Vale Johnny Raper

[Eric]

Johnny Raper dead: Rugby league Immortal and St George Dragons legend passes away aged 82​

Rugby league has lost one of its greatest ever players with Immortal and Dragons legend Johnny Raper passing away aged 82.

“Chook” was a legendary player and coach, winning eight premierships in a row as part of the Dragons’s magical streak of 11.

St George great Raper fought a long battle with dimentia and spent the latter part of his life in a Sydney nursing home.

The rugby league community will come together to remember one of the greatest players in the game’s 114-year history.

He notched 33 Test caps and was named as one of the original Immortals.

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Raper, Provan, Langlands, Gasnier all gone over the last 5 or so years. We need to new legends to step up from now. Of course we will never have such a large group within a generation again but need one every generation.

 

[RedV01]

Johnny Raper dead: Rugby league Immortal and St George Dragons legend passes away aged 82​

Rugby league has lost one of its greatest ever players with Immortal and Dragons legend Johnny Raper passing away aged 82.

“Chook” was a legendary player and coach, winning eight premierships in a row as part of the Dragons’s magical streak of 11.

St George great Raper fought a long battle with dimentia and spent the latter part of his life in a Sydney nursing home.

The rugby league community will come together to remember one of the greatest players in the game’s 114-year history.

He notched 33 Test caps and was named as one of the original Immortals.

---

Raper, Provan, Langlands, Gasnier all gone over the last 5 or so years. We need to new legends to step up from now. Of course we will never have such a large group within a generation again but need one every generation.

R.I.P.

 

[jodragon40]

I have a framed photograph that hangs proudly at my home of myself and my youngest son with 3 immortals : Johnny Chook Raper, Graeme Changa Langlands and Reg the magic dragon Gasnier . All were gentlemen I even have a photo of another dragons legend Norman Sticks Provan who for many years managed Rydges Resort Caloundra. Now they are all playing together again in heavens stadium. God bless them all.

 

[GCRV]

I have a framed photograph that hangs proudly at my home of myself and my youngest son with 3 immortals : Johnny Chook Raper, Graeme Changa Langlands and Reg the magic dragon Gasnier . All were gentlemen I even have a photo of another dragons legend Norman Sticks Provan who for many years managed Rydges Resort Caloundra. Now they are all playing together again in heavens stadium. God bless them all.

My dad used to tell me about some of those guys. Said the same as you.

Johnny Raper dead: Rugby league Immortal and St George Dragons legend passes away aged 82​

Rugby league has lost one of its greatest ever players with Immortal and Dragons legend Johnny Raper passing away aged 82.

“Chook” was a legendary player and coach, winning eight premierships in a row as part of the Dragons’s magical streak of 11.

St George great Raper fought a long battle with dimentia and spent the latter part of his life in a Sydney nursing home.

The rugby league community will come together to remember one of the greatest players in the game’s 114-year history.

He notched 33 Test caps and was named as one of the original Immortals.

---

Raper, Provan, Langlands, Gasnier all gone over the last 5 or so years. We need to new legends to step up from now. Of course we will never have such a large group within a generation again but need one every generation.

There is no more pain.

 

[Eric]

This is a photo of the undefeated side in I think 1953. I see Provan in the middle of the standing row, Raper on the left of the standing row, Clay the balding guy second from right. Is Gasnier there? Maybe one of the two sitting? Who else?

 

[RedV01]

This is a photo of the undefeated side in I think 1953. I see Provan in the middle of the standing row, Raper on the left of the standing row, Clay the balding guy second from right. Is Gasnier there? Maybe one of the two sitting? Who else?

View attachment 4

Billy Smith in the middle?

 

[Eric]

Billy Smith in the middle?

Really don't know. When it was breaking news, they had the picture with the names. When they updated the story, they kept the picture but removed the names. Raper (due to the face), Provan (due to the height) and Clay (due to the hairstyle) were obvious.

 

[jodragon40]

This is a photo of the undefeated side in I think 1953. I see Provan in the middle of the standing row, Raper on the left of the standing row, Clay the balding guy second from right. Is Gasnier there? Maybe one of the two sitting? Who else?

View attachment 4

Actually that is our 1959 team undefeated premiership winning team I can see Harry Bath there 2nd left 2nd row of course Raper Gasnier Popped Clay Billy Smith came later on

 

[Eric]

Actually that is our 1959 team undefeated premiership winning team I can see Harry Bath there 2nd left 2nd row of course Raper Gasnier Popped Clay Billy Smith came later on

Which one is Gasnier?

 

[Dragons Chris]

Which one is Gasnier?

Bottom right. I think.

 

[Morgan]

This is a photo of the undefeated side in I think 1953. I see Provan in the middle of the standing row, Raper on the left of the standing row, Clay the balding guy second from right. Is Gasnier there? Maybe one of the two sitting? Who else?

View attachment 4

I don't think Gasnier is in the photo. It appears not. I can only guess he started the next year, 1960. Ken Kearney is in the middle and Harry Bath directly to the left of him.

 

[Eric]

Johnny Raper led on the rugby league field and off it​

With the marriage of stats and memory, it is no exaggeration to say Johnny Raper might have been the greatest ever. But that was only part the St George Dragons legend.​

Bill Mordey was writing league for the Daily Mirror already back then and his legend, for how fond he was of a bet, was in full swing.

Idle money was no good to Mordey so, before the start of the 1966 season, he put a year’s wages on St George to win the premiership, their 11th straight. As the Dragons marched through the home and away rounds Mordey felt pretty happy with himself, following the Dragons all the way to the minor premiership, and such was their form Mordey knew he might as well have been stealing the money. The Dragons were certainties, and the week of the grand final Johnny Raper told him as much.

Then the night before the grand final Mordey was in a city pub when the doors kicked open and in roared Raper, Billy Smith and Graeme Langlands, the three of them as drunk as 10 men, and as the pub lit up an entire year’s wages flashed before Bill’s sparkly eyes. He grabbed the publican and demanded a phone to call his bookie. He needed to get off the bet. The bookie resisted but eventually let Mordey off the bet. It was one of the costliest phone calls Mordey ever made.

He didn’t know Raper then like we all came to know him, that the man had a constitution that was simply the greatest ever seen.
Many years later I remember talking to Raper, who died on Wednesday after breakfast, and picking his brain about his legendary fitness and he said he liked to return after a big night out and, instead of walking in the front door, where wife Caryl might have been waiting, he would get into the back seat of his car and fall asleep there.

The early sun would wake him as the car heated like a greenhouse, the temperature rising to sauna-like temperatures and the sweat beginning to pour out of him until he could no longer stand it over the hangover and he would push open the back door.

Once there, instead of heading inside, he would hit the road and go for a run to sweat out the alcohol.

Tell a tale like that nowadays and the strength and conditioning men would die from a heart attack if a player attempted it today, but that was among Raper’s favourites.

The sting to the story is that years later when the stats-men started looking back, NRL Stats tracked every game back to 2007 and every State of Origin played, and then every grand final back to 1966, and when all the numbers were crunched through the computer they found that Raper’s 1966 grand final was statistically the greatest performance ever on a football field.

Today, with the marriage of stats and memory, it is no exaggeration to say Raper might have been the greatest ever. But that was only part of who he was. If he was not rugby league’s original hellraiser, he was certainly it’s most celebrated. Like no other, there was a story to tell for each day of his life. He led on the field and off it.

He won eight premierships with St George, his performance in the second Test of the 1963 Kangaroo tour is regarded as one of the greatest Test performances ever.
In an opening 25-minute blitz Raper had a hand in all seven Australian tries, throwing the final pass in four. This was at a time when the Lions still dominated international football.

I remember Bob Fulton telling the story of his first game for Country as a teenager when the City team, filled with internationals like Raper and Provan and Langlands, were giving it to the Country boys so Fulton decided to pick on his opposite, the ageing Brian Clay.

Soon after, a scrum broke up and he got smashed to the ground. On top of him was Raper. “Lay off the old bloke,” Raper warned him. “Well you blokes lay off us,” Fulton said. “Deal,” and from that moment City simply went through the motions. These were all simply part of the character. Off the field, Raper’s legend grew larger. At league functions he was always surrounded, often telling a story before becoming the story.

He was the Man in the Bowler Hat, famously admitting to being the Kangaroo player who walked through Ilkley one cold winter night in northern England in nothing but the hat, even if he did not really do it. It was actually teammate Dennis Manteit. Although he did pose naked for Cleo magazine, a bowler hat protecting his modesty.

A brawl erupted at Juliana’s nightclub after the 1989 Rothmans Medal and the following day the papers carried pictures of the crowd fleeing, some of the most recognisable names in the game and some with their white shirts stained red with blood.

It emerged Raper was in the centre of it, getting involved to help a mate, dropping a bloke on the way through. Nowadays, a senior player can’t get through a sentence about his future without a suggestion of what it might mean to his legacy, yet, between games, they mostly lead a dull existence. Raper put enough life in those days between games, and after, that many wondered how he made it all the way to 82 at all.

Nobody trained harder and nobody pushed for more out of their body. It enabled Raper, who really could do it all on the football field, to do things in the game long after fatigue had levelled his opponents. The sadness is that at the very end that big champion’s heart that pumped inside his chest was all that kept him going. The dementia hit so hard he was bedridden at the end, and had lost the power of speech, and only occasionally would he recognise those who visited.

It was life’s sad irony. That big heart that pushed him to greatness was all that was keeping him going at the end, long after he stopped living, until yesterday when mercifully it beat for the last time.

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Nice story. It's utterly unrealistic and practically impossible for the glory days to return to that extent but we should have been much better since. Specially the years following 2010.

 

[jodragon40]

Which one is Gasnier?

I thought back row 1st left standing am I wrong?

 

[jodragon40]

I don't think Gasnier is in the photo. It appears not. I can only guess he started the next year, 1960. Ken Kearney is in the middle and Harry Bath directly to the left of him.

I thought back row 1st left standing

 

[Dragons Chris]

I thought back row 1st left standing am I wrong?

Probably not. I really don't know.

 

[Dragons Chris]

I don't think Gasnier is in the photo. It appears not. I can only guess he started the next year, 1960. Ken Kearney is in the middle and Harry Bath directly to the left of him.

Maybe. If that's the premiership winning team, should be easy enough to find out. Hold that thought.

 

[Dragons Chris]

I thought back row 1st left standing

I don't think Gasnier is in the photo. It appears not. I can only guess he started the next year, 1960. Ken Kearney is in the middle and Harry Bath directly to the left of him.

Which one is Gasnier?

He should be in there whomever it is. He joined the club in 1958, signed in 1957 when he was 18. By 1959 he was an established NSW and Australian rep.

St. George Dragons​

In 1957, Gasnier, aged 18, focused his attention on rugby league, signing with the local St. George Dragons for the 1958 season. After only six games in third grade, he was selected for his first grade debut, and after only five first grade games he was selected for New South Wales.He scored 15 tries in 16 games for his state team.

By 1959, Gasnier had become an established member of both the New South Wales state side and the Australian international team. He was an important member of the dominant Dragons team of the late 1950s/early 1960s that won 11 consecutive premiership victories, of which Gasnier was on the team for six. He finished his career with the Dragons in 1967, with 127 tries and 20 goals in 125 appearances and 6 premierships. Reg Gasnier is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever St. George Dragons players.

 

[Eric]

Okay. I just don't know. I've been searching for the info but have come up empty. Gasnier was part of the team but no word if he is in that team photo and if he is, which one he is. I'm going to go with jodragon40 but IMO the resemblance isn't clear as it is for Raper who I believe was the same age or only within a year or two. Provan and Clay are clear for reasons other than facial recognition.

 

[Morgan]

I thought back row 1st left standing

Bottom right. I think.

Which one is Gasnier?

Stop the fight:
St George Dragons 1959
Back: Johnny Raper, Monty Porter, Norm Provan, Peter Provan, Brian Messiter, Geoff Weekes.
Middle: Billy Wilson, Harry Bath, Ken Kearney (c), Brian Clay, Eddie Lumsden.
Front: Bob Bugden, Brian Graham.

I wonder what happened to Gasnier for him not to be in that photo.

As someone said in another thread, the merger was the correct decision and a win-win which secures the St George Dragons future pretty much forever and provoides Illawarra with a future. Even if or when some Sydney teams are culled or forced to relocate, it won't be us. Having said that, sometimes it feels nice to refer to St George Dragons rather than St George Illawarra Dragons.

 

[GCRV]

Stop the fight:
St George Dragons 1959
Back: Johnny Raper, Monty Porter, Norm Provan, Peter Provan, Brian Messiter, Geoff Weekes.
Middle: Billy Wilson, Harry Bath, Ken Kearney (c), Brian Clay, Eddie Lumsden.
Front: Bob Bugden, Brian Graham.

I wonder what happened to Gasnier for him not to be in that photo.

As someone said in another thread, the merger was the correct decision and a win-win which secures the St George Dragons future pretty much forever and provides Illawarra with a future. Even if or when some Sydney teams are culled or forced to relocate, it won't be us. Having said that, sometimes it feels nice to refer to St George Dragons rather than St George Illawarra Dragons.

Interesting. Know of all but Brian Messiter, Geoff Weekes and Brian Graham.

From what I've heard, add Gasnier to that and it's no wonder they dominated.