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Mark Graham (rugby league)

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Mark Graham
Personal information
Full nameMark Kerry Graham
Born (1955-09-29) 29 September 1955 (age 69)
Playing information
Height191 cm (6 ft 3 in)
Weight90 kg (14 st 2 lb; 200 lb)
PositionBack rower
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
Otahuhu
1979–80 Norths (Brisbane)
1981–88 North Sydney 145 29 1 0 105
1988 Wakefield Trinity 14
Total 159 29 1 0 105
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
Auckland
1977–88 New Zealand 28 7 0 0 24
1988 Rest of the World 1 0 0 0 0
Coaching information
Club
Years Team Gms W D L W%
1999–00 Auckland Warriors 50 18 2 30 36
Source: RLP

Mark Kerry Graham[1] (born 29 September 1955[2]) is a New Zealand retired rugby league footballer and coach. A back-rower and former captain of the New Zealand national rugby league team, he has been named as the greatest player the country has produced in the century from 1907 to 2006.

Playing career

An Otahahu junior, Graham played in 29 tests, captaining the Kiwis side in 18 of them and scoring 7 tries from 1977 to 1988. In 1980 when playing in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership for the Norths club, he helped his side to victory in the grand final. That year in the BRL Preliminary Final against Valleys at Lang Park, Brisbane,[3] Graham put a hit on Australian captain Wally Lewis that crushed his oesophagus.[4] At the end of the season he captained the 1980 New Zealand rugby league tour of Great Britain and France.

In a trans-Tasman test at Lang Park on 18 June 1985,[1] while serving as Kiwi captain Graham was deliberately taken out of the game by a high shot from Noel "Crusher" Cleal while playing brilliantly and inspirationally.[2] After winning premierships with his club in New Zealand he played two seasons in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership with the Norths club under coach Graham Lowe, winning the BRL premiership in his second year there,[5] as well as the New South Wales Rugby League premiership for the North Sydney Bears between 1981 and 1988. He also captained the Bears. In what was the last match of the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour, Graham played at second-row forward for the Kiwis in their victory, which saw them qualify for the final of the final of the 1985-1988 World Cup against Australia. In that match Graham also played at second-row forward, but New Zealand were unable to defeat the Kangaroos. At the end of the 1988 Winfield Cup season, Graham travelled to England to captain the newly promoted Wakefield Trinity (captain) (Heritage № 1002) club in the 1988–89 Rugby Football League season.[6] In 1989 his biography Mark my words: The Mark Graham Story was published.

Post playing

In 1995 Graham was one of the initial inductees of the NZRL Legends of League.[7] The following year he was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. He went on to coach the Auckland Warriors in the National Rugby League for two seasons in 1999 and 2000. He later became defensive coach for the Japanese rugby union club, Kintetsu.

In August, 2006 Graham was named at second-row in the North Sydney Bears' Team of the Century. In 2007, he was named at second row in the New Zealand Kiwis Team of the Century and also further honoured as New Zealand's rugby league Player of the Century. He is an Auckland Rugby League Immortal.[8] In 2008, Graham was also named at second-row in a Norths Devils all-time greatest team.

References

  1. ^ GRAHAM, Mark Kerry 1977 - 88 - Kiwi #535 nzleague.co.nz
  2. ^ Gary Lester (editor) (1983). The Sun Book of Rugby League - 1983. Sydney, New South Wales: John Fairfax Marketing. p. 62. ISBN 0-909558-83-3. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/league/167213/league-once-were-warriors
  4. ^ Haddan, Steve (2016). Our Game - The Celebration of Brisbane Rugby League 1909-1987. Australia: National Library of Australia Press. p. 290. ISBN 978-0995-3512-0-2. ISBN 9780995351202 (Paperback).
  5. ^ northsydneybears.com.au. "Mark Graham". website of the North Sydney Bears. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
  6. ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19880923&id=B1AVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UuQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4434,2020638
  7. ^ "New Zealand Rugby League Annual Report 2008" (pdf). NZRL. 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2009. [dead link‍]
  8. ^ Stacey Jones, Auckland Rugby League Immortal Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine est1995.co.nz, 21 September 2003

Further reading

Preceded by Coach
New Zealand Warriors
1999-2000 		Succeeded by
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