{"id":331747,"date":"2023-09-17T08:04:22","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T08:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=331747"},"modified":"2023-09-17T09:00:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T09:00:47","slug":"an-inspiration-rugby-league-trailblazer-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=331747","title":{"rendered":"'An inspiration': Rugby league 'trailblazer' dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains the name and image of a deceased Indigenous person.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lionel Morgan, the first Indigenous athlete to represent Australia in any major code, has died at the age of 85.<\/p>\n

A winger who was brilliant at finishing and had searing pace, the Tweed Heads product appeared in two Tests against a touring French team in 1960, before being named in the Australian squad for the 1960 World Cup in England.<\/p>\n

He scored two tries on his Australian debut to help his side to a 56-6 win over France in Brisbane, with the backline he played in featuring future Immortal Reg Gasnier as well as Ken Irvine, who remains the top try-scorer in Australian first grade.\ufeff<\/p>\n

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Morgan also played 12 interstate games for Queensland in the pre-State of Origin days, between 1960 and 1963,\ufeff as well as four matches for Queensland against visiting international teams.<\/p>\n

In 1959, he had moved north from Tweed Heads to play for the Wynnum Manly Seagulls, and he later coached the club.<\/p>\n

Another major part of Morgan's legacy is the\ufeff beacon of hope he provided for a long list of Indigenous players who came after him, including Steve "Pearl" Renouf.<\/p>\n

"Lionel Morgan was a trailblazer," said ARL Commission chairman Peter V'landys in a statement on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

\"Lionel<\/p>\n

"Rugby league is incredibly proud of his legacy as the first-ever Indigenous athlete to represent Australia in any major code.<\/p>\n

"He was selected in the Australian Rugby League's Team of the Century in 2008. It was a fitting reward and left him proudly alongside the likes of Arthur Beetson, Johnathan Thurston and Steve Renouf.<\/p>\n

"The Australian Rugby League Commission and everyone across the game will be very saddened by Lionel's passing, but his legacy will remain forever. He was and always will be an inspiration to many of our players."<\/p>\n

Morgan died after a long battle with dementia.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains the name and image of a deceased Indigenous person. Lionel Morgan, the first Indigenous […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331747"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=331747"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331750,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331747\/revisions\/331750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/331749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=331747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=331747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=331747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}