Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

National Rugby League Museum,
by Terry Williams 2016

Billy Kelly was a star on both sides of the Tasman before WWI. The Wellington centre had been selected for New Zealand to tour Australia in 1912 and 1913 when no Tests were played and then came to Sydney to join Balmain in 1914.

He represented Australia in the First Test against Wagstaff’s famous Englishmen and was captain-coach of the Tigers when they won their first premiership in 1915. At 24 years of age he had the league world at his feet, but he left all that behind and enlisted in the AIF, being assigned to the 9th Machine Gun Company.
That was a pretty dangerous job and Kelly copped an “occupational hazard” at Le Tourquet in Belgium on May 12 1917 when a German bomb left him with injuries to his arms and legs as well as abdomen.

His return home was reported in the Referee newspaper of February 13 1918:

“The welcome home from active service extended to Sergeant William Kelly, the New Zealand-Australia Rugby three-quarter, was very enthusiastic. Mr A Latta, hon secretary of the Balmain Rugby League Club, writes me thus: The welcome home was a great success. The gathering was representative of the Balmain football lovers and admirers of a good citizen footballer and true soldier. It was a grand reception for the war-battered hero. The large gathering joined hands and sang For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow. Mr R Mahoney, the club president, presented Mr Kelly with a purse of sovereigns on behalf of the members. In responding, Mr Kelly said the hearty welcome brought back to memory the send-off the club gave him on his departure for the scene of battle. It was a wonderful surprise on his return to find the Balmain people so enthusiastic towards him.”

Bill Kelly’s playing days were over but he had much more to offer rugby league as a coach and selector over the next three decades.

He built a wonderful record as a coach with Sydney University (they finished runners up in 1926 under his guidance), Newtown (1937 City Cup winners), Balmain (who won the 1939 premiership during his time there), Canterbury and St George. He also returned to his homeland to coach New Zealand against the touring GB side in 1932.

Kelly was respected for his style as much as his knowledge as Frank Hyde recalled in his wonderful memoir “Straight Between The Posts”:

“Billy Kelly, my coach of so many years ago, was one of the best of them all. I was coached by some famous league men over the years – Frank Burge and Ricketty Johnston among them. But Kelly stood alone. He was a thinking coach: he concentrated on the skills of the game in a context of maximum aggression. “Don’t get caught with the ball, stay on your feet, position your team-mates as well as you possibly can before passing the ball and be in a position to back up” – that was the Kelly creed.

Bill was not the ranter or raver. He was a quietly persuasive man who would sometimes go on and on about a particular facet of play in the team situation. But a lot of his coaching advice was of an individual nature. Before a game he would quietly walk around the room – a word of encouragement here, some direction there. At halftime he was unfailingly sharp in identifying match trends and possible weaknesses in the opposition. The thought was always to go out there and bamboozle them with skill. I don’t think Bill would have had much time for the hit up situation, or for a coach who ordered his team not to pass the ball on their own side of halfway. He was a contemporary of the great Duncan Thompson, and there were many similarities in their philosophies of playing winning football. To Bill, the attacking skills of the game were things of some beauty.”

Nicknamed “The Prince of Coaches” Billy Kelly passed away on July 1 1975. Since 1997 Trans-Tasman Tests between Australia and New Zealand have been played for the Bill Kelly Trophy, with the next clash only a couple of weeks away.