Tony Branson

Australia international rugby league footballer (1946–2020)

Tony Branson

Personal information

Full name| Anthony Ross Branson
Born| 18 December 1947
Nowra, New South Wales[1]
Died| 1 April 2020(2020-04-01) (aged 72)[2]

Playing information

Position| Five-eighth
| Club

Years  | Team  | Pld | T | G | FG | P
1968–73  | St. George Dragons | 91  | 23  | 2  | 3  | 76
Representative
Years  | Team  | Pld | T | G | FG | P
1967  | NSW Country Firsts | 2  | 1  | 0  | 0  | 3
1967–71  | New South Wales | 7  | 1  | 0  | 0  | 3
1967–68  | Australia | 6  | 1  | 0  | 0  | 3
1971  | NSW City Firsts | 1  | 1  | 0  | 0  | 3
1974  | Illawarra Firsts | 1  | 1  | 0  | 0  | 3

Source: Whiticker/Hudson[3]

Tony Branson (1946-2020) was an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s. A state and national representative five-eighth from Nowra in country New South Wales, Branson came to Sydney in 1968 to join the St George Dragons in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership competition.

A country player from Nowra, Branson came to attention representing Country in two matches in 1967 including a rare Country win over City in the first match up of that year's series.[4] He was selected at five-eighth in all three matches of the 1967 interstate series for New South Wales against Queensland and then made the 1967-68 Kangaroo Tour where he played in five Tests matches for Australia against Great Britain and France. Branson is listed on the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo No. 416.[5] Following the tour Branson was signed to the St George Dragons to replace their stalwart star pivot Brian Clay whose career ended in 1967.

Branson made further representative appearances for New South Wales and represented Australia in two fixtures in the 1968 Rugby League World Cup where he was vying for selection at five-eighth against Bob Fulton who was at the very beginning of his rep career. In 1971 Branson made his final representative appearance for Australia in a one-off Test match against New Zealand.

Branson played six seasons in the top grade with the Dragons including the 1971 Grand Final loss to South Sydney.[6] He played a further two seasons at St George and retired in 1973.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Branson at RLProject
2. ^ "Shoalhaven loses sporting legend, Australian Rugby League rep Tony Branson". April 2020.
3. ^ Rugby League Project
4. ^ City v Country 68 at RL Project
5. ^ ARL Annual Report. 2005 (Page 54)
6. ^ Alan Whiticker/Glen Hudson: Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players. 1995 (ISBN 1875169571)

## Further reading

[edit]

* Crawford, Robert (20 September 2017). "Nowra's Tony Branson relives 1967-68 Kangaroo Tour". South Coast Register. Retrieved 2 July 2018.

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1967–68 Kangaroo Tour squad

* Reg Gasnier (captain)
* Johnny Raper (vice-captain)
* Peter Gallagher (vice-captain)
* Tony Branson
* Ron Coote
* Noel Gallagher
* John Gleeson
* Kevin Goldspink
* Johnny Greaves
* Les Hanigan
* Ken Irvine
* Les Johns
* Kevin Junee
* Johnny King
* Graeme Langlands
* Ron Lynch
* Dennis Manteit
* John McDonald
* Brian Moore
* Elton Rasmussen
* Ron Saddler
* John Sattler
* Billy Smith
* Allan Thomson
* Elwyn Walters

Coach: Reg Gasnier

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*[G]: Goals
*[FG]: Field goals
*[P]: Points
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