Rugby league is mourning one of its most revered names following the death of South Sydney icon and former Australian Test captain John Sattler this week, aged 80.
Sattler dished out more than his share of punishment – legal and otherwise – on the football field, but it was his bravery in playing out the 1970 Grand Final with a badly broken jaw that has enshrined his name in rugby league history.
Sattler arrived at Souths from Newcastle in 1963. The fiery front-rower’s early career was marred by a spate of send-offs and he was a surprise choice to assume the Rabbitohs’ captaincy in 1967, but went on to lead the club to four grand final victories.
A Kangaroo tourist in 1967, Sattler captained Australia in the second Ashes Test against England in 1970.
After 195 games for the Rabbitohs, Sattler finished his career in Queensland and captained the state side in 1973.
He was named in the South Sydney’s greatest-ever team in 2004 and as one of Australia’s 100 Greatest Players in 2008 (later inducted into the NRL Hall of Fame).
While he is celebrated as one of the code’s most ruthless enforcers and leaders, Sattler was regarded as true gentlemen away from the paddock – but his greatest legacy is undoubtedly as the standard-bearer for rugby league bravery.
The John Sattler Award, rewarding players for displays of courage on the rugby league field, was struck in 2001 in honour of the Souths great’s career-defining performance.
Following Sattler’s passing, relive some of the most heroic displays the game has witnessed.
John Sattler
South Sydney captain John Sattler’s bravery in playing out the 1970 Grand Final with a badly smashed jaw is the most well-known and oft-recalled act of courage in the game’s history.
He had his jaw fractured in three places and several teeth knocked out in a brutal incident involving Manly counterpart John Bucknall after just six minutes.
Sattler fought through the excruciating pain to lead his side to a 23-12 victory – the Rabbitohs’ third in four years.
“It wasn’t about trying to be a hero,” Sattler later recalled in typically understated fashion. “It was just something that had to be done. It was a grand final and nothing was going to stop me.”
Despite the severity of the damage to his jaw, the skipper remained out on the Sydney Cricket Ground until well after the match, accepting the premiership trophy while attempting to hide the injury; he still had designs on making Australia’s World Cup squad.
Sattler’s injuries, unsurprisingly, were far too severe for him to make the trip.
He was hospitalised for two weeks after the match and had his jaw wired for three months, but his heroics became embedded in rugby league folklore for eternity.
Clive Churchill
A broken wrist suffered against Manly in the penultimate round of 1955 ruled Clive Churchill out of Souths’ grand final triumph, but the legendary fullback’s gutsy decision to play on in the match is regarded as the pivotal moment in the club’s unlikely charge to their fifth premiership in six years.
Churchill broke his wrist in the opening minutes of the must-win clash against third-placed Manly, requiring a pain-killing injection to dull the intense pain, while team medics famously fashioned a makeshift splint from the cardboard cover of an exercise book.
With Souths trailing 7-4 in the dying moments, Churchill put lock Les ‘Chicka’ Cowie away to score the equaliser then nailed the after-the-bell conversion attempt from the sideline to keep his team’s title defence alive.
Jason Croker
The valour shown by the Raiders, and in particular veteran Jason Croker, in an extraordinary victory over the Roosters stood out like a beacon in Canberra’s otherwise disappointing 2001 season.
A devastating run of injuries in the Bruce Stadium clash left the Raiders with an empty bench five minutes into the second half, by which stage they trailed by 10.
But the undermanned Raiders surged home to record a 32-22 victory and no player better demonstrated the side’s courage than Croker.
After rolling his ankle early in the match, Croker damaged his knee to the extent that he was subsequently ruled out for the season with a ruptured cruciate ligament and torn medial ligament, but soldiered on to the end of the match.
Croker’s heroic display earned the former Test and Origin utility the inaugural John Sattler Award celebrating courage on the rugby league field.
Arthur Patton
The disregard for self-preservation displayed by champion Balmain winger Arthur Patton in the 1948 final remains one of the most awe-inspiring acts of courage in the code’s history.
Patton broke his leg just prior to halftime as his side trailed St George 2-0.
But with no replacements allowed until the 1960s, Patton returned to the field with the limb heavily strapped and played out the match in severe pain.
The Tigers defended grimly to hang on for a 13-12 victory despite a raft of injury problems, with Patton the undisputed hero of a brave team display.
It would be the last game in a career that garnered 95 tries from 117 games for Balmain, Patton’s ruled out of the following week’s grand final loss to Wests.
Shane Webcke
A modern-day purveyor of the old-world rugby league values of courage and disregard for personal protection, Broncos warhorse Shane Webcke twice defied serious injury to take the field in big matches.
Webcke broke his arm in Round 24 of the 2000 season but returned after just five weeks to take his place in the prelim defeat of Parramatta and the grand final victory over the Roosters, performing his role as the cornerstone of the Broncos’ pack despite the still-healing injury.
Four years later, Webcke underwent an arthroscopy on a recurring knee injury after the Broncos’ qualifying final loss to Melbourne, but still managed to front up for the sudden-death semi-final against the Cowboys a week later.
The Rorke’s Drift Test
The Battle of Rorke’s Drift was the successful defence of the Rorke’s Drift mission station by 150 British soldiers against an onslaught of 3,000-4,000 Zulu warriors in 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa.
The labelling of a 10-man England side’s 14-6 defeat of Australia at the SCG in 1914 as ‘The Rorke’s Drift Test’ provides an indication of the tourists’ heroic effort.
Ahead 9-0 at halftime of the deciding third Test, England lost winger Frank Williams, centre Billy Hall and forward Douglas Clark to injury.
With no replacements allowed under the rules of the day, England was forced to stoically defend the lead with a three-man disadvantage, but sealed a series victory that has become enshrined in the history of Anglo-Australian Rugby League with a try to forward Albert Johnson.
Steve Edmed
No-frills Balmain front-rower Steve Edmed evoked memories of Sattler’s grand final heroism when he played on with a fractured jaw early in the 1989 season.
A reserve in the Tigers’ loss to Canterbury in the previous season’s decider, Edmed played on for 30 minutes after suffering the injury before being replaced in a controversial encounter with Newcastle.
The 21-year-old’s brave effort helped inspire Balmain to a 22-20 victory over a 12-man Knights outfit.
Cooper Cronk
Sydney Roosters linchpin Cronk suffered a serious shoulder injury in his side’s preliminary final win over Souths, clouding his availability for the 2018 grand final.
The veteran halfback, playing the role of on-field director while being largely shielded from heavy contact as he played through the pain of a fractured scapula, helped inspire a comprehensive 21-6 defeat of the Melbourne club he had appeared in seven grand finals for.
Largely shielded from the rough stuff, Cronk didn’t make a run all night but came up with nine tackles and his presence was critical to the Roosters’ triumph, enhancing the champion No.7’s status as one of the most influential players in grand final history.
Blake Ferguson
Somewhat overshadowed by Cronk’s courage, Roosters wing weapon Ferguson produced an equally heroic effort to play out the 2018 grand final in his last game for the club.
Ferguson was later found to have suffered a broken fibula 10 mintues into the second half, yet played on until fulltime and finished with 155 metres from 21 carries.
The controversial try-machine partook in the Roosters’ premiership celebrations with the aid of crutches and a moonboot.
Queensland Origin team
Queensland overcame a crippling injury toll to seal the 1989 Origin series with a 16-12 victory in the second interstate encounter, a performance so gallant that the Sydney faithful could not even muster their customary jeering of Wally Lewis’ men.
Halfback Allan Langer (broken leg), centre Mal Meninga (fractured cheekbone) and second-rower Paul Vautin (fractured elbow) all succumbed to match-ending injuries at or before halftime, while a shoulder injury to winger Michael Hancock left the Maroons with no reserves during the final quarter.
Tony Currie and Trevor Gillmeister stayed on the field despite being concussed, while an injured ankle was not enough to force Sam Backo out of proceedings.
Lock Bob Lindner, who broke his leg early in the match and eventually succumbed in the dying stages.
Queensland to desperately defend a four-point lead with 12 men in a stoic effort that drew comparisons to the ‘Rorke’s Drift Test’ 75 years earlier, but the NSW fans’ deferential silence was perhaps the greatest compliment of all.
Trevor Gillmeister
The 31-year-old Queensland skipper Trevor Gillmeister had already led the Maroons to a phenomenal against-the-odds series triumph with victories in the opening two Origin clashes against the Blues in 1995.
But the veteran nevertheless climbed out of a hospital bed in the lead-up to the dead-rubber game three encounter to inspire his inexperienced charges to a 3-0 cleansweep.
The second-row hitman overcame a blood disorder and a consequent spell on a drip to make his 21st appearance for Queensland, guiding the team of misfits to a 24-16 success before returning to hospital.
Preston Campbell
One of the modern era’s most diminutive players, Titans livewire Campbell ranks amongst the bravest to play the game.
The pint-sized fullback’s toughness was emphatically illustrated when he played 43 minutes of a 2008 derby against the Broncos with a broken jaw.
Campbell suffered a knock late in the first half at Suncorp Stadium but played a starring role in Gold Coast’s gallant golden point loss with his customary attacking brilliance and wholehearted defence.
After scoring the Titans’ first try prior to receiving his injury, Campbell finished the match with three line breaks, a try assist and 162 metres in the 25-21 defeat.
The painful break ended Campbell’s season two games early but cemented a reputation among the NRL’s most courageous competitors.
Shaun Kenny-Dowall
Long-striding Kiwi centre Kenny-Dowall was one of the heroes of Sydney Roosters’ 2013 grand final victory over Manly, backing up to finish off a long-range go-ahead try in the 60th minute.
But SKD’s place in the annals of rugby league heroism was sealed when it became known he had fractured his jaw and broken a tooth during a clash in the opening five minutes of the decider.
Kenny-Dowall was subsequently ruled out of New Zealand’s World Cup campaign.
Andrew Johns
A rib injury suffered by Andrew Johns in the first week of the 1997 finals against Parramatta threatened Newcastle’s compelling premiership bid, before a misguided pain-killing needle at halftime of the preliminary final against Norths left the linchpin with a punctured lung.
‘Joey’s’ prospects of playing in the decider hung in the balance after a spell in hospital, while Manly and Australian team doctor Nathan Gibbs’ claimed that Johns risked death by playing with a punctured lung – adding more drama to his quest to play in the Knights’ biggest-ever game.
Johns’ inspirational play kept Newcastle in the grand final against Manly – he was also ordered to go back onto the field by coach Malcolm Reilly after coming to the sideline at one point – before he produced the blindside dart that set up Darren Albert’s premiership-winning try at the death.
Simon Mannering
Early in his career, Mannering showed the type of commitment and indefatigable spirit that would later compel former All Blacks doctor and Warriors medical man John Mayhew to put him in the same category as ‘Buck’ Shelford (of played out a rugby union test with a torn scrotum fame).
Mannering has battled a gastric virus in the week leading up to the Warriors’ 2007 clash with the Dragons – losing five kilos – but fronted up to play centre with the club low on troops.
An injury to Jerome Ropati put paid to coach Ivan Cleary’s plan to give Mannering an early mark, so he duly finished with two tries in a man-of-the-match performance…despite also breaking his hand during the match. The remarkable story was kept under wraps for more than a decade.
Jack Elsegood
Roosters winger Jack Elsegood overcame the anguish of the sudden death of his father just days earlier to play an inspirational hand in a stirring come-from-behind victory over the Raiders in 1999.
Elsegood’s brave decision to front up for the mid-season clash at the SFS was rewarded with a first half try, but the undermanned Roosters seemed destined for defeat when they trailed 22-12 midway through the second half.
But skipper Brad Fittler dragged the Roosters back into the contest and sent Elsegood over for his second try to level the scores, before interchange Julian Bailey crashed over for the match-winner in the 75th minute. Former Dally M Rookie of the Year Elsegood was lauded for his gutsy display.
Darren Lockyer
The rugby league world held its collective breath late in the 2011 semi-final between archrivals Brisbane and St George Illawarra when Darren Lockyer was felled by friendly fire with eight minutes remaining.
Airborne Brisbane fullback Gerard Beale’s knee collided with Lockyer’s face, leaving the Broncos’ skipper in a distressed state on the Suncorp Stadium turf.
Escalating the dramatic turn of events, the Dragons scored a 78th minute try to send the sudden-death encounter into golden point.
Lockyer – playing in his final season – regained his bearings and produced yet another clutch play in what would be his last appearance in the NRL, stepping up to land the match-winning field goal under pressure in the second minute of added time.
The all-time great was later revealed to have a depressed fracture of the cheekbone and eventually made the agonising decision to pull out of the following week’s preliminary final, which the Broncos lost to Manly.
Sam Burgess
It was only fitting that South Sydney’s first premiership in 43 years featured a selfless, gutsy display reminiscent of the club’s last grand final-winning skipper, John Sattler.
In the most dramatic opening play in grand final history, Rabbitohs enforcer Sam Burgess’ face blew up after a massive collision with fellow Brit hardman James Graham – later revealed to have fractured his cheekbone and eye socket.
Incredibly, Burgess played out the 80 minutes – racking up 35 tackles and 199 running metres – to earn the Clive Churchill Medal after Souths wrapped up an emotional, drought-breaking 30-6 win over the Bulldogs.