Ron Willey

Coaching Career

Vital Statistics

Full Name
Ronald William Willey
Born
Wednesday, 20th November, 1929
Died
Friday, 24th September, 2004 (Aged 74 years and 308 days)

Known Family Links

Son
Sean Willey
Grandson
Anthony Don

Biography

While he came up through the C’bury juniors (Belmore) as a halfback and made his first grade debut in the centres Ron Willey made the fullback position his own during a distinguished playing career. At only 21 years of age, he was appointed caretaker coach of the C’bury club when Vic Bulgin retired midway through the 1950 season. In 1951 he played for NSW Colts against France and was chosen as understudy to Clive Churchill on the 1952-53 Kangaroo Tour. Willey did not play in a Test on tour (17 games - 5t, 63g, 141pts) and the spectre of Churchill would thwart his selection for NSW and more importantly, Australia, during the 1950s. He suffered a terrible knee injury in 1953 that should have ended his career but he recovered after a year's convalescence to captain-coach Rockhampton in 1955. Willey represented Queensland that year before becoming a prolific point-scorer with Manly. He captained the club on and off during 1957-60, playing in the club's grand final losses in 1957 and 1959, and was captain-coach in 1962. Willey was the top point-scorer for the Manly club until Graeme Eadie eclipsed his records in the 1970s. After playing a handful of games for P’matta before retiring (including P’matta’s win over South Africa in 1963), Willey went on to have both a successful and controversial coaching career. Despite winning premierships with Manly in 1972-73 (the club's first titles), he was criticised for his strong-arm tactics with Balmain in the late 1970s. After achieving semi-final success with Norths in 1982, he was sacked for his defence-orientated methods. Willey took Souths to the semi-finals in the mid-1980s and coached NSW to an historic clean-sweep in 1986’s State of Origin series. In his two seasons with Penrith brought mixed success but he parted company with the club after several controversial team selections in the 1989 semi-final series. His last stint as coach, with English club Bradford Northern (1989-90) also resulted in his sacking.
- ALAN WHITICKER

Coaching Career Statistics

All statistics shown in this section are based only on data available in the RLP database, and are not necessarily a complete and/or 100% accurate representation of a player's career. This information should be used as a guide only. If you see a question mark (?), it denotes that the figure is not available.

To view a list of corresponding matches, click on the List button.

Competitions

Competition   Games W L D Win %  
Craven Mild Cup 25 15 9 1 60.00% List
NRL 403 231 161 11 57.32% List
NRL Finals 19 7 12 0 36.84% List
National Panasonic Cup 6 3 3 0 50.00% List
Charity Shield - AUS 3 1 2 0 33.33% List
City vs Country Firsts 1 1 0 0 100.00% List
State of Origin 7 5 2 0 71.43% List
City vs Country 1 1 0 0 100.00% List
Yorkshire Cup 2 2 0 0 100.00% List
English Championship 13 6 7 0 46.15% List
Regal Trophy 2 1 1 0 50.00% List
Challenge Cup 4 3 1 0 75.00% List


Representative

Australia - By Team

Team Years Games W L D Win %  
NSW 1986-87 7 5 2 0 71.43% List
NSW City Firsts 1986 1 1 0 0 100.00% List
NSW City 1987 1 1 0 0 100.00% List
Overall1986-1987 9 7 2 0 77.78% List


Club Career

NRL/NSWRL - By Year

Team Season Games W L D Win %  
Manly NSWRFL 1962 18 7 10 1 38.89% List
Manly NSWRFL 1970 25 17 7 1 68.00% List
Manly NSWRFL 1971 24 19 5 0 79.17% List
Manly NSWRFL 1972 24 20 3 1 83.33% List
Manly NSWRFL 1973 24 19 4 1 79.17% List
Manly NSWRFL 1974 24 15 9 0 62.50% List
Balmain NSWRFL 1977 24 14 8 2 58.33% List
Balmain NSWRFL 1978 22 9 12 1 40.91% List
Balmain NSWRFL 1979 22 12 9 1 54.55% List
North Sydney NSWRFL 1980 22 6 15 1 27.27% List
North Sydney NSWRFL 1981 22 9 13 0 40.91% List
North Sydney NSWRFL 1982 28 16 11 1 57.14% List
Souths NSWRFL 1983 26 12 13 1 46.15% List
Souths NSWRL 1984 27 15 12 0 55.56% List
Souths NSWRL 1985 24 10 14 0 41.67% List
Penrith NSWRL 1988 23 15 8 0 65.22% List
Penrith NSWRL 1989 24 16 8 0 66.67% List

NRL/NSWRL - By Team

Team Years Games W L D Win %  
Manly 1962, 1970-74 139 97 38 4 69.78% List
Balmain 1977-79 68 35 29 4 51.47% List
North Sydney 1980-82 72 31 39 2 43.06% List
Souths 1983-85 77 37 39 1 48.05% List
Penrith 1988-89 47 31 16 0 65.96% List
Overall1962-1989 403 231 161 11 57.32% List

English Career - By Year

Team Season Games W L D Win %  
Bradford 1989/90 21 12 9 0 57.14% List

English Career - By Team

Team Years Games W L D Win %  
Bradford 1989 21 12 9 0 57.14% List

Your Say

  • Anonymous
    18/02/2019

    One of the great cover defending fullbacks of his time, loved watching him play for Manly

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Contributions: Greg Fiveash, Rugby League Tables, Andrew Ferguson, Shawn Dollin, Alan Katzmann, Paul Carter, Max Turner, Bill Bates, Tim Costello