Melville Lance Cooke[3] (30 May 1934 – 5 September 2013) was a New Zealand rugby league player who represented New Zealand twenty-three times between 1959 and 1964.[1]
Playing career
Cooke was a member of the Hornby club in the Canterbury Rugby League competition. He was the player-coach when Hornby made the national tournament finals in 1962 and 1964 and when they won the Thacker Shield in 1964.[4]
A Canterbury and South Island representative, in 1962 Cooke was captain of the first Canterbury team to win the Northern Union Cup from Auckland at the Addington Showgrounds.[5]
Cooke played in 23 games for New Zealand, including at the 1960 World Cup. He played in eighteen consecutive tests between 1960 and 1964.[4] Cooke was the captain for the last three seasons before accepting a player-coach position in Canberra in 1965.
Coaching career
Cooke took up a player-coach position with Monaro in 1965. While there he captained the side against the 1966 British Lions and was selected for New South Wales Country.[4]
In 1969 Cooke returned to Hornby as coach. He was a Canterbury selector and coach in 1971 and again coached Hornby in 1978.[4]
Legacy
Cooke was named one of New Zealand Rugby League's "Legends of League" in 1995.[6]
In 2009 Cooke was named in the NZRL's team of the century.[7]
Cooke died in September 2013, aged 79.[8]
References
- ^ a b "Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org". rugbyleagueproject.org. 31 December 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
- ^ "Coach Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org". rugbyleagueproject.org. 31 December 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
- ^ COOKE, Melville Lance 1959 - 64 - Kiwi #384 Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine nzleague.co.nz
- ^ a b c d Significant Results in Canterbury Rugby League 1912-2009, planetnz.com.
- ^ Smith, Tony (30 May 2009). "Nothing better than bettering Auckland". The Press. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
- ^ Legends of League NZRL
- ^ Smith, Lawrence (17 February 2009). "Graham is best in 100 years". The Sunday Star-Times. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
- ^ League world mourns Kiwi legend nzherald.co.nz, 15 September 2013