Holy Cross Junior Rugby League FC
Life Members 1961-2013

FRED BENDALL was both a founding member and president of the college sports council but originally a staunch Rah-Rah. Thankfully by 1961, they’d converted him.
Fred presided over the school’s transition from union to full-time league and signed on as the inaugural Balmain delegate in 1968. Ably assisted by wife Harue, he was big on hosting club meetings and functions and heavily involved in the old bottle drives, footy doubles and other fundraising ventures.
Fred also coached until 1972. His 1966 U10 school side went through undefeated, scoring 450 pts to nil, while his 13s took out the Balmain G Grade title in 1970.
Leaf through the pages of football history in the Holy Cross year books from the 50s and 60s and you’ll find MERV FARMER looking straight back at you in his classic old-styled fedora.
They reckon he had a reputation as one of the hardest and more honest men to set foot in the school.
Merv started at the college as boxing and league coach in the 1930's and stayed  with the latter until deep into the 60s. He was involved with a string of successful school and junior league teams not the least our first to win a premiership in 1966.
Old timers reckon BROTHER JOHN THOMPSON could dictate the flow of a game while standing on the hill at Frank Street and roaring instructions to his players.
Throughout the 60s, John was also in charge of issuing the jerseys, the only problem being that he’d keep them so securely locked away the kids had to be down to playing in singlets during mid-winter before he’d hand them out.
Jokes aside, though, without Brother John’s dedication to the schoolboy game, the Rhinos probably wouldn’t have enjoyed anywhere near the success they have. Many rate him among the best coaches the college has produced.
The Tyrrell family’s association with Holy Cross dates back to the 20s and of course Tom Tyrrell became the school’s first league international when selected for the '52 Kangaroos.
His younger brother KEVIN TYRRELL began his outstanding contribution Holy Cross junior league in the early 70s as a coach, trainer, grounds assistant and first aid officer. He later added the roles of committee chair and sports council delegate.
Kevin was still working as a Rhinos volunteer in the early 1980s. His sons John and Kevin both played for the club, as did his grandson, Brett.
MYLES KENNEDY’S contribution to the Rhinos’ story lies chiefly with his efforts during the early days to help raise the money desperately needed to get the club on its feet. To this affect, he was a driving force behind the funding of the Frank Street amenities block.
From the mid-60s until 1974, Myles successfully coached and managed various teams and sat on the club executive as both secretary and treasurer.
He would no doubt take great delight in the fact that his grandson Damian joined the Rhinos as a first-up premiership-winning coach last season.
MICK WALSH was another Holy Cross stalwart to begin his outstanding association in the mid-60s. From the time eldest son Michael started school at Borromeo in 1964, Mick got involved in fund raising via the bottle drives, school fetes, gaming nights and footy doubles.
He also ran the canteen for many years with great mate Tony Beaven, a job that demanded a 5.30 start every Saturday with a drive to Granville bakery to pick up a weekends’ worth of pies before manning the counter all day at Frank Street.
Mick’s marathon innings with the Rhinos extended well into the 1980’s after younger son Pat was graded by the Tigers, and three of his grandsons have also turned out for the club.
In 1953, the great Latchem Robinson asked 21-year-old JOHN O’BRIEN if he’d help promote league in some of the local schools. Fortunately, the one that most liked what he had to say was Holy Cross College.
A few years later Obey took his place among the small band of pioneers who helped launch Holy Cross junior rugby league club and the rest, as they say, is history.
Over the years he’s coached virtually every Holy Cross player of note and mentored any number of other very successful Holy Cross coaches.
These days, Obey might be getting on a bit but it’s a tribute to his passion for the game and the Rhinos club that he you’ll still regularly find him on the hill at Frank Street of a Sunday.
TONY BEAVEN was another tireless and long-serving Rhino volunteer to stamp his legacy on the club during the 1970s and 80s.
He began his involvement a few years after his mate Mick Walsh but quickly became a popular contributor to the era’s favourite fund raising activities … the Friday night raffles down at the Poison Palace, the footy doubles and the bottle drives.
Like Mick, Tony also spent most winter weekends running the BBQ and serving in the Frank St canteen until the late 80s. Unfortunately he passed away after a battle with cancer in 1989.
BASIL JENKIN’S long and distinguished association with Holy Cross rugby league started in the late 60's when his son Jim started playing.
Affectionately known as Baz, his skills in accounting were quickly recognised serving as treasurer for some 16 years! He was also involved in the famous bottle drives and selling doubles with Brother Matthew. The doubles were prepared every Tuesday night with Baz and many Patrician Brothers and parents chipping in.
Baz also used to run tours to Canberra every year for all age groups. He turned 90 years old last week and served with distinction during World War II in Papua New Guinea.
The first four years of BARRY FRASER’S involvement with Holy Cross began the season after the club accepted Balmain’s invitation to join the district competition in 1968. Needless to say, it was time when every hand on deck was an appreciated one.
Barry took on the job of coaching the U9s in 1969 and stayed with the team for the following three seasons, collecting premierships with the boys in both 1970 and 71.
In 1972, Barry accepted the role of BBQ Co-ordinator and stayed with it until 1976. In 1975 and 76, he was also a member of the famed Frank Street canteen crew.
ALLAN KELLY was a keen and dedicated Holy Cross volunteer throughout the 70s. He was club treasurer for nine years but his contribution extended far beyond balancing the books.
Allan was another central character in the club’s fund raising program, was a deft hand at hosting dinners and ran the gambling room at the annual Holy Cross fete, the proceeds of which were directed back to the sports council.
Allan also regularly ran the line during matches but it was a task that got the better of him whenever son Daniel happened to make a break. This would typically see Allan drop his flag and take chase down field, screaming for a try to be scored.
ROSS DREWETT began his association with Holy Cross in 1974. He joined the much revered BBQ committee and over the following four seasons was also a canteen regular.
In 1978, Ross then began a five-year stint in the unenviable but crucial role of club treasurer.
In one capacity or another, Ross gave a decade of service to the Rhinos. These days he resides in nursing care and unfortunately wasn’t able to join us this evening but it gives the club great delight to be able to acknowledge his contribution.
Ask the likes of John O’Brien and Ron White and they’ll tell you Brother STEPHEN AITKEN’s rugby league influence at Holy Cross was akin to Bullfrog Moore’s reign at Canterbury Bankstown. He was the El Supremo, as Ron likes to say.
Stephen was the man responsible for the construction of the Frank St and Cressy Rd fields in the early 1960s. He went out, netted the sponsors and struck the deals to get the job done.
Another of his legacies was the Holy Cross junior rugby league weekend bus tours to play in knockout carnivals in places like Canberra and Tamworth, which were an annual highlight for countless boys aged from 10 to 16.
The affable GEORGE BUTT was another of the Rhinos big-hearted servants during the rough and ready 70s and 80s. He joined the club in 1975 and stayed on for 9 years as a coach, manager, committeeman and club secretary.
Typically, George was also a member of the Rhinos’ Friday night fundraising brigade at the Poison Palace, a keen man on the BBQ and a willing and able general volunteer.
He very much valued the great mateship which came from his association with Holy Cross with the likes of Mick Walsh and Tony Beaven and these days is proud to boast that he has four grandsons playing in the Maroon and Gold.
TONY FISH was another of the club’s hardy volunteer outfit of the 70s and 80s.
A great worker, as fellow life member Charlie Fisher describes him, Tony was an Onga Pumps man by trade but spent a great amount of his time at one stage helping lay concrete to build the Frank Street car park.
In a famous Holy Cross incident, while acting as time keeper in a lopsided match against Wanderers one Sunday, Tony is said to have rung the bell eight minutes early with the home side down 96-nil. There was no way, he said, that a Cross side was going down by 100.
SEAMUS CONNOUGHTON joined the Holy Cross committee in 1975 and stayed for 12 years, serving as both secretary and president. He was also a long-standing member of the college sports council.
Seamus was heavily involved in expanding the Rhino’s playing ranks, which until his time had consisted of U10s to U15s. A decade later, however, the club boasted teams from U7s right through to C Grade or U21s.
Seamus was well known for his booming support of all things Holy Cross during an era when the Rhinos won three consecutive Club Championships and 21 grand finals.
CHARLIE FISHER started his involvement with Holy Cross when son Dean started playing in the U8s in the mid-70s and stayed until he left for Ryde-Eastwood as an U21 in the late 80s.
He spent a number of seasons as club secretary and delegate to Balmain and many a Saturday helping mark the ovals and many a Sunday arvo lending a hand with the clean-ups.
Charlie was also something of an ideas man for Holy Cross. He once organised a league-a-thon which raised $7000, got top referee Greg Hartley along to a club presentation night and was also known for having arranged for the Manly pipe band to play during one of the Cross’s noted Commonwealth Bank Cup appearances.
Soon after turning up to register son Darren as a Holy Cross junior league player in 1976, RON WHITE found himself giving the formidable Brother John a hand.
Through that association he met Brother Matthew, who was keen to find someone to help prepare the school ovals. Ronnie, of course, has been doing the job ever since, for the great majority of the time, it should be said, without financial reward and as a simple labour of love.
In the early days, Ron was also a highly-regarded coach and so fittingly, the Rhinos’ outstanding international player each year receives the Ron White Perpetual Award.
TED CLARKE started volunteering his time for Holy Cross as a manager of the U10s in either 1974 or 75. Nobby couldn’t really remember which. 74 would sound better, of course as the team won the title that year but gave it up to North Ryde Juniors the following year.
By all accounts, Teddy quickly became one of the club’s most popular and honest toilers and was seen doing all the right things in all the right places, including selling raffle tickets at the Poison Palace and firing up the Frank Street barbie.
Teddy was a Holy Cross committeeman from 1978 to 1989 and club president in 1983 and 84. He once demonstrated his commitment to the cause by taking the trouble to sign his kids up for a club the same day wife Bev went into labour with son Peter.
KEVIN NEWTON was recruited to Holy Cross from Villa Maria by none other than Kevin Tyrrell in 1975 as an under 8s coach. He stuck with the side the following season, got thoroughly corralled into the footy doubles, chook raffle and club BBQ scene with the likes of Mick Walsh and Tony Beaven and eventually succeeded Kevin as club president in 1983.
He stayed in the top job for three seasons.
Kevin was also Rhinos gear steward throughout the 80s, ran the social committee for several years and still managed to look after the club’s senior side between 1985 and 1987.
BRIAN McGOOGAN began his exhaustive 20-year association with Holy Cross by signing on as club registrar in 1990.
In 1993, he jumped from the frying pan into the fire, trading the position in for that of treasurer and also taking up a seat on the college sports board, a post he kept up until 2009.
In 1996, Brian was elected Rhinos president, a job he served with distinction for the next five years while doubling as the club’s delegate to Balmain.
DANIEL ENGLAND started with Holy Cross as an under-11, played six seasons as a front-rower and managed to collect four premierships. Glen Lazarus, eat your heart out! By 1993, he’d run up 100 Rhinos games, the stand-out being his four-try effort in the U13s grand final victory over South Sydney champions South Eastern in 1991.
Daniel switched to the coaching ranks in 1994 as a trainer for Wayne Papworth’s premiership-winning U10s. He then went on to coach for the next 4 years himself, capping his run with a title with the U16s in 1999 as a 21-year-old.
Aged just 17 in 1995, Daniel was named Rhinos Senior Clubman of the Year. He joined the club executive as assistant secretary in 1998, graduated to the role of secretary in 2000-2001 and was also responsible for creating the Rhinos’ first website.
When asked how he ended up at Holy Cross, GRAHAM SIMMONS explains that he just happened to be a good Catholic living on Cressy Road with an interest in rugby league … nothing more, nothing less! Thank god for small mercies, as they say!
Graham was club vice president between 1990 and 1998. He was also Holy Cross coaching director in 1990, 92, 93, 94 and 95 and coached the Rhinos U20s side for three years.
A long-serving and outstanding rep coach, Graham also earned the distinction of taking Balmain’s SG Ball side to it’s one and only title in 1982.
During his days in the Catholic brotherhood, JOHN O’LEARY spent the entire 1970s at Holy Cross College. Known to his former pupils as Brother Columban, John earned legend status at the school as a football coach.
From 1973, he took the reins of the Rhinos’ best ever junior team, a crack outfit featuring a young Ben Elias, which went seven seasons without defeat.
These days, John looks back on his time as a highlight of his life but modestly credits friend and mentor Harry Raven with much of the success he achieved.
WAYNE PAPWORTH began his association with Holy Cross in 1989 and over the next 11 years, gave outstanding and dedicated service as a parent, spectator, trainer, winning coach, elected committeeman and Vice President.
When the club decided to change its logo image in 1994, Wayne came up with the name “RINOS” which has proven to be a formidable image of strength and tenacity over the years.
Many of the boys he coached over consecutive premiership-winning seasons are here tonight to witness and congratulate Wayne on receiving his award.
Of course due credit should also be given to his wife. Janine fully supported Wayne and also worked tirelessly for the club in many capacities over the same period of years.
STEVE HYLAND served as president of the Rhinos from 2001 to 2005, coached sides in 2003, 2005 and 2006 and assisted as a team trainer in 1998, 2001 and 2004.
During the late 90s and early 2000s, Tubby was the glue that held the club together. Along with wife Trish, he took on basically any job that needed doing without thinking about it, marking fields, cooking sausages, serving in the canteen, you name it..
When things got a little frayed around the edges, Tubby’s catch cry was: forget all the other crap we’re here to give the kids a game of footy. He meant what he said and stood by it.
If you think Wayne Bennett’s outlasted everyone in coaching, try again. For 23 years (1982- 2005) DAVE MITCHELL continuously coached, managed or trained Holy Cross teams.
It’s a feat which makes him the longest-serving active member in the club’s history, and constitutes an amazing contribution in anyone’s language. Not to rest on his laurels, however, Dave also joined the Rhinos executive as vice president for several years from in 2001 and somehow roped wife Alyson into signing on as registrar as well.
Dave coached a host of top-flight juniors during his reign but for what it’s worth, nominates the Rhinos’ longest-serving player, Darren Nicholls, as his stand-out pupil.
Like brother Dave, PAT MITCHELL has been part of the furniture at the Rhinos forever.
After a distinguished playing career, he took mentor John O’Brien’s advice and began a coaching journey that has included a number of premiership wins over the years. Often, though, Pat has also taken on and shaped sides the Rhinos might otherwise have struggled to keep going. Along the way, he’s passed on considerable passion, skill and knowledge of the game to countless boys, some of whom have gone on to achieve big things.
In 2008 Pat was recognised for his service by being named Clubman of the Year.
Allan Jarvis claims he was still in nappies when his old fart brother, STEVE JARVIS, started playing with Holy Cross but he thinks it was in the U8s where he was coached by John O’ Brien.
Steve played out his junior footy career with the Rhinos before moving to Ryde-Eastwood but came home a few years down the track to coach and join the Rhinos committee. This was around the same time he put his own three boys into gold and maroon jumpers.
Steve has won a swag of accolades over the years. But AJ wasn’t able to name any of them because on presentation day he was always on the fizz and says he just can’t remember. In any case, Steve has been an out-and-out fixture at the Rhinos for the past 14 years.
STUART STANTON started at Holy Cross way back in 1997, helping Steve Hyland set up the fields, man the BBQ and put in as a general all-rounder.
Pop down to Frank Street 15 years later and you’ll see him still performing the same tasks. Along the way, however, Gooroo has been club president and vice-president, he’s purchased the gear, written the club yearbooks, run presentation day and recruited sponsors.
In the early days, he was also the Rhinos coaching co-ordinator and the brains behind the club’s outstanding 2000 premiership-winning U18s which included the likes of Dave Marando and Josh Lewis … not a bad rap for a bloke who ended his playing days at prop.
When it comes time for Gooroo to give it away, the Rhinos are no doubt going to struggle.
ALLAN ‘AJ’ JARVIS began his 15-year playing career with Holy Cross as a 4-year-old in 1978, amassing an amazing 9,420 games. After a brief hiatus he returned in 1999 to begin an underwhelming coaching career that has seen him take some red hot competition favourites as far as almost making the semis. 13 years on, he’s is still going strong. Not a bad for a bloke who doesn’t have kids of his own, as far as we know.
About 5 years ago AJ successfully assembled some of the Balmain Juniors’ finest coaching talent and he, Chippa, Big Man and Beanzie have since became something of an institution.
In 2008 AJ was awarded clubman of the year, mainly due to his 100% attendance at Rhinos functions. He was instrumental in helping land our major sponsor Fantastic Furniture and he also promotes the club on his high rating radio programme. If you’re dirty on yourself, tune into 2RRR 88.5fm on Wednesday mornings from 6-9.
Life at the Rhinos for RICHARD JONES began as an assistant coach with his good mate Pat Mitchell and a reluctant three year old son, Daniel, who refused to take the field.
The “Bagman” quickly became the club’s “go to” man, and has performed every job possible within the organization including his current role as President.
Jonesy’s dedication to and passion for the Rhinos has been unsurpassed over countless seasons. His legacy is there for all to see. He’s a true Rugby League man and a great bloke.
They say HELEN WILLIAMS is first to arrive and last to leave Frank Street on game days but the truth is the long hours she and Sally Stephenson spend in the canteen are only part of H’s contribution to the club.
She’s been a mainstay of the Rhinos for the past 14 seasons, having managed teams, run fundraisers and helped organise countless presentation days. Eight years ago, she put her hand up to become club treasurer and from 2005 has doubled up as canteen coordinator.
In 2010 Helen won the prestigious George Thompson Memorial award as Balmain DJRL’s volunteer of the year. The honour has been bestowed upon some outstanding contributors in the past but none more so than our “H”.
BRETT WHEELHOUSE as a student at Holy Cross College was very familiar with Frank Street,  but didn't join the Rhinos until his eldest of four sons started with the Under 6's in 2000.  Brett has coached each of his sons' teams and has also held positions on the Rhinos committee including the BDJRL delegate which caused him many a headache.  He has assisted other Rhino coaches over the years and is currently the BDJRL Assistant Harold Matthews Coach.  He has dedicated many hours on and off the field with setting up for game day and the renovations done to the canteen and toilets several years ago.
SALLY FRISON probably didn't have any say about being involved in the Rhinos in the early days.  As part of the "Jarvis Clan" she has had 3 brothers (Steve & AJ both life members), two sons and nephews play for the club.  She has been a team manager for many years for her sons teams and is one of the first to help out in the canteen on "home games."  Sally has also assisted with social functions and fundraisers.  She definitely deserves this award because she has had to put up with baby brother "AJ" as the coach of the team she manages which wouldn't be an easy job for anyone.

The Originals

Fred Bendall
Merv Farmer
Br John Thompson
Kevin Tyrrell
Myles Kennedy
Mick Walsh
John O'Brien
Tony Beaven
Basil Jenkins
Barry Fraser
Allan Kelly
Ross Drewett
Br Stephen Aitken
George Butt
Tony Fish
Seamus Connoughton
Charlie Fisher
Ron White
Ted Clarke
Kevin Newton
Brian McGoogan

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The Class of 2011

Daniel England
Graham Simmons
John O'Leary
Wayne Papworth
Steve Hyland
Dave Mitchell
Pat Mitchell
Steve Jarvis
Stuart Stanton
Allan Jarvis
Richard Jones
Helen Williams

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 2013 Inductees
Brett Wheelhouse
Sally Frison

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