 1933, Bishop was selected to represent Australia again but was ruled out of the tour due to injury.

In 1937, Bishop was graded as a referee. In 1939, Bishop was the referee as his old club Balmain defeated South Sydney in the grand final. Bishop then went on the referee in two other grand finals featuring Balmain in 1946 and 1948. The following year, Bishop was the referee in the 1949 NSWRL grand final between St George and South Sydney.

When Western Suburbs met South Sydney in the 1952 NSWRL decider, Bishop was selected as the referee in what would turn out to be his last match as an official. The match was remembered for much controversy, including Souths claims that Western Suburbs scored 2 tries off a forward pass and that Souths had 2 fair tries disallowed.

Wests went on to win the premiership and Bishop stood down as a referee after the game ended. In the aftermath, Souths captain reportedly never spoke to Bishop again despite both of them living in the same suburb for many years. In total, Bishop had been the referee in 223 matches from 1938 to 1952.

In 1955, Bishop became part of the national selection panel which selected the Australian team. Bishop was later sacked from the panel after he was accused of leaking information that Harry Wells had been dropped from Australia's Third Test team against France. [2][3][4][5]