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Colin Maxwell (1917–2001) was an Australian international rugby league footballer whose career ran from the 1930s to the 1950s. He was a centre for the Australian national team in one Test in 1948 in which he captained the side.

Club career

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Born in Lismore in northern New South Wales he played for Bowraville and Coffs Harbour and in Country representative sides. He joined Wests Newcastle in 1938. He came to Sydney in 1940 for one season with the St George Dragons. After World War II he played for the Western Suburbs Magpies for a season, then returned to Newcastle to captain-coach Wests Newcastle in 1946-47 before another two Sydney seasons with the Magpies in 1948–49.

War service

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He spent three years from 1942 -1945 in the RAAF as a leading aircraftmen and appeared in a number of armed forces rugby league exhibition matches.

Representative career

1948 was the sole year of Maxwell's controversial representative career. His only state appearance for New South Wales was in the first match of that year's interstate series against Queensland.

When the Australian Test side was chosen for the domestic series against New Zealand Maxwell was named as a reserve back and did not figure in the Tests. He had been dropped from the New South Wales squad before the end of the interstate series and on the night the Kangaroo Tour side was announced Maxwell wasn't in Sydney with the other representative hopefuls having already left on a train bound for Newcastle. Inexplicably Maxwell was not only selected to the tour squad but was named captain and was expected to take on the duty of coaching the squad during the tour of England and France.

Whilst Maxwell was a reliable centre whose career had been interrupted by the war and injuries the mystery concerned how the incumbent Test captain Len Smith who one week earlier had led the Kangaroos to victory over New Zealand was suddenly not good enough to fit into the 28 man touring squad. Theories abounded regarding either religious bigotry from the selectors or coaching politics. See Selection controversy in Len Smith.

Due to injury and illness Maxwell did not play in the first Test loss against Great Britain at Leeds. He played in 11 minor tour matches and captained Australia in the second Test at Swinton which Great Britain won 16–7. Although Maxwell was a popular captain on Tour the match results were not good. He is listed on the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo No.262. He did not represent at state or national level again.

Maxwell's final seasons were as captain-coach of Maitland from 1950 -1952. After football, he ran a newsagency.

Sources & Footnotes

• Whiticker, Alan (2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney
• Andrews, Malcolm (2006) The ABC of Rugby League Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney

References

1. "Col Maxwell – Career Stats & Summary – Rugby League Project". Rugby League Project.
2. ARL Annual Report 2005

Sporting positions
Preceded byJeff Smith 1948	Coach Western Suburbs 1949	Succeeded byJeff Smith 1950–1951
Preceded byLen Smith 1948	Coach Australia 1948–1949	Succeeded byKeith Froome 1949
Preceded byLen Smith	Captain Australia 1948	Succeeded byWally O'Connell

v t e Australian national rugby league team coaches

1930 Arthur Hennessy 1946 Albert Johnston 1948–49 Col Maxwell 1949 Len Smith 1949 Keith Froome 1950–51 Vic Hey 1952–53 Clive Churchill 1954–55 Vic Hey 1956–57 Ken Kearney 1957 Herbert Poole 1958 Norm Robinson 1959–60 Clive Churchill 1960 Keith Barnes 1961 Brian Carlson 1962 Harry Bath 1963 Clive Churchill 1963–64 Arthur Summons 1964 Reg Gasnier 1965–66 Ian Walsh 1967–68 Reg Gasnier 1968–70 Harry Bath 1970 Arthur Summons 1971–72 Harry Bath 1973–75 Graeme Langlands 1975–77 Terry Fearnley 1978–82 Frank Stanton 1983 Arthur Beetson 1984 Frank Stanton 1985 Terry Fearnley 1986–88 Don Furner 1989–98 Bob Fulton 1997 John Lang (SL) 1998 Wayne Bennett 1999–03 Chris Anderson 2004–05 Wayne Bennett 2006–08 Ricky Stuart 2009–15 Tim Sheens 2016– Mal Meninga

• 1917 births
• 2001 deaths
• Australia national rugby league team captains
• Australia national rugby league team players
• Australian rugby league coaches
• Australian rugby league players
• Australian World War II pilots
• Royal Australian Air Force airmen
• Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II
• Royal Australian Air Force personnel
• Rugby league centres
• Rugby league players from Lismore, New South Wales
• St. George Dragons players
• Western Suburbs Magpies coaches
• Western Suburbs Magpies players
• Western Suburbs Rosellas players
• New South Wales rugby league team players