Johnny Raper


John 'Chook' Raper, :Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire|MBE is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and coach. He was a lock-forward for the Australia national team. He had a record 33 test caps between 1959 and 1968 and played in 6 World Cup games between 1960 and 1968.Whiticker/Hudson p. 451 Raper captained Australia on 8 occasions in 1967–68 and played in eight consecutive NSWRFL grand final victories for the St. George Dragons club. He has since been named as one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

Background

Raper was born in Revesby, in south-western Sydney, Australia. He came into a working-class family of nine boys, he played his junior rugby league for the Camperdown Dragons before representing Newtown's President's Cup side in 1956.

Professional playing career

Sydney

Raper joined and made his first grade debut for Newtown in 1957 as an eighteen-year-old. Raper represented New South Wales Colts as a lock against Great Britain in 1958. Having agreed terms to leave Newtown to join the reigning premiers St George Raper sat out most of the 1958 season to comply with residential criteria.
Raper joined St George as a lock forward and it was in this position that he became an international rugby league star. His legendary cover defence and ball skills had him be acknowledged during his playing career as the best loose-forward the world had ever seen. He played in eight Grand final wins with St George between 1959 and 1966.
Raper attributed his success to a training discipline and fitness fanaticism that was ahead of its time. While St George's early adoption of circuit training in the late 1950s was a major contributing factor in their eleven-year premiership run, Raper's own commitment to additional running and weights every day and often alone, enabled him to achieve a personal goal of being the fittest player in the fittest team in the competition. In 1959–60 he made the first of his three Kangaroo tours, scoring a try on debut in the Third Test loss vs Great Britain at Wigan. For the next ten years he was rarely, except for injury, out of the Australian Test team.
Raper's performance in the second test of the 1963 tour at Swinton which saw the Kangaroos register the biggest win in Anglo-Australian test history and become the first Australian touring team in fifty years to win the Ashes was pivotal. In the 50–12 victory, Raper had a hand in the first seven tries scored in an opening 25-minute routing and he gave the final pass in four of them.
In his third Kangaroo tour of 1967–68 Raper suffered a cheekbone fracture in the opening 16–11 Test loss causing him to miss the 2nd Test won by Australia to keep the series alive. Captain-coach Reg Gasnier had broken a leg in the 1st Test so Raper upon his return to fitness was deputised and earned the ultimate Australian rugby league honour in captaining his country in the 11–3 win over Great Britain played in icy conditions on a frozen ground in Swinton on 21 October 1967. This test was the first time the Australians had beaten the English on English soil in many years.
Raper went on to captain Australia in the First and Third Tests against France in 1967–68 For the 1968 World Cup Raper captained Australia in their four games undefeated games of the tournament including the 20–2 victory against France in the final at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Raper's last season with St. George was in 1969 as captain-coach. In 1969 he appeared as a guest player for Auckland in a match against the New Zealand national rugby league team to mark the New Zealand Rugby League's diamond jubilee. Raper was awarded Life Membership of the St. George Dragons Club in 1971.

Newcastle

Raper played three seasons with the Western Suburbs Rosellas in the Newcastle competition from 1970–1972. He captain coached the club and took them to victory in the 1970 grand final. He finished his playing career with Kurri Kurri in 1973–1974.

Statistics

Point scoring summary
GamesTriesGoalsF/GPoints
223574–179

Coaching career

Raper returned to Sydney as coach of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in 1975 and 1976, commencing an association with that club later carried on by his sons Stuart Raper and Aaron Raper. He also coached a Lane Cove Rugby Union Club team to victory in the Judd Cup suburban competition in 1977. After five games of the 1978 NSWRFL season and internal turmoil leading to the resignation of first-grade coach Paul Broughton, Raper took over as coach of the Newtown Jets in a caretaker capacity.

Later life

In retirement Raper for a time played a larger-than-life celebrity role: making a record, appearing in commercials for a tyre company and the Liberal party and as an in-demand speaker and guest on radio and TV talk shows. Much higher honours were to follow: an award of a Member of the Order of the British Empire; selection in 1985 as one of the initial four post-war "Immortals" of the Australian game with Churchill, Gasnier and Fulton; appointment in 1988 as an Australian Test selector and representative of the New South Wales Rugby League. Raper was also inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985.
Always regarded as a larrikin in his playing days, Raper is now seen as one of Rugby League's most ardent ambassadors and senior statesmen. In 2000, his portrait was entered into the Archibald Prize.
In 2002 Raper was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame. In 2007 he was selected by a panel of experts at lock in an Australian 'Team of the 50s'.
In February 2008, Raper was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. Raper went on to be named as lock in Australian rugby league's Team of the Century. Announced on 17 April 2008, the team is the panel's majority choice for each of the thirteen starting positions and four interchange players. While playing football, Raper also served in the New South Wales Police Force and in 2008, rugby league's centenary year in Australia, he was named at lock-forward in a NSW Police team of the century. In 2008 New South Wales announced their rugby league team of the century also, and again Raper was named at lock. Raper was named captain and second-row forward in the Western Suburbs Rosellas’ team of the century.

Footballing relatives

A number of Raper's brothers had success in top-grade rugby league. Ron played a 128-game career for Canterbury over seven seasons from 1966, kicking a field-goal from the halfway line in their 1967 Grand final loss to South Sydney. He played out the end of his career as captain/coach at Wests Brisbane and made two representative appearance for Queensland in 1973.
Maurie Raper played eighty-seven first grade matches for Penrith and Cronulla in an eight-year career, Gerard made two first grade appearances for Canterbury in 1977 and Peter, two appearances for Newtown while Michael played in lower grades.
Johnny's son Aaron played as a hooker for Cronulla and Parramatta between 1990 and 1998, and was widely regarded as likely to become the top hooker in Australia during an impressive first season in 1992. However, an exceptionally bad run with injuries, including a severe blood clot that threatened his life during 1994, prevented Aaron from ever reaching the heights his father did, and he played representative rugby league only during the Super League war in 1995. Aaron later moved to England and played in the Illawarra competition as late as 2010.

Footnotes