Harold Horder – Bradman of Rugby League
Sir Donald Bradman is known as the greatest cricket player of all time. To be called a ‘Bradman’ of something is the ultimate accolade. It means you are the best in your chosen sport.
In August of 1954, in the Rugby League News, the premier rugby league publication, there was a large article about Harold Horder comparing him to Bradman.
Superstar
The word ’superstar’ is often bandied around describing any number of players that play the game today and it has lost a lot of its meaning. However, the term can rightly be used to describe a player of such brilliance as Harold Horder.
As he played more than 100 years ago it is impossible to adequately convey the esteem in which he was held. So many writers of the day classed him as, if not the greatest player who had ever played, certainly the greatest wing three-quarter.
In today’s game it is considered a magnificent achievement if a winger can ‘keep pace’, in other words score an average of a try a game.
South Sydney Greats
South Sydney has been blessed with 2 of the greatest finishers in recent memory, Nathan Merritt and Alex Johnston. Nathan had a magnificent career scoring 154 tries from 237 games. Alex so far has 166 tries from 191 games, again a wonderful achievement.
However, Harold Horder played in 136 games but scored 152 tries. If you include his representative games he scored 284 tries from only 217 games! Many of these tries almost defy logic. Crowds would flock to see him, with the assurance of knowing that if Horder was on the field there was hope of a thrill.
One such thrill for New South Welshman was when Horder scored 60 points in 3 days for NSW in 1915.
Carried Off By The Poms
Even opposition players and fans appreciated his excellence. Once on tour in England his performance was so good he was carried off the field by the English team!
He frequently left worthy opponents flabbergasted, and no doubt fulminating by his paralysing pace and freakish elusiveness.
It is hard for a mere lower grade writer as myself to adequately describe the brilliance of his play. The last sentence I wrote mainly came from the 1928 Rugby League Annual which featured Horder prominently even though he had been retired for 4 years.
Slipping Smoothly
Another quote from the same book is worthy of inclusion. “Immediately Horder received the ball, he slipped smoothly into top gear and was streaking here, there and everywhere, evading opponents by hare-like turns. No eel ever slipped through man’s hands so effectively and so exasperatedly”.
Souths In 1912
Horder began his career with Souths in 1912. He vaulted into prominence with a length of the field try that year against Glebe. He left Souths in 1919 and played with North Sydney. It is no coincidence that they scored their only two premierships while he was there.
I personally could not begrudge Norths that even if it meant he did not play for Souths for a couple of years. He came back to Souths in 1924, winning the City Cup, and finished his career in Queensland the next year.
He died in 1978.
Harold Horder is a worthy candidate to be included in the ‘Remembering a Rabbitoh’.
Harold Horder – Bradman Of Rugby League.
By Mark Emery for Bunnies TV.
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