Dean Pay

Dean Pay first represented NSW U’16s while at school in Dubbo (a team-mate in that rep side was Junee's Laurie Daley). It took until 1993 until Pay secured a first grade position and the following year, he was called into NSW's State of Origin team before taking over as C’bury captain from the injured Terry Lamb. Pay had a great game at second row in the second match of the interstate series that year and following C’bury’s grand final loss to Canberra, he was chosen to tour with the 1994 Kangaroos. Selected as a reserve forward in Australia's First Test debacle at Wembley, Pay was one of the few Australian forwards who could hold their heads up after the 8-4 loss. It was not surprising then to see him in the starting line-up in the remaining Tests on tour. His spectacular try from Ricky Stuart's inside flick pass in the Third Test against Great Britain was a sign of his determination to succeed. Pay again captained the Bulldogs in Lamb's absence in the early part of the 1995 season but after first announcing that his future lay with the club's embracement of the Super League concept he reneged on the contract and signed with the ARL. Pay and three team-mates (Smith, Dymock and McCracken) were dropped by Bulldogs’ coach Chris Anderson but successfully proved their Super League contracts invalid in court. Pay represented NSW and Australia in 1995 before fighting his way back into C’bury’s top grade and help to spearhead the Bulldogs to a 17-4 win over Manly in the grand final. A member of Australia’s victorious World Cup team at the end of the year he joined ARL club P’matta in 1996. Pay’s form was down on his usual high standards and although he played for NSW during the next two seasons his only international match after the 1995 World Cup was against the ‘Rest of the World’ team in 1997. A frequent captain of the Eels, a succession of injuries saw him retire at the end of the 1999 season (despite being with the club for only four uneventful seasons he was later named in the Eels’ ‘Team of the Century’). In 2002 Pay answered the call from Ricky Stuart to act as a forwards coach with the Sydney Roosters and was appointed the club’s President’s Cup coach.