Tuesday, 11 July 2006  MEDIA RELEASE - The rugby league world today is mourning the  death of one of its finest, Eastern Suburbs (Roosters) stalwart Richard Alfred ( Dick) Dunn (OAM). Mr. Dunn, 86, had battled faltering health in recent years after a life of magnificent contribution to rugby league which began in the early 1930s when he first played the game with Watson’s Bay juniors. By then he was already a devoted Easts fan, making regular treks to the Sydney Sports Ground. In his long life he never strayed from the club of those childhood days.
From that early schoolboy’s infatuation for his local side grew a career almost unmatched in its selfless contribution to the sport. Dick Dunn played the game at an outstanding level and his performance in Easts’ grand final winning team of 1945, a day on which he scored 19 points, is still talked of today. On his retirement he made a seamless and immediate progression to off-field duties, ultimately serving the game in a vast array of roles.
He was an outstanding coach and took Easts to a grand final in 1960. Years later, the renowned Jack Gibson, the captain that day, rated Dick Dunn the best coach of his experience. At Easts, he was the club’s social secretary in his playing days, and took over as reserve grade secretary in 1947, beginning an ongoing `putting in’ to the game that would last through the next 50 years.
He coached Easts for four years (1960-63), coached and managed NSW teams and took on a variety of challenges at the NSWRL where he was a long-serving vice-president – the toughest of them in his own estimation being his years as chairman of the League’s Judiciary.
He served both the NSWRL and the Australian Rugby League for many years and with distinction – and was a life member of both bodies. In 1986 he was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to the game.
Australian Rugby League chairman Colin Love today praised Dick Dunn as a `genuinely great man of our game’. “He was nature’s gentleman,” said Mr Love. “His devotion to the sport and the contribution he made through the years were nothing short of wonderful. He will be missed a very great deal. The success and growth of the game of rugby league were built on the contribution of men such as Dick Dunn.”
Dick Dunn started out his football career as a fullback, graduated to wing, then centre – and became an outstanding lock forward. He played 134 first grade games for Easts between 1938-47 and scored 407 points.
He played in two premiership-winning teams for Easts (1940 and 1945). His 19 points tally in the 1945 victory over Balmain (22-8) – three tries and five goals – remains the highest by an individual in a match to decide the premiership.
His playing career was long ago, but with his cheery straightforward manner Dick remained a popular and enduring figure in the game - until fairly recent times, when health problems forced him to withdraw to a quieter life. “Dick Dunn served rugby league because he loved the game,” said Colin Love.
“We are very fortunate to have had such a man in the ranks.”
The late Dick Dunn loved the game in its modern guise, right until the end. “Oh yes, it is worth paying your money to see rugby league!” he declared early this year in one of the last interviews he gave. |
