{"id":365389,"date":"2024-02-04T20:44:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T21:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365389"},"modified":"2024-02-05T06:02:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T06:02:45","slug":"kangaroos-great-and-player-rights-activist-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365389","title":{"rendered":"Kangaroos great and player rights activist dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Elford – one of rugby league<\/a>'s toughest forwards in the 1960s and '70s – has died.<\/p>\n

A one-club man who played more than 100 games for his beloved Western Suburbs Magpies, Elford died aged 76.<\/p>\n

Born in Casino in northern NSW, he was a lifesaving sprint champion in early life and joined the Magpies in the late 1960s as a winger.<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Munster's cheeky dig at Storm chief over Origin role<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Welsh rugby icon known as 'The King' dies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Green screamer helps Aussies to ODI win\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But he soon moved to the second row, where he developed a fierce reputation for hard-hitting defence.<\/p>\n

Elford enjoyed his best season in 1972, playing for both NSW and Australia.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

He was considered a certainty for the 1972 World Cup squad but broke his arm in a lead-up game.<\/p>\n

Injuries were to mar his career and he finally retired in 1976.<\/p>\n

Elford was also passionate about player rights, joining Balmain's Dennis Tutty in fighting against the old NSW Rugby League's transfer system under which clubs virtually 'owned' players.<\/p>\n

The players ultimately won a lengthy court battle – but at great personal cost.<\/p>\n

Elford sat out the 1969 season in protest before returning to the game, signing back with the Magpies despite his differences with the club.<\/p>\n

Funeral details are yet to be announced.<\/p>\n

Former Manly forward Phil Franks had many hard battles with Elford.<\/p>\n

"One day I played around with him in a tackle, I broke my arm, John didn't flinch but the idiot in the middle sent me off," Franks told WWOS.<\/p>\n

"Bit silly on my part, the coach wasn't very happy.<\/p>\n

"He went on to play for Australia the next year – he was as tough as they come."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Elford – one of rugby league's toughest forwards in the 1960s and '70s – has died. A one-club man who played more than 100 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":365391,"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\/365389"}],"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=365389"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365392,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365389\/revisions\/365392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/365391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}