Ron Willey

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.

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 icon.

Representative
Australia - By Team
Team	Years	App	T	G			GK %	FG	Pts	W	L	D	Win %
QLD Firsts	1955	2	-	10				-	20	2	0	0	100.00%
NSW Firsts	1956	2	-	12				-	24	1	1	0	50.00%
NSW City Firsts	1956	1	-	7				-	14	1	0	0	100.00%
Overall	1955-1956	5	0	29				0	58	4	1	0	80.00%
Club Career
Australian League Matches - By Year
Team	Years	App	T	G			GK %	FG	Pts	W	L	D	Win %
Canterbury	NSWRFL 1948	?	-	2				-	4
Canterbury	NSWRFL 1949	?	2	7				-	20
Canterbury	NSWRFL 1950	?	3	47				-	103
Canterbury	NSWRFL 1951	?	-	45				-	90
Canterbury	NSWRFL 1952	?	-	24				-	48
Canterbury	NSWRFL 1953	?	-	11				-	22
Manly Warringah	NSWRFL 1956	?	2	76				-	158
Manly Warringah	NSWRFL 1957	?	4	72				-	156
Manly Warringah	NSWRFL 1958	?	4	68				-	148
Manly Warringah	NSWRFL 1959	?	2	73				-	152
Manly Warringah	NSWRFL 1960	?	2	53				-	112
Manly Warringah	NSWRFL 1961	?	5	56				-	127
Manly Warringah	NSWRFL 1962	?	1	51				-	105
Parramatta	NSWRFL 1963	?	1	15				-	33
Parramatta	NSWRFL 1964	?	-	5				-	10
Overall	1948-1964	?	26	605				0	1,288	?	?	?	?
Australian League Matches - By Team
Team	Years	App	T	G			GK %	FG	Pts	W	L	D	Win %
Canterbury	1948-53	?	5	136				-	287	?	?	?	?
Manly Warringah	1956-62	?	20	449				-	958	?	?	?	?
Parramatta	1963-64	?	1	20				-	43	?	?	?	?
Overall	1948-1964	?	26	605				0	1,288	?	?	?	?

 

Last modified: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 01:48:21 +1100 (Sydney time)