Ken Thornett

Ken is back where he belongs, but...CAN THE DYNAMO STILL WHIRL?

by Tom Goodman
Rugby League World, April 1971

You didn't have to be in the Parramatta area to sense the joyful relief, the glowing sense of anticipation of better things to come, when the news broke that KEN THORNETT - Parramatta's very own - Ken - was to play for the club again, after two years absence in "the bush".
Ken Thornett; Ken, the dynamic fullback who so often had stirred the Cumberland Oval crowd to a frenzy of enthusiasm. The player they used to say was the "Mayor of Parramatta".
My mind flew back to a day at famous Headingley ground, in Leeds, in 1961.
I was in the Australian Press gang covering the cricket tour by Richie Benaud's team, which was just getting underway. It was a drizzling day at Bradford and we were free for the afternoon.
I said I would pop over to Leeds; there was a young Australian Rugby League player setting the place alight and here was the chance to see him for the first time. Two others went with me, one a Melbourne Aussie Rules man.
The young man was Ken Thornett, then in his second season with Leeds, a top club which had been well served by many Australians over the years. Ken had gone to England to try his luck; he carried a sheaf of newspaper cuttings, telling of his exploits at Rugby Union. The hard heads at Headingley had wanted more than that. They had arranged to give him six "trials". But after the second such game they rushed to sign him on.
He was a clean-cut young man, weighing about 13 st, and playing fullback. Within minutes my Melbourne colleague was declaring: "What a wonderful pair of hands! Does he ever fail to 'mark' the ball?"
An old friend, John Bapty, veteran of the "Yorkshire Evening Post", pecking away at his typewriter, looked up briefly and said: He hasn't dropped one this year".
And the crowd continued yelling delight at every clever catch or gather of the ball from the treacherous turf, every strong tackle, every raking punt (with either foot).
Afterwards in the dressing room I talked with Ken Thornett and found him a modest young man. Burly "Artie" Clues an exiled Aussie who also had played for Leeds and then was a director of the club, hovered over the rising star and beamed at me: "Isn't he a beauty?"
In the following year, after two and a half seasons in England, Thornett, on loan from Leeds, made his introduction to Parramatta fans. He had seven matches as captain-coach of the club, which got into the semi-final round for the first time. Another English winter with Leeds, and then Parramatta had him from 1963 to 1968. But he was back in England in 1963-64 as Test fullback of the triumphant Kangaroos, and again in 1965 as a "guest" player for 13 matches with Leeds, whose coach then was Roy Francis, now with North Sydney.
Emotion overcame Parramatta's avid supporters when "King Ken" said his farewell after the 1968 season. He had taken over a sheep station at Binnaway, in north-west NSW. He had named the property "Headingley". (He did a wool-classing course in Queensland as a youngster).
Ken has had two seasons as captain-coach of Coonabarabran, playing much of the time as lock forward. They won the Group 14 premiership in 1970, after losing the grand final the previous year.
Thornett, 33, came down to Sydney a few weeks ago to have a loose piece of bone removed from a knee by noted surgeon Dr. Dick Tooth, former Rugby Union international.
Ken had accepted a one-year contract with Parramatta-provided he was fit to do the job.
He brought his Dutch-born wife, Willike, and their daughter of six months, Simona, to Sydney, and they will stay for six months. Ken has put a manager on the Binnaway property.
"Not much fun being a grazier these days-the wool market has gone," he said the other day. I'm getting rid of the sheep and putting cattle on the land.
"We'll come good. I will be going back to the land after this one season come-back with Parramatta."
What of those two years of country football?
"The football was good enough to keep me interested," Ken said. "They were a good bunch of boys and they worked hard. What with coaching and all, I was busy."
And his immediate future?
"Of course, I've lost a bit of speed, but I'm confident I can do a job for Parramatta - I hope to put a bit more life into the team," Ken said.
Ken Thornett has been a complete fullback of driving power, who always seemed able to beat the first tackler. A man to inspire a team.
His first full season for Parramatta, 1963, was a vintage one for fullbacks in Sydney. There were Thornett, Keith Barnes and Les Johns, then 21, all playing splendidly; Graeme Langlands was fullback for Saints, but was played as centre partner to Reg Gasnier in the "big stuff".
An absorbing situation. Could they take all three of Thornett, Barnes and Johns to England that year? Thornett played in all three Tests against New Zealand here; it was a wet season until midway through.
Thornett handled the heavy ball safely. He scored a thrilling and vital individual try in the deciding Test in Sydney.
The selectors tried him once as centre alongside Gasnier against the weak South African team. The trial was inclusive. So they chose Thornett as No. 1 fullback for the Kangaroos (he played in all the Tests against England and France and scored a try against each country), sent Les Johns as his understudy and left Keith Barnes, much-admired captain of the 1959-60 side, at home.
In 1965 Ken Thornett won two major best-and-fairest contests: The "Sun's" Ford Falcon and the "Sun-Herald" award. He had won the "Sun-Herald's" contest for Rugby Union players in 1958.
And now, not only Parramatta fans, but all League followers, want to see Thornett in action again.
Oh, will the Gods who watch over footballers please allow that dynamo to run just one more season!

The Thornett's - 1963 Kangaroo Tour