Vale Les Brennan
By Michael Curin
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are mourning the passing of former premiership winning player and Life Member, Les Brennan, who passed away peacefully at Blacktown Hospital yesterday morning at 2.34am, aged 95. Mr Brennan had a leaky heart valve for many years and it has been getting worse. He was admitted to hospital two weeks ago and his condition deteriorated since the weekend and sadly lost his brave battle.
He was born Leslie Albert Brennan at the Children's Hospital in Darlinghurst on 18 April 1931. His family lived at O'Connor Street, Chippendale, until 1937 when they moved to Abercrombie Street, Chippendale. Owing to his Catholic background, Les played all his junior football with St. James' CYO (Forest Lodge), and then Mascot CYO. He was coached by former Kangaroo forward, Bill Brogan, when he played at St. James' CYO. Les always had natural speed to burn and Brogan took him aside to teach him on how to beat a defender and score tries, which he later used with great success throughout his successful playing career.
In 1950 he represented Souths in the Presidents Cup competition, and the Rabbitohs graded him the following season where he spent the next three seasons playing in their lower grades. Mr Brennan finally got his break in the top grade in 1954 after Cliff Smailles retired the previous season, making his first grade debut in round one against St. George at the Sydney Sports Ground. His South Sydney first grade player number is 421. The Rabbitohs won that crucial game by 20-11, and Brennan scored a lovely try on debut. He always played on the right wing, while his teammate on the opposite wing was none other than Kangaroo winger, Ian Moir.
Mr Brennan scored a club record of 29 tries in his debut season in first grade from only 19 games, and his teammate Ian Moir scored 21 tries in the same season. A breakdown of Brennan’s try scoring in 1954 shows he scored four tries twice, three hat-tricks, two tries twice, and eight other games where he scored a single try. There were only five games during the 1954 season in which he failed to score a try, including the Grand Final.
Alex Johnston beat his 67 year-old record when he scored 30 tries in a season two years in succession, in 2021 and 2022. However, Brennan still holds the record for having the best try scoring rate in the history of Australian Rugby League with 32 tries scored in the 24 games he played in. Only two other players have scored more tries than our ‘AJ’ and Les Brennan in a season since Rugby League started in 1908, and they were Dave Brown (Easts) with 38 tries in 1936, and Ray Preston (Newtown) with 34 tries in 1954.
Les said his toughest opponent was no doubt Don 'Bandy' Adams, whom he opposed only once when Souths played against Newcastle in 1954 Country Week at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and Adams gave him a torrid time in that game. Souths still managed to win that hard game by 30-21 in front of 24,539 spectators. He also said Clive Churchill was the true master on the football field, but Jack Rayner was always the coach and boss of the team, who kept the side together and made sure they always played at their best. He also mentioned that he received a mere 189 pounds (equivalent to $8,356.92 in today’s currency) from Souths as his full payment in 1954, which is a far cry from the money some current players receive in a season.
One week before the 1954 Grand Final, Les married his childhood sweetheart, Margaret Eileen Jewell (1932-2013), and then played in the 23-15 Grand Final victory over Newtown at the SCG, but unfortunately he suffered a serious lower back injury and concussion early in the second half. The next day he flew to Coolangatta with his newly-wed wife for their honeymoon, but couldn't remember anything that happened in the second half of that Grand Final or even how he got to Coolangatta afterwards, until he read the story in the newspaper the next morning which said he was part of the winning Rabbitohs team. The injury proved to be a crushed vertebrae, which saw him playing in only five first grade games for the Rabbitohs the following season and in the end he was forced to retire from playing. His doctors told him that an operation to fix his injury had an extremely low success rate and if it failed could make him feel worse, so he never went ahead with it.
Despite his serious injury, Les continued to play Rugby League for Transport in the Works competition between 1949-55 and 1958, winning many premierships with them. In 1952, he also represented NSW Combined Public Service against the touring Western Australian side, which was a curtain raiser to the Third Test between Australia and New Zealand. The Public Servants won 31-6.
Mr and Mrs Brennan lived at Chippendale until 1961 when the couple bought a block of land in Blacktown and built their own family home there. Les still wanted to be a part of the game he loved so much, and started to referee in the South Sydney Junior League from 1956-62, until he got tired from travelling from Blacktown to the South Sydney area. He then refereed in the Parramatta Junior League from 1962-65, and the newly formed Penrith Junior League in 1966-76. He was inducted as a Life Member of the Penrith District Rugby League Referees' Association in 1971 and was only the second person at the time to be honoured by the Penrith Panthers, of which he was also very proud.
He was employed by the Department of Motor Transport as a Paymaster for 43 years (1947-1990), and in October 2013 Les lost his loving wife Margaret, after 59 years of marriage. They had four children, Theresa, Maureen, Gregory and Bernard.
Mr Brennan was awarded Life Membership at South Sydney in 2021 and was a very humble and fine human being, who never asked for any favours. He supported his beloved Rabbitohs throughout his entire life and has been a proud Club member (No. 25544) for decades, same as all his children and grandchildren still are.
On behalf of everyone connected with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, we offer our deepest and most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mr Les Brennan in this most difficult time.
