Mark Graham (rugby league)

Mark Graham

Personal information
Full name	Mark Kerry Graham
Born	29 September 1955 (1955-09-29) (age 56)
Playing information
Position	Back rower
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
	Otahuhu
	Norths (Brisbane)
1981–1988	North Sydney Bears	145	29	1	0	105
1988–19??	Wakefield Trinity
	Total	145	29	1	0	105
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
	Auckland
1977–1988	New Zealand	28	7	0	0	24
1988	Rest of the World	1	0	0	0	0
Coaching information
Club
Years	Team	Gms	W	D	L	W%
1999–2000	Auckland Warriors	50	18	2	30	36
Source: RLP

Mark Kerry Graham^[1] (born 29 September 1955^[2]) is a New Zealand retired rugby league footballer and coach. A back-rower and former captain of the New Zealand national rugby league team, he has been named as the greatest player the country has produced in the century from 1907 to 2006.

Playing career

An Otahahu junior, Graham played in 29 tests, captaining the Kiwis side in 18 of them and scoring 7 tries from 1977 to 1988. In 1980, in a test at Lang Park, Brisbane, Graham put a hit on Australian captain Wally Lewis that crushed his oesophagus.^[3] In another trans-Tasman test at Lang Park on 18 June 1985,[1] he served as Kiwi captain and was deliberately taken out of the game by a high shot from Noel "Crusher" Cleal while playing brilliantly and inspirationally.[2] After winning premierships with his club in New Zealand he played eight seasons in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership with the Norths club under coach Graham Lowe,^[4] as well as the New South Wales Rugby League premiership for the North Sydney Bears between 1981 and 1988. He also captained the Bears.

At the end of the 1988 Winfield Cup season, Graham travelled to England to captain the newly promoted Wakefield Trinity club in the 1988–89 Rugby Football League season.^[5] In 1989 his biography Mark my words: The Mark Graham Story was published.

In 1995 Graham was one of the initial inductees of the NZRL Legends of League.^[6] The following year he was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. He went on to coach the Auckland Warriors in the National Rugby League for two seasons in 1999 and 2000. He later became defensive coach for the Japanese rugby union club, Kintetsu.

In August, 2006 Graham was named at second-row in the North Sydney Bears' Team of the Century. In 2007, he was named at second row in the New Zealand Kiwis Team of the Century and also further honoured as New Zealand's rugby league Player of the Century. He is an Auckland Rugby League Immortal.^[7] In 2008, Graham was also named at second-row in a Norths Devils all-time greatest team.

References

1. ^ GRAHAM, Mark Kerry 1977 - 88 - Kiwi #535 nzleague.co.nz
2. ^ Gary Lester (editor) (1983). The Sun Book of Rugby League - 1983. Sydney, New South Wales: John Fairfax Marketing. pp. page 62. ISBN 0909558833. 
3. ^ Meares, Peter (2003). Legends of Australian sport: The Inside Story. Australia: University of Queensland Press. pp. 138. ISBN 0702234109, 9780702234101. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aMw_Zpew2OgC. 
4. ^ northsydneybears.com.au. "Mark Graham". website of the North Sydney Bears. Archived from the original on 2008-07-23. http://web.archive.org/web/20080723121323/http://www.northsydneybears.com.au/history/legends/graham.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-28. 
5. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19880923&id=B1AVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UuQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4434,2020638
6. ^ "New Zealand Rugby League Annual Report 2008" (pdf). NZRL. 2008. http://www.nzrl.co.nz/files/financials/nzrl_2008annualreport_part1.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-21. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ Stacey Jones, Auckland Rugby League Immortal est1995.co.nz, 21 September 2003

Further reading

• Mark Graham, Allan Clarkson, Brian Mossop, Grantlee Kieza (1989). Mark My Words: Mark Graham Story. RPL Books/Rugby Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0959788417, 9780959788419. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XTecPQAACAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 

External links

• Mark Graham at nzhalloffame.co.nz
• Graham is best in 100 years - article at stuff.co.nz
• Mark Graham at rugbyleagueproject.org
• MARK GRAHAM NAMED NEW ZEALAND'S PLAYER OF THE CENTURY - article at rleague.com
• Mark Graham at eraofthebiff.com
• Mark Graham at yesterdayshero.com.au

Preceded by Frank Endacott 1997-1998

Coach New Zealand Warriors 1999-2000

Succeeded by Daniel Anderson 2001-2004

Persondata
Name	Graham, Mark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1955-09-29
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death