🐇 Denis Donoghue | Rabbitohs Coach #12
Full Name: Denis Reginald Donoghue
Nickname: Top Rabbit
Born: 10/9/1926 at Redfern (Sydney), NSW
Died: 5/12/1993 at Randwick (Sydney), NSW [aged 67]
Club Playing Career: South Sydney 1947-57 (premiers in 1950-51 and 1953-55); Wollongong 1958
Representative Playing Career: Probables 1950, 1952 and 1954; NSW 1950-54 (seven games, one try); City Firsts 1951; Australia 1951 (two Tests); Sydney 1952; City Seconds 1952 and 1954; Southern Division 1958
Club Coaching Career: Wollongong 1958; South Sydney 1959-63
Administrative Career: Rabbitohs Provisional Selector 1960-63; Deputy Chairman 1963-66; Rabbitohs Management Committee 1967-73; Rabbitohs Club President 1967-73
Awards and Accolades: Rabbitohs premiership winner 1950-51 and 1953-55; Rabbitohs Life Membership 1962 (Inductee No. 8)
Donoghue was one of the toughest and most brutal players to ever play the Greatest Game of All. The Souths junior was a rock-solid defender and strong runner of the ball, his specialty was scrummaging. He is regarded as one of Australia's greatest ever hookers, and he was also peerless as an enforcer.
Donoghue served in the Royal Australian Navy as an Able Seaman, between 1945-46, and was the RAN Boxing champion before joining Souths. The Rabbitohs graded him in 1947, and the following year made his first grade debut against Parramatta, in round ten. In his eleven seasons with the club he played 166 first grade games, scored 29 tries and four goals, for a total of 95 points. Donoghue won five premierships with the grand old club in 1950-51 and 1953-55. He was the backbone of a South Sydney pack that participated in seven consecutive grand finals, and his nickname was ‘Top Rabbit’.
He made his Test debut in 1951 against the touring French side, and was selected for the Kangaroos Tour in 1952, but he broke his leg on the first trial and missed all six Test matches. He stood down from Test football following this. Donoghue left the club to captain-coach Wollongong in the Illawarra competition in 1958 but returned to Souths as coach from 1959-63. He then had a long career in club administration during the Rabbitohs' last ‘golden era’ in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which included Rabbitohs Club President in 1967-73.
Donoghue was one of 14 people who were the first to be inducted as Life Members of the South Sydney Football Club at the 54th Annual General Meeting held at Redfern Town Hall on 6 February 1962 (Inductee No. 8). His son, also named Dennis Donoghue, played for the Rabbitohs in 1978-81 and 1984, and Canterbury in 1982-83. Dennis Snr passed away in 1993, at the age of 65.
