Garry Jack

Garry Jack

Personal information
Nickname	Jimmy
Born	(1961-03-14) 14 March 1961 Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Height	178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Position	Fullback
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1980	Wests (Illawarra)	18	8			24
1981	Wests Magpies	5	1	0	0	3
1982–95	Balmain Tigers	244	59	1	1	232
1987,–1993-1995	Salford	50	14	0	0	56
1992-93	Sheffield Eagles		10			40
	Total	317	92	1	1	355
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1984–89	New South Wales	17	1	0	0	4
1984–88	Australia	22	11	0	0	44
Coaching information
Club
Years	Team	Gms	W	D	L	W%
1993–95	Salford	61	29	2	30	48
Source: NRL Stats, RLP

Garry Jack (born 14 March 1961 in Wollongong, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He was a representative in the Australian national team and star player with the Balmain Tigers. Jack was a Fullback for the Tigers during the late 1980s and early 1990s, under the captaincy of Wayne Pearce and the coaching of Warren Ryan. Jack also represented the New South Wales State of Origin side on 17 occasions.

Club career

His junior football was played in Wollongong with Wests Illawarra and in 1980 he was graded with them. He trialled with the Western Suburbs Magpies in 1981 and debuted in first grade in the latter part of that season aged 20.

He was sought out by Balmain Tigers club secretary Keith Barnes and persuaded to join Balmain who were putting together a side that featured young up and comers who would later star for the club, state and country such as Wayne Pearce, Benny Elias and Jack's fellow Wests Illwarra junior Steve "Blocker" Roach.

His association with English rugby league began at the end of the 1986 Kangaroo tour when he stayed on to play for Salford before returning to the Tigers. He was member of the consecutive Balmain sides which fell at the final hurdle to firstly Canterbury-Bankstown in the 1988 Grand Final and then to Canberra in 1989.

1991 saw the departure of Warren Ryan as Balmain coach and the arrival of former Wallaby coach, Alan Jones. The years playing under Jones at Balmain were unhappy ones for Jack and eventually after he had left the club in 1992 and launched an attack on Jones’ ability as a coach following his ‘surprise’ reappointment for a third year.

His final Balmain game at Leichhardt Oval in 1992 saw 17,365 mostly Tigers fans come out to pay homage to him and other retirees Steve Roach and David Brooks. When his Australian club career ended having surpassed Keith Barnes' club record for first grade matches, he returned to England to play his final season with the Sheffield Eagles.

After accepting a manager-coach position with Salford, Jack was relieved from the coaching duties before being sacked as club manager in early 1995. This saw him return to Australia that year to help out the struggling Sydney Tigers (Balmain) side.

Representative career

In the 1984 State of Origin series Jack made his New South Wales debut and played in all three games of that year's series. He was thereafter the Blues' first choice fullback for the next six years, aside from the 1987 fourth game exhibition match in Los Angeles when he made himself unavailable, and game I of 1988 when Cronulla's Jonathon Docking was preferred.

All up Jack made 17 appearances for New South Wales in State of Origin series between 1984 and 1989.

In 1984 he also made his international debut in the three match Ashes series against Great Britain. He played twenty successive Tests (nine versus Britain, seven against New Zealand and two each against France and Papua New Guinea) as well as the 1998 World Cup final against New Zealand and the Bicentenary International against a Rest of the World side.

On the 1986 Kangaroo tour Jack played in all six Tests and seven minor Tour matches. He became the first Australian fullback to score three tries in a Test against France in the second Test.

On 20 July 1988 Jack played for Australia in their record 62-point win over Papua New Guinea, scoring a try. After Jack broke an arm in a 1989 pre-season match the door opened for his great State of Origin rival Queenslander Gary Belcher who from that point was the favoured Australian representative for the fullback position.

Accolades

In 1986 Jack was honoured with the Golden Boot Award as the finest rugby league player in the world at that time. This highly respected honour is awarded to the world's rugby league players by Rugby League World magazine. Jack is one of only four fullbacks to have won the award since its inception in 1984, the others being Darren Lockyer (2003), Anthony Minichiello (2005) and Billy Slater (2008).

During the 1989 Grand Final, Jack was labeled as one of the "smartest defensive fullbacks around" by former dual rugby international and television commentator Rex Mossop after stopping a certain try by Canberra winger Matthew Wood by tackling him over the sideline just before Wood was able to place the ball down.

In 2005 he was honoured by Rugby League Week one of the 25 greatest ever New South Wales State of Origin players.

Jack received another accolade at the Balmain Tigers inaugural Hall of Fame dinner in March 2005. Before a large gathering of Tigers greats and supporters Jack received his place in the club's history alongside Wayne Pearce, Keith Barnes, and Peter Provan.

Garry has now transferred to Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts, He is a Brown belt Jiu-Jitsu and black belt in MMA.

Post playing

Garry Jack was appointed coach of English club Salford in July '93 but departed following their relegation from the top flight at the end of the 1994–95 Rugby Football League season.

Jack's sons Kieren and Brandon both play for the Australian Football League's Sydney Swans. Another son, Rhys Jack, played in the Bulldogs Toyota Cup side.

Sources

• Big League's 25 Years of Origin Collectors' Edition, News Magazines, Surry Hills, Sydney

External links

• The Garry Jack Tribute Stand