🐇 Alf 'Smacker' Blair | Rabbitohs Coach #5
Full Name: Alfred Lewis Blair
Born: 16/8/1896 at Sydney, NSW
Died: 28/9/1944 at Coogee (Sydney), NSW [aged 48]
Club Playing Career: South Sydney 1917-27 and 1929-30 (premiers in 1918, 1925-27 and 1929); Longreach 1928; Wagga Wagga 1931; Tamworth 1932; Waratah-Mayfield 1933; Cooma 1934-37
Representative Playing Career: Combined Team (Rest of First Grade) 1917; Rest of NSW 1917; NSW 1919, 1921, 1924 and 1927 (17 games, nine tries, nine goals, 45 points); Metropolis 1920; Maroon And Gold 1921; Second NSW Thirteen 1922; Possibles 1924; Australia 1924 (one Test); Central Queensland 1928
Club Coaching Career: South Sydney 1927 (premiers) and 1944; Longreach 1928; Wagga Wagga 1931; Tamworth 1932; Waratah-Mayfield 1933; Cooma 1934-37; Wests Sydney 1943
Representative Coaching Career: Central Queensland 1928
Administrative Career: Rabbitohs Selector 1944
Awards and Accolades: Rabbitohs premiership winner 1918, 1925-27 and 1929; Rabbitohs premiership winner as a Coach 1927; The Blair Trophy named in his honour (used in athletics competition by Rabbitohs club members) 1944; South Sydney Juniors Team of the Century (as a coach) 2008
Blair was a Souths junior who began his long career in 1915 when he captained Souths’ Presidents Cup Under-21s side, which lost the final to Easts by five-three. The following season he was graded by the Rabbitohs and played in their third grade side. He started the 1916 season in thirds and at the end of the season he played with the second grade team which won the Sports Ground Cup. In 1917, he started off in Rabbitohs second grade side and made his first grade debut against Newtown, in round six at the Sydney Cricket Ground. In his thirteen seasons at the Rabbitohs he played in 158 first grade games, scoring 35 tries, 123 goals and scoring 351 points. The sequence was only broken briefly in 1928 when he played for Longreach and represented Central Queensland against the touring Great Britain side.
An amusing story came from 1920, when Australia was playing in the First Test against Great Britain in Brisbane and owing to injuries, they were short on troops. Blair and Jack Robinson from Balmain were both called in as reinforcements and were told to get there quickly, but getting to Queensland on such short notice in those days was not an easy task. They left by car, and it turned out to be a comedy of errors after they got lost somewhere in the Mulga Lands in northern NSW and arrived in Brisbane on the following day after the Test was already decided, which Australia won 8-4. Even though Blair appeared for NSW on 17 occasions, his only appearance for Australia was in the first Test of the 1924 Ashes series. He would have been a certainty had a Kangaroo tour taken place in the middle of the 1920s, but unfortunately there were no overseas tours made by Australia between 1921-22 and 1929-30.
Besides being amongst the best players in our Club's history, he was also regarded as one of our greatest captains who captained the Rabbitohs in 86 first grade games and must be regarded unlucky not to be included in our Dream Team and the South Sydney Juniors Team of the Century. In 1927, he was officially selected as Rabbitohs captain-coach, taking over from Howard Hallett. The Rabbitohs won the title under Blair’s coaching, making it three premierships in a row for the grand old club and seventh title overall. With the Great Depression looming, Blair lost his job as a builder’s labourer in early 1928, and was seriously considering other offers he received to coach in the Country. It was then suggested if he stayed at the Club that Blair be paid an honorarium for looking after the team, but the Rabbitohs Committee were strongly against it and voted no. Blair then went on to captain-coach Longreach in 1928 but returned to the Rabbitohs the following season, which he captained again with great success in 1929 and 1930.
He was a zippy player in attack, an excellent defender and a very reliable goal-kicker. His greatest assets were his organisational ability and inspirational leadership. As five-eighth for Souths during their golden era of the mid-to-late 1920s, he was the team's playmaker and orchestrated the attacking unit of the team which earned the proud Club the ultimate title, 'Pride of the League'. Blair won titles as a player at the Rabbitohs in 1918, 1925-27 and 1929, as well as City Cup titles in 1921, 1924 and 1925. He finished his playing career with several NSW Country teams, in 1931 as captain-coach of Wagga Wagga, Tamworth in 1932 (broken ankle early in the season prevented him from playing and coaching many of their games), Waratah-Mayfield in 1933, and Cooma in 1934-37. He retired from playing when he was 41 years old.
Blair returned to Sydney where he coached Souths’ Presidents Cup Under-21s sides between 1939-42. In 1943, he was coaching Wests’ first grade side and returned to the Rabbitohs in 1944 for his final stint as a coach where he took them to the semi-finals. Sadly, he prematurely passed away at his Coogee home in Brook Street, during sleep from cerebral hemorrhage at the end of 1944, aged only 48. He was working at the NSW Leagues Club as an extremely popular steward and stated before his death that he felt ill. He took his holidays before they were due to recover, starting them on Monday, and he died the following Friday. Soon after his death the Rabbitohs honoured his memory with a trophy for athletic competition by their Club Members, which was simply called ‘The Blair Trophy’. It was a full-sized silver-plated football which had to be won three times before the winners could take permanent ownership. The first series was staged at the South Sydney Social Club’s picnic at Press’ Ground, Middle Harbour, on Saturday 25 November, 1944.
