JOHN Cleary modestly talks of his ‘magic run’ during the 1963 domestic rugby league season when he played for Queensland, and was a ‘shock selection’ for the Kangaroo touring side to Great Britain and France.
The 1963-64 ‘Roos were the first all Australian side to bring the Ashes home from Britain, and are still regarded by many critics as the best team to leave these shores.
Cleary, a front row forward, did not play a Test on tour, but appeared in 17 club and provincial games in Britain and France. He might have just as easily toured the British Isles with the Wallabies, given he played rugby union for Queensland, before switching codes. Cleary was first selected for the Queensland rugby union side in 1959, as a breakaway, and played against touring British Lions and Maori sides, with future Great Britain league captain, Bev Risman a member of the Lions’ squad.
“I started in union with Harlequins club in Toowoomba, where I was attending Teachers’ College,” Cleary said. “Sometimes we struggled to get eight players together on game day, so I decided to play in Brisbane with Brothers. I would hitch hike to Brisbane to train, and then after training I would get a lift back to Toowoomba in a truck carrying The Courier-Mail newspapers. Frank O’Callaghan was the rugby union writer with ‘The Courier’, and Frank set things up with the driver, although the blokes loading the truck weren’t to know. I would hide behind the building waiting for the truck, and then jump in the back. They would load the papers all around me. It was very uncomfortable in the back by the time we got to Toowoomba, because all the papers were gone. But I still managed to get some sleep. Frank gave me a ‘True Rugby Man’ trophy in 1960, and he was very upset when I defected to league the following year.”
Cleary’s code switch came after he was assigned as a teacher to Harrisville in the Fassifern Valley, to the south of Ipswich. Local farmer, Gary Parcell, who had played seven league Tests for Australia by then, offered to drive Cleary to training at the Ipswich Brothers’ club. Cleary, who played league at Millmerran on the Darling Downs before boarding at Brisbane union stronghold, Nudgee College, excelled in the 13 man code and played Bulimba Cup football for Ipswich against Brisbane and Toowoomba in 1961, ’62 and ’63.
He made his State debut against the touring New Zealand side in 1963, and although the Kiwis won 14-10, Cleary more than held his own against a star studded pack spearheaded by Maunga Emery and Mel Cooke.
“But I had broken my sternum the week before,” Cleary recalls. “My wife used to have to lift me off the bed, and when I went to training I used to hide it. We didn’t have contact drills in those days. Our trainer, Chloe Furness would strap me up with special padding, but it didn’t have much effect.”
Cleary was still troubled by the injury when he made his inter-state debut late in the season, with New South Wales winning both matches in Sydney – 31-5 and 13-5.
“Every time I got tackled it was like a knife going into me,” Cleary said of his two matches against the Blues. “When I tried to tackle it was the same sort of feeling. I didn’t give myself much hope of making the Kangaroo touring team which was named soon after. Ron Lynch from New South Wales was a sure thing for the tour, but broke his collar bone. A few other things happened and I got a magic run into the side.”
Cleary, Johnny Gleeson, Peter Gallagher, Ken Day and Barry Muir were the only Qld based players chosen in the Kangaroo squad, although Kevin Ryan (St George) and Noel Kelly (Wests) were ‘fair dinkum’ Queenslanders playing for Sydney clubs. Cleary and Ryan played together for Queensland in union, with Ryan representing the Wallabies before switching codes.
The 1963-64 Kangaroos spent much of the England section of the tour based at Ilkley, a spa town in the Wharfe Valley to the west of the rugby league hotbed of Leeds. They stayed at the Troutbeck, a hotel which had seen better days, and wasn’t liked by senior members of the side, who had stayed there on the 1959-60 tour.
“Some of the blokes thought it was shocking, but I thought it was first class luxury compared with the dump my wife and I were forced to live in at Harrisville,” Cleary said. “But as I say, some of the players didn’t like the hotel. Instead of opening doors, they would go through them. There was about 900 pounds worth of damage, and at the end of the tour they took money out of our bonuses to pay for repairs.”
In his first match on tour – against Yorkshire at Hull – Cleary had his nose broken by British Test forward, Derek ‘Rocky’ Turner, a noted amateur boxer.
After a match against Hunslet the players swapped Qantas Kangaroo pins for their rivals’ jerseys.
“We couldn’t believe our luck, but the next day the Hunslet manager came to our hotel wanting the jerseys back, because it was the only set they had,” Cleary said. “It was a demanding tour in England. So many of their players were coal miners, and they were tough men.
“In France things got a bit wild as well. We played an invitation side at Albi, and they brought in these ex-union internationals to rough up the Australians. But they weren’t in the class of some of our blokes, particularly Brian Hambly. He knocked out five that day.
“Mike Cleary (no relation to John) could also fight, even though he was a winger. And Peter Gallagher took no prisoners. He chased one French bloke for 100 metres to get at him.”
On his return to Australia, it hit home to Cleary the extent of the sacrifices his wife, Margaret had made looking after their two daughters, in basic conditions at Harrisville. Cleary was paid 12 pounds a week on tour and would send home 10 pounds to his young family.
With the help of noted Brisbane coach, Bob Bax, Cleary was offered a 1,500 pound contract to coach the West End club in Townsville in 1964, but under the rules of the day players returning from overseas tours had to spend the following season with the club from where they were selected, unless there was a job transfer. Cleary’s wife met with the Director General of Education, and after some spirited discussion, her husband was granted a move to Townsville, on the condition it was reported as a teaching transfer, and nothing to do with football.
In 1965 Cleary switched to Townsville Souths and won a premiership. He also played in two Foley Shield grand finals – in 1964 and ’66 – losing both, the first to Innisfail and the second to Cairns.
Sydney referee, Laurie Bruyeres was flown to Townsville to control the ’64 Foley Shield decider, and incensed the locals by sending off Cleary and skipper, Jim Paterson, a former Test forward, in the 12th and 15th minutes respectively.
“We had a good side, and I was never so comfortable about winning,” Cleary said. “Our second rower, Syd Clarke went on to play for Queensland and we had Wally Tallis (father of Gorden) at fullback, and a fine centre in Graham Charles. Jim (Paterson) said to me before the game I could do whatever I liked, because no-one had ever been sent off in a Foley Shield final. Early in the game (Innisfail centre) Ron Tait did something to me and I chased him, throwing punches, none of which landed. But Mr Bruyeres sent me off. I was having a shower and in walked Jimmy (Paterson). He had been sent off too, although at first he refused to go, and officials had to go on to the ground.”
Cleary quit football mid-way through the 1967 season and went into the hotel game in Townsville.
“I had 10 years in pubs and hated every moment of it,” he recalls. “They were purely beer houses. We would have the waterside workers, the miners from Greenvale – all wanting to fight one another. The Maoris would play the guitar until mid-night, then fight for two or three hours and try to take on the publican. It was a horrible time.”
Cleary kept his involvement with rugby league through the juniors, and at one stage coached Gene Miles, Colin Scott and Tony Kambouris. Miles and Scott would go on to play for Australia, while Kambouris won a Brisbane premiership with Wynnum-Manly, alongside Miles and Scott.
“Tony was the best of the three as a junior,” Cleary said. “I used to say to Gene that he had to get rid of the one armed pass. It was no bloody good. Of course, that became his signature.”
After he finished in the pub trade, Cleary worked for Bush Pilots as branch manager in Townsville.
“Qantas bought us out and that’s when I got my golden handshake,” Cleary said. “Bush Pilots would carry 2,000 passengers in and out of Palm Island (off Townsville) every week. ‘The Grasshopper’ (Barry Gomersall) would referee games over there.”
Cleary ran a limousine business on the Sunshine Coast before he retired. His wife, Margaret has pre-deceased him. They had four daughters – Susan, Kim, Nicolete and Peta. A stalwart of the Coolum Surf Life Saving Club on the Sunshine Coast, Cleary has been a strong supporter of the Family of League Foundation (formerly Men of League).
On one occasion, the home movies Cleary took on the 1963 Kangaroo tour were shown at a Men of League lunch at Broncos Leagues Club. I had the pleasure of hosting that lunch and interviewing John. The film was colour and featured some priceless memories.
They included Barry Muir and other players visiting injured prop, Kevin Ryan in hospital, with one or two of the players smoking at his bedside, which was allowed in those days. There was also action from a cricket match between the Kangaroos and locals at Ilkley. From the French leg there were was footage of some of the players surfing at Biarritz on the Atlantic Coast.
(This is an updated version of a story I filed for Men of League in 2017).
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