🐇 Bill Anderson | Rabbitohs Coach #18

Full Name: William Charles Anderson
Born: 10/4/1948 at Glebe (Sydney), NSW
Club Playing Career: Newtown lower grades
Club Coaching Career: Easts Sydney Third Grade 1975-79 (premiers in 1976); South Sydney 1980-82; Balmain 1987
Representative Coaching Career: City Seconds 1985-86; City Firsts 1988
Awards and Accolades: Sydney Grade Cricket Player of the Year runner-up 1974-75; Bob Simpson Cricket Coach of the Year Award 2008; NSW Public Service Medal for outstanding public service to education in NSW 2014; NSW Community Sports Award for Distinguished Long Service 2023

Anderson started playing first grade cricket for Petersham-Marrickville in the 1964-65 season. The club merged with Randwick in 2000 and is now known as Randwick-Petersham. Bill played and coached the club, managed the club, was their director of cricket operations, and remains active with the club to this day. In 1974-75 he finished as runner-up to Bobby Simpson in the Sydney Grade Cricket Player of the Season. He represented the NSW Sheffield Shield side for four years between 1972-75, rolled out a bunch of centuries and took the long handle to Benaud, Renneberg, Gleeson, O'Keefe and other bowling stars of the Sydney scene at the time. He is also a close friend and mentor to Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja, and the driving force of the Usman Khawaja Foundation, which assists disadvantaged and multicultural youths by helping them to assimilate into society via sport.

In football he captained a stylish Fort Street High School rugby union team and played Presidents Cup Under-21s Rugby League for Newtown in 1967 and their lower grades, before he smashed a shoulder. He was introduced to coaching by his old cricket captain, Noel Hughes, who shunted him off to a Lakemba United side that just happened to contain three of Hughes' strapping sons, Gary, Mark and Graeme Hughes. After that, it all fell into place, and it was a success all the way.

He then moved into the Sutherland area where he coached six junior teams through to grand finals, four of them to premierships. After that, he made his debut at Eastern Suburbs under the guiding hand of Jack Gibson, winning an Under-23s premiership with the Roosters in 1976, then moved on to Redfern and first grade status with the Rabbitohs in 1980-82. Under his guidance the Rabbitohs secured a semi-final spot in 1980, their first since 1974. In the same year Rabbitohs five-eighth, Robert ‘Rocky’ Laurie, won the first Dally M Award as Best and Fairest, and prop-forward, Gary Hambly played in the inaugural State of Origin match. After his coaching tenure ended at the club he was involved in radio and television commentary throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with a spell in 1987 when he became Balmain First Grade coach, taking them to the semi-finals.