League Immortal Raper ‘a true champion’
Mike Hedge |
To elevate one sportsperson above all others, to make comparisons between the performers of different eras is generally a worthless endeavour.
But sometimes there are exceptions — and unquestionably Johnny Raper was exceptional.
Enough evidence exists on honour rolls, in record books and the minds of those who played with and against him to make it certain that Raper — who died on Wednesday aged 82 — was one of the finest rugby league players ever.
Too many who should know are unequivocal on the matter.
Raper’s fellow Immortal and St George and Australia teammate, the late Reg Gasnier, himself a “best-ever” candidate, was convinced.
“Johnny Raper was certainly the greatest footballer I played with or against,” Gasnier said.
“He was the best cover defender, the best running forward, the best reader of the game. And, for his time, he was the fittest and strongest player in the league.”
Another Immortal, and a man who shone through more than one era of the game, Wally Lewis, modelled himself on Raper.
“Johnny Raper was the player I grew up wanting to be,” Lewis said.
“He was everything a rugby league player should be. Tough, clever, equally brilliant in attack or defence, a natural.
“I can’t imagine a better player.”
His captain and coach at St George, Norm Provan, had no doubt about the champion lock’s value to a team that won a record 11 consecutive Sydney premierships, including eight for Raper from 1959 to 1966.
“Johnny was special in many ways. One thing about him was that he never stopped moving,” Provan said.
“He’d come out of the scrum and know exactly what to do. I never saw anyone read the play like him and I never knew anyone to make a position his own like Johnny did at lock forward.”
As telling as any other tribute was the more personal reflection of yet another St George teammate, Johnny King.
“I know time catches up with all of us but, when you played alongside him, you thought he’d live forever,” King said.
Raper, who made his first-grade debut for Newtown as an 18-year-old in 1957, playing 37 games for the Bluebags, burst to prominence in the mighty St George teams of the 1950s and ’60s.
But he was much more than a good player at a great club.
As well as his 222 first-grade games for Newtown and St George, including 185 in the famous Red V, Raper also won 39 Test caps for Australia between 1959 and 1968, played in six World Cups and captained his country eight times.
He was one of the initial group of four post-war Immortals selected by the Australian Rugby League in 1985 along with Gasnier, Clive Churchill and Bob Fulton.
He was also named at lock in the ARL’s team of the century, made an MBE, a Test selector, a member of the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame and his portrait was entered for the 2000 Archibald Prize.
John William “Chook” Raper was born into a working-class family from Revesby in Sydney’s south west on April 12, 1939.
The eldest of nine brothers, he played much of his junior football for the Camperdown Dragons, duly winning selection in Newtown’s President’s Cup team.
Raper’s move to St George coincided with his selection as one of seven from the Dragons in the 1959 Kangaroos squad to tour Britain and France.
After his debut as a 20-year-old in the third Test of that series, Raper didn’t miss a representative match, except through injury, for the next 10 years.
He ended his Sydney first-grade playing career as captain-coach of St George in 1969, going on to play three seasons in Newcastle as captain-coach of the Western Suburbs Rosellas and played the 1973 and ’74 seasons for Kurri Kurri.
Two seasons coaching Cronulla Sutherland followed, along with a brief spell as caretaker coach at Newtown in 1978.
He also served as a constable in the NSW police force from 1955 to ’58.
Some of Raper’s brothers also made names for themselves in rugby league, Ron playing 128 first grade games for Canterbury, Maurie 87 for Penrith and Cronulla.
Brothers Gerard and Michael also played lower grade football in Sydney.
Raper’s son Aaron played 96 first-grade games for Cronulla and Parramatta, 59 for the Castleford Tigers in England and made one World Cup appearance for Australia.
Another son Stuart also played for Cronulla and, like his father, coached the club.
Raper was diagnosed with dementia in 2017 and spent his final years in a nursing home.
Gone, but never forgotten.
“A true champion. He will be sadly missed,” fellow St George great Steve Edge told AAP on Wednesday.
The Australian Rugby League Commission also paid tribute.
ARLC chairman Peter V’landys – a passionate Dragons fan – said the game had, obviously, lost one of its greatest players in history.
“An Immortal, a Kangaroos captain and an eight-time premiership-winning player. Johnny was the best of the best,” V’landys said.
“A football genius, he had a gut instinct for rugby league like few we have seen.
“He wasn’t the biggest player on the field, but he was the smartest. Johnny’s feats with the Dragons will remain part of rugby league legend forever.
“On behalf of the game, I send my deepest condolences to Johnny’s family, friends and teammates.”
JOHNNY RAPER
Born: Revesby, Sydney, April 12, 1939
Age: 82
Position: lock
ARL playing career
Newtown: 37 games (1957-58) – 10 tries; 30 points
St George: 185 games (1959-69) – 8 premierships (1959-66); 47 tries; 4 goals; 149 points
Representative playing career
NSW: 24 games (1959-70) – 5 tries; 15 points
Australia: 39 Tests (1959-68) – 9 tries; 27 points
Coaching career
St George: 23 games (1969) – 14 wins, 9 losses
Cronulla-Sutherland: 44 games (1975-76) – 18 wins, 2 draws, 24 losses
Newtown: 18 games (1978) – 2 wins, 1 draw, 6 losses
AAP
