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I remember reading a very funny article on Noel 'Ned' Kelly many years ago. I believe it was a very early edition of Rugby League Week.

The reporter was discussing the fact that Noel had been marched by the referees on so many occassions for discretions. Noel was quoted to the answer of the reporters question with something like, " I have been sent off that many times, when I am in the front yard doing the gardening and the postie goes by and blows his whistle, I just get up and go and have a shower."

Drinking in the Time & Tide Hotel in Dee Why West, Sydney in the 80's.

Noel 'Ned' Kelly used to frequent the pub a bit as he was running a butcher shop just down the road and come in after work for a quiet one.

Monday nights on SKY channel saw myself and the mates gather around the TV to watch the old test matches
(Australia v the Poms,etc).

This night Ned came in at the start of a 1961 Test v the Poms and as we saw his name read out yelled out to him at the bar to come over and have a look.

He replied to us "which test is it?" and when finding out replied "naa I won't worry about it" to our dismay but when we saw the 1st scrum pack down which erupted in a full on BIFF "poor" old NED was sent off in what was the quickest dismisal in test match history. (Only to be beaten by Adrian Morley on that hit on Robbie Kearns).

We bagged NED for weeks after that. !!!!

A couple of comments about previous entry.

Slight error in that the match the guy talks about is not the one that Noel Kelly was sent off in the quickest time on record, although the story I am sure is true as Noel did drink at the Time and Tide for years and did get sent off pretty early in quite a few games.

The match where he was sent off in record time was against New Zealand at the SCG.

The Kiwis kicked off, the ball is gathered by Johnny King and Robyn Orchard (NZ) belts him with a crushing coat hanger. Noel marches up to Orchard and hits him on the chin with one of his best ever lefts. He got his marching orders on the spot.

Two funny things about it are that on the ABC footage, the commentator (Norman May I think) is reading the names of the players that are still showing on the screen as all this happens and actually stops at about number 9 and says "hang on, what's going on here, Noel Kelly has been sent off" before he even finished reading out the team.

Secondly, Noel had organised some tickets to the members stand at the SCG for this match for a couple of his mates that had come down from Queensland to watch him play. The blokes had got stuck at the Captain Cook Hotel, Moore Park (as you do) and made their way into the members trying to look inconspicuous about 10 minutes after kick off only to find Noel sitting there waiting for them !

all the best
Paul

I have been watching league since about 1940,and to me peter dimond is the toughest i have ever seen.

In 1963 in the semi final against st.george he quitened the whole st.george back line which included,gasnier king lumsdaine clay with bone shuddering tackles

One newspaper the next day quoted diamonds are not st.georges bestfriend..... wests won.

In the grand final 2 weeks later the scores were close i was sitting the noble stand when diamond chipped kicked followed on and dived on the ball under the goal posts,i had a perfect view,i am 73 now still and have no need for glasses, but the referee d.lawler ruled no try,from behind the run of play,claiming dimond had knocked on.. rubbish.

This is something i wiil never forget....the s c g was like muddy lake

courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

A scrum blew up and punches were flying everywhere. I wan't about to miss out on the action and started to let rip. But as I started to wind up for one big sway at a Parramatta bloke, our second rowere Kel O'shea popped his head up and I caught him flush on the eye. He ended up having to leave the field with a gash that required six stitches. I couldn't believe it! He was a mess. He wasn't too happy at the time, but he forgave me.

courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

Mr Davies (English Referee) hadn't seen the head-high tackle from English prop Keith Bowman that caused the injury (the broken nose) but Kelly had it filed away for future reference. The get-square came 20 minutes later, with Kelly cracking Bowman across the head in a tackle. The Englishman lay prone for some three minutes on the Wembley turf before being carried off.

"It certainly got equalled up" Kelly says with a grin. "He had it coming. I always said if someone punches me, I'll punch them back, that was my nature."

courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

Kelly's uncomprising style upset more than one French referee and led to his infamous double sending off in the match against Prvence at Avignon. Describe by Noel Kelly as follows.

"It was unbelievable really and the sort of thing that could probably only happen in France. Over there you're liable to strike the same ref six or seven games in a row and that's what happend to me. I'd had this bloke, Monsieur Casson, time and again and we'd built up this great hatred for each other. It got to the stage where every time the ball went into the scrum and I won it, he'd recall it and make the ball go in again. I had cauliflower ears and a broken nose so I didn't fancy spending so long in the scrum, particularly as the ref was often just waiting for the other bloke to win the ball off me.

"Finally, in the Avignon game, I got fed up and asked (Australian utility back and later successful Manly and Australian Coach) Frank Stanton, who spoke more french then the rest of us put together , how to call this bloke a'so and so'. He told me and I gave the ref a mouthful. He sent me straight off but I just said I wasn't going. I sat down and then moved back to the second row. He tried to send me off again for something else but I just sat down again. Eventually he gave up and I finished the game.

About Peter Dimond

I always went to the football with my father during the sixties and remember that you took your autograph book along and collected as many signatures as possible.

Most players did not go in to the dressing sheds to change until just after half time in the Reserve Grade.

One day at Leichhardt an extremely well dressed player arrived and he stood out from the other players. I got his autograph despite the fact he was in the opposing team.

Later that day he king hit my favourite player Keith Barnes knocking him out.

The autograph was ripped out of the book and torn to shreads and I cried all the way home.

Dad said I should perhaps pick a tougher player as my favourite so I moved onto Georgie Piper.

courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

The Englishmen returned to Australia with a new look team in 1966 and, with Kelly out injured, won the first test 17 -13. That match gave Kelly his first look, albeit from the sideline, of a man who was to prove his nemises for several years to come, the cheeky British halfback, Tommy Bishop.

"Bishop used to go on with all sorts of antics. He'd throw haymakers, jump on blokes backs, kick them ... he'd do anything to upset you," Kelly recalls. "I remember seeing him for the first time when I was out injured that game and he was using every trick in the book. I'd never seen anything like it. I hated him immediately and thought if he tries this against me, I'll kill him.

Kelly got his chance in the second test in Brisbane. "Play was only going a minute when he started carrying on so I gave him a back hander. it was on from there. I gave him a boot up the arse a couple of times. He kept giving me cheek but we won the match 6 - 4."

Australia eventually retained the Ashes with a 19 -14 win in the third test, in Sydney. Bishop, however, was to have the last laugh on Kelly a little over a year later.....

Kelly had been selected to make a third tour to the UK and Fance and therefore becoming the first front rower to make three tours..

Kelly was sent off twice during the tour including once in the third test at Swinton, but despite his absence, Australia won the game to retain the Ashes.

Kelly was fuming at the circumstances that led to his dismissal. His old foe, Bishop, had again been baiting him and at one stage, fell to the ground clutching his face and screaming as if he had been hit. Kelly immediately shown the way back to the dressing room by the referee, despite swearing he never laid a hand on the "injured" halfback.

It was a crazy thing," he recalls. "It was right at the end of the game and I didn't touch him. I should never have got sent off but the ref couldn't get rid of me quick enough. It was a sad way to end my career against the Poms."

I followed Wests from when I was a kid in the 60s to the Murdoch takeover since when I have lost all interest in what was the greatest game of all.

In 1970 the ARL decided to have a probables v. possibles trial match prior to the selection team to play in the World Cup in England.

One might have expected that after the sensational crowds for the 1968 World Cup played in Australia and NZ this game played on the RAS Showground would have attracted a large crowd but it didn't.

The teams were named for the sponsor of the game one being called Theiss and the other Toyota.

The game was very indifferent - the players really didn't want to be there - and was only notable for a couple of sensational incidents. The first was accidental when Fr (as he then was) John Cootes somehow managed to knock out Bill Mullins whilst scoring a try. The second came a bit later hwn whilst waiting for the ball to be kicked off Peter D. ran accross the field and king hit Cootes right in front of the ref who had no option but to send Dimond off.

Although Cootes had played well all season and also in this this trial uncharitable souls (no doubt all non-Catholics) suggested that Dimond's action ensured Cootes selection. In any event Cootes had a good tour both from a playing point of view and the fact that he was God's gift to the Rugby League PR people in the UK with his chaste good looks and "footballing priest" tag.

Just wanted to add to the Peter Dimond legend and correct what I think is an error in some stories of the Fr John Cootes incident.

The match was at the Sportsground of that I am certain. My recollection is that the great man ran at least 20yds to come in as a late tackle and hung one on the footballing priest.

Peter Dimond was the toughest and most honest of the hard men who played in the real tough era. The Poms could play and knuckle in those days and they just couldn't handle him at all - never bested.

I had the privilege of having a conversation with him some years ago at Campbelltown - a gentleman in every sense of the word, a legend by deed and a champion by nature.

courtesy of Tony Adams great book The Hitmen - A tribute to League's tough guys.

Kelly admits he regarded getting sent off as an occupational hazard.

"I got marched a lot I suppose but I never lost any sleep over it. I played it hard and once you've got a reputation they go looking for you. There were plenty of games when the refs couldn't unload me quickly enough. I may have been sent off 15 times but maybe half to them were for alleged repeated scrum infringements. What a joke that was. When a ref got sick of you, he'd just "tip-toe" you and there was nothing you could do about it.

"There were times when the league told the refs to put a blitz on scrums and then we hookers knew we were in trouble. One day when we played Balmain I met their hooker Dick Wilson at the gate on the way onto the field. We'd both read in teh paper that day that the blitz would be on.

"As we ran onto the field I said to Dickie; "I think we're going to be having an early shower today if we're not careful. What are we going to do about this?"

He replied, "What about if we both keep our feet back (in the scrums) and let them sort it out for themselves..'

"It sounded a good plan. 'That'll do me, I said as we took up our positions for the kick off. We both stuck to our word but it didn't do us much good. After a handful of scrums the referee dismissed us both ... for repeated scrum infringements! We watched the game from the grandstand.

From a Roy Masters article in the Sydney Morning Herald, August 6, 2004

Noel Kelly (Western Suburbs Prop), recalling a game against Souths when he hit George Piggins as they were running to a position on the field where Wests' Peter Dimond had also been flattened.

Kelly said: "Referee Laurie Bruyeres asked me what happened as we both stood over Peter and I said Piggins had suffered sunstroke.

"I've forgotten the name of the Souths bloke who hit Peter but I told Laurie, 'If I was you sir, I'd send him off'."

Bruyeres says: "I took the report from the touch judge and told Kelly, 'If he goes, you're going with him."'

Kelly and Bruyeres agree on what happened next.

Kelly says: "I yelled out, 'Peter. He's going to send me off. Quick. Get up."'

As Bruyeres says: "I was never going to send either of them off.

REFEREE'S STORIES.

From former Referee Laurie Bruyers as told to Tony Lewis of www.kellyskids.info - July 07
I (Laurie Bruyers) was at Phillip st one Monday night waiting outside the judiciary and Noel Kelly ( who had been sent off that weekend) came walking along the corridor with his arm in a sling. It was the best looking sling I had ever seen. It must have been put on by a doctor it looked so good. I said to Noel what's happen to your arm. He smiled and said " nothing but those blokes in there don't know that." Noel received a caution.

I got marched a lot I suppose but I never lost any sleep over it. - Noel Kelly

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