Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Terence Colin Fearnley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1933-07-21)21 July 1933 Sydney, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 4 March 2015(2015-03-04) (aged 81) Sydney, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Prop | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coaching information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Terence Colin Fearnley (21 July 1933 – 4 March 2015) was an Australianrugby league footballer and coach.
Fearnley was a long serving member of the NSWRFL'sEastern Suburbs team, playing 144 matches for them at a bleak period in that club's existence in two stints 1954–55 and 1957–64. Injury kept him out of the 1960grand final, one of the few successful yearsEastern Suburbs enjoyed in that period. Thefront rower however was selected to represent his state,New South Wales that season.[3]
Following his retirement from the game as a player, Fearnley enjoyed a successful coaching career, taking theParramatta Eels to their first everGrand Final in 1976 and then again in 1977. He had also been successful coach of theNew South Wales rugby league team but stood down at the start of the1978 NSWRFL season to concentrate on club football.[4] Fearnley moved to coachWestern Suburbs Magpies in 1982,Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (1983–84). Returning to representative coaching in 1985, he became the first successful New South WalesState of Origin coach. He was also selected asAustralian coach for the mid-season1985 Kangaroo tour of New Zealand.
Fearnley moved to coachIllawarra Steelers in 1988.
It was during his 1985 tenure as Australian coach that four players – allQueenslanders inChris Close,Mark Murray,Greg Dowling andGreg Conescu – were controversially sacked in favour of New South Wales players (Steve Ella,Des Hasler,Peter Tunks andBenny Elias), despite Australia having won the first two Tests of the three match series. Fearnley also had a frosty relationship with Australian (and Queensland) captainWally Lewis, with Lewis claiming to close friend and fellow MaroonPaul Vautin that Fearnley seemed to be conferring on team selections with vice-captainWayne Pearce (who was also the new NSW captain followingSteve Mortimer's representative retirement) rather than Lewis himself. Lewis claimed he had found the pair privately talking over selection of the Test team in Fearnley's hotel room, though this is disputed by Pearce who claimed he was there for different reasons. Dropping the four Queenslanders backfired on Fearnley asNew Zealand defeated Australia 18–0 in the final Test of the series atCarlaw Park inAuckland. It was the first time since the finalAshes Test of the1956–57 Kangaroo Tour that Australia had been held scoreless in a Test match.
Queensland Rugby League Chairman,SenatorRon McAuliffe, publicly condemned the dropping of the four Queensland players from a winning Test side, saying"Its a football assassination and beyond all reasoning. And there can be no reasonable excuse for it".
The NZ tour took place while the1985 State of Origin series was still in progress. NSW had won the series for the first time, taking the first two games before the Australian team was chosen for the NZ tour. Fearnley would later claim that the Queensland players in the team were unhappy that they'd just lost the Origin series, though he later admitted he didn't handle the situation as well as he could have. In Origin game threethat year played atLang Park, one of the sacked players, Maroons prop Greg Dowling, aimed a tirade of abuse at Fearnley from the sidelines after a Queensland try. The Maroons went on to win thedead rubber game 20–6. NSW captain Steve Mortimer, who announced his representative retirement following the Blues win in game II at theSydney Cricket Ground, later regretted his decision. After clearly out-playing Maroons half Mark Murray, he was in the box seat to keep his test jumper against the Kiwis (he had been the halfback for the 3rd Ashes Test against the touringGreat Britain Lions in Australia's most recent Test in1984), and as the likely team vice-captain he felt he could have used his personal friendship with both Fearnley and Lewis to ease tensions on the tour.
Because of the controversy surrounding the NZ tour theAustralian Rugby League instituted a new rule for national coaching which prevents any current serving State of Origin coach, being the national coach.
Following his retirement as a coach, Fearnley wrote an article forRugby League Week that was highly critical ofWally Lewis' captaincy. This gained him a rebuke from ARL officials.[5]
Fearnley died from cancer on 4 March 2015.[6]
