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HallOfFame

Eddie Lumsden

Winger

Inductee
55

Player Bio

Inducted:
2008
Date of Birth:
28 September 1935
Birthplace:
Kurri Kurri, NSW
Nickname:
Gumleaves
Debut Team:
Manly Warringah
Date:
02 April 1955
Opposition:
Balmain
Venue:
Leichhardt Oval, Sydney
Representative:
Country, City, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Clubs:
Kurri Kurri, Manly Warringah, St George Dragons

Career

Milestones

  • Premierships: 1957-59, 1961-66
  • NSW Country Team of the Century: 2008
  • Kangaroo Tour: 1959-60
  • Rated No. 69 in Rugby League Week’s Top 100 players: 1992

Playing

First Class Games
265
Points
681
Tries
211

Biography

St George's 23–4 defeat of Balmain in 1966 was the ninth winning grand final for Eddie Lumsden, a winger who had trekked from Kurri Kurri in 1956 after making the Country Seconds to try his luck (for the second time) in the Sydney premiership.

Having previously stopped briefly at Manly, Lumsden signed with Saints and stayed a decade (1957–66), scoring 136 tries in 155 premiership matches. In two grand finals (1959 and 1961), he scored three tries.

Lumsden, tall and rawboned and with real speed, was a right winger with a fend and a hip bump that left many a would-be tackler grasping at nothing. In his first season at Saints, he scored 18 tries in 16 matches; in his last, he twice scored three tries in a game.

In between, he was remarkably reliable and consistent. Johnny King said of him: ''He was the strongest winger I have ever seen. When Eddie got the ball within 20 yards of the tryline the rest of us would start walking back to halfway''.

Lumsden played 15 Tests and 19 games for NSW, and made the 1959–60 Kangaroo tour, although the tries did not flow quite as freely for him at representative level. Later, he was a NSW and Australian selector.

“A devastating runner who was almost impossible to stop once he got a sniff of the tryline.”

Johnny King Wing team-mate of the 1960s

55. Eddie Lumsden - Hall of Fame

Career Stats

Club Career

Club
Team Name Competition Year Start Year End Played Tries Goals Field Goals Points
Kurri Kurri Newcastle Competition 1954 1956 - - - - -
Manly-Warringah Premiership 1955 1955 4 1 - - 3
St George Dragons Premiership 1957 1966 158 136 17 - 442
St George Dragons Official Pre-Season 1962 1966 25 17 - - 51
St George Dragons Touring Sides 1962 1962 1 1 - - 3
St George Dragons Ampol Cup 1963 1963 1 - - - -
St George Dragons State Cup 1964 1965 3 2 - - 6

Representative Career

City - Country

City - Country
Team Name Opponent Year Start Year End Played Tries Goals Field Goals Points
Country Seconds City Seconds 1956 1956 1 - - - -
City Seconds Country Seconds 1958 1959 2 1 - - 3
City Firsts Country Firsts
1957
1960
1957
1963 		5 5 - - 15
City Country 1959 1959 1 - - - -
Sydney Touring Sides 1962 1962 1 - - - -

State

State
Team Name Competition Opponent Year Start Year End Played Tries Goals Field Goals Points
New South Wales Interstate Series Queensland
1957
1959
1957
1963 		17 12 7 - 50
New South Wales Touring Sides
1960
1963
1960
1963 		2 2 - - 6

International

International
Team Name Competition Year Start Year End Played Tries Goals Field Goals Points
Australia Tests 1959 1963 15 4 - - 12
Australia Tour Matches 1959 1961 27 28 - - 84

Other Representative

Other Representative
Team Name Opponent Year Start Year End Played Tries Goals Field Goals Points
NSW Colts Great Britain 1958 1958 1 - - - -
Possibles Probables 1959 1959 1 2 - - 6

Hall of Fame Members

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Acknowledgement of Country

National Rugby League respects and honours the Traditional Custodians of the land and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the lands we meet, gather and play on.

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