Cliff Lyons

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For the stuntman and film actor, see Cliff Lyons (actor).
Cliff Lyons
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Lyons at Australian rugby league centenary celebrations in 2008
Personal information
Nickname Napper
Born (1961-10-19) 19 October 1961 (age 63)
Narrandera, New South Wales
Playing information
Height 178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 89 kg (14 st 0 lb)
Position Five-eighth, Lock, Halfback
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1985 North Sydney 23 7 4 1 37
1985–86 Leeds  ? 9 0 2 38
1986–87 Sheffield Eagles
1986–99 Manly-Warringah 309 80 5 6 336
1988–89 Leeds  ? 7 0 0 28
Total 103 9 9 439
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1987–91 New South Wales 6 1 0 0 4
1988–92 City Origin 3 0 0 0 0
1988 Rest of the World 1 0 0 0 0
1990–91 Australia 6 2 0 0 8
Source: Yesterday's Hero,
and Rugby League Project

Cliff Lyons (born 19 October 1961 in Narrandera, New South Wales ) is an indigenous Australian former international-level rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s. A Clive Churchill Medallist and two-time Dally M Medallist, he made 309 first-grade appearances with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, winning grand finals with them in 1987 and 1996, and also represented New South Wales and Australia, being part of the successful 1990 Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain and France.

Cliff Lyons, known as Napper or Cliffy to his mates, started his rugby league career playing Lock forward, but was often moved into the Five-eighth role which is where he was considered to be at his best. It was at five-eighth that Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles coach Bob Fulton started playing Lyons on a permanent basis and he quickly became a favourite son at the Sea Eagles who gave him the nickname "God". Lyons success with the Sea Eagles, winning premierships in 1987 and 1996 saw him selected to the Manly Sea Eagles 60th Anniversary Dream Team in 2006. Lyons was named on the bench of the 17 man team.

Lyons was notable for his elusive cross-field runs, creating doubt in the minds of defenders and setting up gaps for support players to run back into. His most potent partnership was with Second-rower Steven Menzies, who was nicknamed, "Jesus" because he ran off the right hand of God.

Biography

Born in Narrandera, the teenage Cliff Lyons moved to the Cronulla district as a boarder from the Tregear near Mount Druitt.

Playing career

1980s

Lyons was graded as a second rower with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in 1981. He played with the Gundagai Tigers in the Group 9 competition for three seasons, from where he represented Riverina against New Zealand in 1982 and Great Britain in 1984.

North Sydney Bears

Lyons First entered in the NSWRFL Premiership for the first time with the North Sydney Bears midway through 1984, following his Riverina coach Greg Hawick. He made his first grade debut for the Bears in Round 2 of the 1985 NSWRL season, playing Five-eight and contributing a field goal in a 15-10 win over the Illawarra Steelers at the Wollongong Showground. He then played in England in the Australian off-season with stays with Leeds (1985–86) and Sheffield Eagles (1986–87). His small stature saw him targeted by rival forwards, but Lyons was tough enough to stand up for himself and there was no denying his talent at five-eighth.

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

Lyons moved to the Bob Fulton coached Manly for the 1986 NSWRL season and quickly became a favourite with the Brookvale Oval crowds, though he mostly played at lock forward that year due to a broken arm suffered by regular lock and team captain Paul Vautin. This saw Fulton play former Wallaby Mitchell Cox at five-eight for most of the season with mixed results. Manly finished 4th at the end of the minor round with 14 wins, 9 losses, a draw (plus 2 byes) and were bundled out in a 29-22 loss to Balmain in the Minor Preliminary Semi-final.

With Vautin fully recovered by the start of the 1987 season, Lyons became the Sea Eagles first choice five-eight alongside speedy Australian Kangaroos test Halfback Des Hasler. Manly went on to record a then club record 12 straight wins during the season which culminated in an 18-8 victory over the Canberra Raiders in the last ever Grand Final played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Lyons scored the only try of the first half against the Raiders after a strong 25m run from a scrum win, but it was his damaging runs that cut holes in the Raiders defence that saw him win the Clive Churchill Medal as man of the match. Following the grand final victory he travelled with Manly to England for the 1987 World Club Challenge against the 1986–87 English champions, Wigan. In front of an official 36,895 fans at Wigan's Central Park (though many in attendance believe the crowd to be closer to 50,000), Wigan stunned the Winfield Cup premiers 8-2 in a try-less game. In his biography "The Strife and Times of Paul Vautin", Paul "Fatty" Vautin admitted that the Sea Eagles had gone to England with the attitude that they would win easily following the undefeated 1982 and 1986 Kangaroo Tours. Vautin reported that the players, still celebrating their Grand Final win a week earlier, had continued to celebrate after arriving in Wigan and were not really taking a serious approach to the game, unlike Wigan who saw the importance of the game.

Lyons made his State of Origin debut for New South Wales in Game 2 of 1987 State of Origin series on a wet and muddy Sydney Cricket Ground, beating out Canterbury-Bankstown pivot and 1986 Kangaroo tourist Terry Lamb as the Blues' five-eighth at the end of the representative career of Brett Kenny and playing opposite the King of Origin football, Australian and Queensland captain Wally Lewis. Lyons also played in 1987's exhibition state of Origin match in Los Angeles.

Despite being born and bred in the country, Lyons made the first of three appearances for City Origin in 1988 in the annual City vs Country Origin game. He appeared in two games of the 1988 State of Origin series, vying for the five-eighth position with Terry Lamb. At the end of the 1988 NSWRL season, Lyons made his international debut when he was selected on the bench for a Rest of the World team that narrowly lost 30-28 to Great Britain at Headingley in Leeds, England. Joining Lyons in the side were his Manly team mates Dale Shearer (Fullback), Michael O'Connor (Centre) and Noel "Crusher" Cleal (Second-row), as well as fellow Australians Steve Ella (5/8), Allan Langer (Halfback) and Sam Backo (Prop). Cliff Lyons played Stand-off/Five-eighth, and was man of the match winning the White Rose Trophy in Leeds' 33-12 victory over Castleford in the 1988 Yorkshire Cup final during the 1988–89 season at Elland Road, Leeds on Sunday 16 October 1988.

1990s

Lyons' ability to set up tries for his support players with his unpredictable weaving runs saw him consistently win player awards, culminating in his 'breakthrough' season in 1990, age 29. After winning the coveted Gold 'Dally M' award for Player of the Year in the regular club season he received his call-up to the Australian team on the 1990 Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain and France. Australia lost the first Test 19-14 at Wembley Stadium (the Kangaroos first loss on English soil since 1978), and Lyons was thrust into the second Test side at Old Trafford. He repaid the faith shown in him by his former club coach Fulton by finishing one of the best team tries ever seen in a Test as Australia kept The Ashes alive with 14-10 win over Great Britain. He then produced a solid display in the third Test as Australia retained The Ashes with a resounding 14-0 win at Elland Road. He then went on to play in both winning Tests against France, being named man-of-the-match for the 34-10 second test win at the Stade Gilbert Brutus in Perpignan.

Lyons again played for NSW in the 1991 State of Origin series, but lost his test place to a returning Wally Lewis for the first test of the 1991 Trans-Tasman Test series against New Zealand and then was passed over in favour of North Sydney pivot Peter Jackson for the final two tests. At the end of the 1991 season in which Manly finished in 2nd place behind eventual premiers Penrith in the minor round, but bombed out in straight sets in the finals with losses to North Sydney and Canberra, Lyons toured Papua New Guinea and regaining his test spot due to an injury to Jackson being unavailable with an injury. On tour he played in his final two tests for Australia against the Papua New Guinea Kumuls, scoring a try in the first test in Goroka partnering Manly team mate Geoff Toovey in the halves, but was relegated to the bench for the final test against the Kumuls in Port Moresby.

Cliff Lyons was particularly in his element in 'Sevens' competitions, winning the 'Player of the Competition' during Manly's 1994 Sevens' win and captaining an Aboriginal 'Dream Team' in the 1996 competition. Despite winning his second Gold 'Dally M' award in 1994, as well as becoming Manly's first Rugby League Week "Player of the Year" since his coach Bob Fulton had won in 1975 (and the club's last as of 2014), he missed selection for that year's Kangaroo tour at the age of 33 in favour of younger players.

Lyons resisted a lucrative offer from the Western Reds to stay with the Sea Eagles in 1995 and went on to play in three consecutive grand finals from 1995–97, winning his second premiership in 1996 with a 20-8 win over St. George. At the end of the 1998 season, in which he was mainly used off the bench, Lyons reluctantly retired after not being offered a contract.

January 1999 found him playing for Warringah in an RU Sevens competition but following the Sea Eagles' disastrous start to the 1999 season, he made a comeback with the club, passing the 300 first grade mark late in the season. He became the oldest player in the NRL at 37 years and 313 days,[1] and also retired with Manlys club record for most first-grade appearances.[2] At the end of the year, he was named Aboriginal Sportsman of the Year (tied with Nicky Winmar) and captained Australian Aborigines in an unofficial 'test' against Papua New Guinea in Cairns.

2000s

Cover of From the Bush to Brookvale The Cliff Lyons Story

In the year 2000 Lyons was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league. Cut from the newly formed Northern Eagles at year's end, he signed with Umina and captain-coached the Central Coast club in 2001, the year he celebrated his 40th birthday.

Lyons made a cameo appearance in the 2006 film, Footy Legends.[3]

Lyons' 309 first grade games for Manly is the club record. Into his 40's Cliff's career continued with the Hornsby Lions and more recently the Narraweena Hawks. He will return for Manly in 2016 at 5/8 to replace outgoing New Zealand International Keiran Foran. Joe Kelly is set to confirm one of Manly's favourite son's 'Cliffy' has agreed to terms on a 1-year incentive based contract. Despite earning minimum wage thanks to Daly Moneybags-Evans rich deal, Lyons will bank extra coin if he can make the VB Blues squad. Something that seems very achievable given the current crop of eligible 5/8s.

Coaching career

Having coached Narraweena to consecutive premierships in the Manly A-Grade competition, Lyons joined moved into the NSW Cup as coach of the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles side just before the 2012 season.[4]

After leading Manly to a 6th-place finish in the 2012 NSW Cup season, Lyons was replaced as Manly's NSW Cup coach for the 2013 season by former Sea Eagle Luke Williamson.

Career Stats

Team Matches Tries Goals FG Points Years
North Sydney 23 7 4 1 37 1985
Leeds 23 0 4 96 1985-86, 1988–89
Sheffield 1986-87
Manly-Warringah 309 80 5 6 336 1986-99
City Origin 3 0 0 0 0 1988-92
New South Wales 6 1 0 0 4 1987-91
Australia 6 2 0 0 8 1990-91

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Club records at seaeagles.com.au
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Whiticker, Alan (2000) From the Bush to Brookvale - the Cliff Lyons story, Gary Allen.

External links

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