🐇 Jack Rayner | Rabbitohs Coach #10
Full Name: Rupert John Rayner
Nickname: Jack
Born: 11/4/1921 at Coraki, NSW
Died: 17/5/2008 at Randwick (Sydney), NSW [aged 87]
Club Playing Career: South Sydney 1946-57 (five premierships in 1950-51 and 1953-55)
Representative Playing Career: City Seconds 1946; Probables 1946; City Firsts 1947-51 and 1954; NSW 1947-50 and 1954 (18 games); Australia 1948-49 (five Tests, 27 tour games); NSW XIII 1951; Australian XIII 1951; Possibles 1951; Sydney 1953-54
Club Coaching Career: South Sydney 1950-57 (five premierships in 1950-51 and 1953-55), Parramatta 1958-60
Representative Coaching Career: City Firsts 1956 and 1959; City Seconds 1956 and 1959; City 1956; NSW 1956 and 1959; Probables 1959
Administrative Career: Rabbitohs General Committee 1950-57; Rabbitohs Selector 1954
Awards and Accolades: Kangaroo Tour 1948-49; Rabbitohs First Grade premiership winner (as captain-coach) 1950-51 and 1953-55; E.E. Christensen Player of the Year 1953; Sunday Telegraph Star of the Year 1953; Sunday Telegraph Captain of the Year 1953; Grand Final man of the match [Clive Churchill medal] 1955; Rabbitohs Life Member (Inductee No. 36) 1968; RLW Top 100 (Ranked No. 71) 1992; Jack Rayner Medal – Rabbitohs Player of the Year (named in his honour) 2002; Rayner-Farrell Cup – Rabbitohs v Newtown Jets perpetual trophy second Grade (named in his honour) 2011; Rabbitohs Dream Team (as a Coach) 2004; NSW Police Team of the Century (as Captain-Coach) 2008
Rupert John Rayner, known simply as ‘Jack’ Rayner, was born on 11 April 1921 in Coraki (near Lismore), the youngest of four children of Wilfred and Gertrude Rayner, and educated in Coraki and Lismore. When the family moved to Sydney's eastern suburbs he took up hockey and cricket and became an accomplished first-grader in both sports. He had played a bit of Rugby League at Lismore High School in the 1930s but would not tackle the game again at a serious level until he joined Souths, at the age of 25. Rayner enlisted for World War II in May 1941, serving four years with the 61st Infantry Battalion. In Papua New Guinea he was co-opted to play in several inter-regiment and battalion Rugby League matches - and on a muddy field at Port Moresby with an old pair of Army boots he was spotted by Eric Lewis, former Souths player and a member of the 1937-38 Kangaroo League touring team to England and France. Later he played at Madang and Bougainville and in these games impressed the astute Lewis, who asked him if they both managed to live through the war, would he consider playing football with South Sydney when he got home.
In 1946, Rayner turned up at Redfern to keep his word and play with a South Sydney team that had won just one game the previous year, a decision the legendary captain-coach said he never regretted. After playing in a trial match he was graded in the Rabbitohs first grade side, and never actually played in any lower grades for Souths or anybody else in all his career. He was also selected as vice-captain of the side in his first year. John Sattler is the only other player to achieve this rare feat, after playing all his football in first grade, which included stints with Kurri Kurri, Souths and Brisbane Norths.
Rayner broke an ankle early in that first season, restricting his appearances while Souths endured the only winless season in the Club's premiership history. But in 1947 he was fit and captained them to nine wins, setting Souths on the road to one of the greatest eras in the Club's history. He took over as coach in 1950 from Dave Watson, and with immediate success to win their first title in 18 years. Jack is still the youngest ever coach in our proud history, at the age of 28 years and 362 days when he first appeared as captain-coach. His seven years as captain-coach included five premierships and one of the most controversial grand final defeats in the game's history, the 1952 loss to Western Suburbs, when two major decisions cost Souths the premiership. Souths in those days was a team filled with many great players, which also included probably the greatest player that ever lived in Clive Churchill. ‘The Little Master’ was always the first player picked in every representative game and, also as the captain of that rep side, but he had to play under Rayner’s leadership and coaching at Souths. There were never any negative issues printed between the two legends of the game.
Clive Churchill said of Jack Rayner in the book True Blue: "He was a brilliant tactician. I never saw a better forward in cover defence on the blind side than Rayner. Jack was the crankiest forward I played with but what a grand fellow he was."
Rayner was renowned for his sportsmanship and for his dignified manner. He has been long regarded as one of the game's most respected elder statesman and throughout his life was the embodiment of the Australian tough but fair attitude. Rayner played five Tests on the 1948-49 Kangaroo tour, 18 games for NSW and 195 games for Souths. When he played his last game in 1957 against Easts at Redfern Oval on 13 July 1957 (in round 12), Rayner further etched his name into the Club’s record books by becoming Souths’ oldest first grade player – 36 years and 93 days. That record has since been broken by Benji Marshall in the 2021 grand final. He was inducted as a Life Member of the South Sydney Football Club in 1968, and in their Dream Team in 2004 as the Coach. Rayner passed away at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, on Saturday 16 May, 2008, at midnight, aged 87, after a long battle with dementia.
