Ray Stehr
Prop
Player Bio
- Inducted:
- 2008
- Date of Birth:
- 24 January 1913
- Birthplace:
- Warialda, NSW
- Nickname:
- -
- Debut Team:
- Eastern Suburbs
- Date:
- 20 April 1929
- Opposition:
- University
- Venue:
- Sydney Sports Ground, NSW
- Representative:
- City, Country, New South Wales, Australia
- Clubs:
- Eastern Suburbs, Mudgee
Career
Milestones
- Premierships: 1935-37, 1940
- Kangaroo Tours: 1933-34, 1937-38
- Rated No. 66 in Rugby League Week’s Top 100 players: 1992
- Premiership record as youngest player to appear in first grade: 16 in 1929
Playing
- First Class Games
- 283
- Points
- 120
- Tries
- 34
Biography
Having recovered from a crippling childhood illness to become a first-grader with his beloved Easts at age 16 in 1929, Stehr set out on a football journey which was without parallel for its feuds, fisticuffs and raucous controversy.
Above all else, Stehr was a front-row warrior, and one of the best, in the thick of the action through 55 games for Australia (including 11 Tests), 33 matches for NSW and a then-record 184 first-grade games for Easts in a career that stretched through the Depression and beyond World War II.
Stehr's famous blow-up with the tough Englishman John Arkwright in the third Test of 1936 is one of the game's most retold stories: how Arkwright and Stehr were involved in a dust-up in a scrum, and then Arkwright (seemingly) felled Stehr with a pole-axing blow.
Referee Lal Deane promptly sent Arkwright off, and then Stehr, too, after the Aussie prop ''recovered''. Stehr later claimed he'd taken a dive, but not everyone agreed with him.
Balancing Stehr's image as a ''hit man'', Frank Hyde called him ''a man of great personal strength and quality''.
Powerful and brave, Stehr was a cornerstone of the great Easts teams of the 1930s, and forward with a genuine nous for the game.
In the 1936 final, Easts scored a spectacular try, involving many passes and most of their brilliant backs, yet Stehr was the man who put the ball over the line.
“Ray was one of the greatest of front row forwards, a man who would have succeeded in any era.”
Frank Hyde Straight Between the Posts
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30. Ray Stehr - Hall of Fame
Career Stats
Club Career
Representative Career
City - Country
State
International
Other Representative
Hall of Fame Members
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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.