Bernie Purcell

Souths’ stalwart during the heady 1950s when the club won five premierships, Purcell was a product of St Peters, Surry Hills. The ice-cool, goal-kicking forward started his career with Wests in 1948 after falsifying his residential qualifications (a common occurrence at the time). The following year Purcell returned to Souths and commenced a long and successful association with the club. The robust second row forward was called into the Australian Test team at an historic time in the code. Purcell was chosen to make what was to be his only Test appearance in the Third Test against Great Britain in 1950. This was the famous 5-2 victory that gave Australia the Ashes for the first time in 30 years. Purcell played for NSW in 1951 and 1956 but had to wait until the 1956-57 Kangaroo Tour to represent Australia again (7 matches, no Tests). Captaining Souths on occasion, as his cousins Paddy Maher and Jack Walsh had done, Purcell played in the 1950-51 & 1954-55 premiership deciders as well as losses in 1949 and 1952 (he missed out on Souths' success in 1953 when coaching Cootamundra). In the 1955 grand final, it was Purcell's calm conversion of a late try that gave the club a 12-11 win over Newtown. Retiring as the first forward in the game to top 1000 career points, he was coach of a young Rabbitohs team that took on nine-times champions St George in front of a record SCG crowd in the 1965 grand final. The 1966 season was a disappointment though, and Purcell was made a scapegoat for the team's poor performances. Regardless of this, he remained a staunch Souths man and was one of those who worked tirelessly to save the Rabbitohs when the club faced a financial crisis in the early 1970s and again when the club was excluded from the NRL competition. Sadly, Purcell passed away on News Year’s Eve, 2001, aged 73 and did not get the chance to see Souths take the field in their return season.