🐇 Bernie Purcell | Rabbitohs Coach #13

Full Name: Bernard Martin Purcell
Born: 19/1/1928 at Redfern (Sydney), NSW
Died: 31/12/2001 at Sydney, NSW [aged 73]
Club Playing Career: Wests Sydney 1947-48 (premiers in 1948); South Sydney 1950-52 and 1954-60 (premiers in 1950-51 and 1954-55); Cootamundra 1953
Representative Playing Career: City Seconds 1949-50 and 1952; Australia 1950 and 1956 (one Test, seven tour games); Probables 1950; Possibles 1951-52 and 1956; NSW 1951 and 1956 (four games); Sydney 1951 and 1956; City 1952 and 1956; Country Probables 1953; Country Seconds 1953; City Firsts 1956
Club Coaching Career: Cootamundra 1953; South Sydney 1962-66 (Reserves in 1962-63)
Administrative Career: Rabbitohs General Committee 1951-59, 1966 and 1974-76; Rabbitohs Player Representative 1960-62; Rabbitohs Appeal Committee 1962; Rabbitohs Retention Committee 1964-66 and 1975; Rabbitohs Provisional Selector 1961-64; Rabbitohs Selector 1975
Awards and Accolades: Wests Magpies premiership winner 1948; Rabbitohs premiership winner 1950-51 and 1954-55; Kangaroo Tour 1956-57; Rabbitohs Life Membership (Inductee No. 12) 1962

Souths’ stalwart during the heady 1950s when the club won five premierships, Purcell was a product of De La Salle St. Peters at Surry Hills. The ice-cool, goal-kicking forward started his career with Wests in 1948 after falsifying his residential qualifications, which was a common occurrence at the time. He was part of the Magpies squad in 1948 but did not play in the grand final side owing to injury, which defeated Balmain eight-points-to-five for the title. The following year Purcell came to Souths and commenced a long and successful association with the club. The robust second row forward was called into the Australian Test team at an historic time in the code. Purcell was chosen to make what was to be his only Test appearance in the Third Test against Great Britain in 1950. This was the famous five-points-to-two victory that gave Australia the Ashes for the first time in 30 years. Purcell played for NSW in 1951 and 1956 but had to wait until the 1956-57 Kangaroo Tour to represent Australia again (seven matches, no Tests). Captaining Souths on occasion, as his cousins Paddy Maher and Jack Walsh had done, Purcell played in the 1950-51 and 1954-55 premiership deciders as well as losses in 1949 and 1952. He missed out on Souths' success in 1953 when he captain-coached Cootamundra. In the 1955 grand final, it was Purcell's calm conversion of a late try that gave the club a 12-11 win over Newtown.

In 1957, he overtook Benny Wearing Snr as the club's top points scorer. He held that record until Eric Simms overtook him. Purcell was inducted as a Life Member of the South Sydney Football Club in 1961. Retiring as the first forward in the game to top 1000 career points, he was coach of a young Rabbitohs team that took on nine-times champions St George in front of a record Sydney Cricket Ground crowd in the 1965 grand final. The 1966 season was a disappointment though, and Purcell was made a scapegoat for the team's poor performances. Regardless of this, he remained a staunch Souths man and was one of those who worked tirelessly to save the Rabbitohs when the club faced a financial crisis in the early 1970s and again when the club was excluded from the NRL competition.

He worked for the City Council most of his working life. He also had his own franchise store with Norm Provan Electricals at Maroubra Junction, as well as making countless appearances on TV and as a trusted columnist in the Daily Mirror. Sadly, Purcell passed away on New Year’s Eve in 2001, aged 73, and did not get the chance to see his beloved Souths take the field in their return season.