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Terence Colin Fearnley (21 July 1933 – 4 March 2015) was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach.

Playing career

Fearnley was a long serving member of the NSWRFL's Eastern Suburbs team, playing 144 matches for them at a bleak period in that club's existence in two stints 1954–55 and 1957–64. Injury kept him out of the 1960 grand final, one of the few successful years Eastern Suburbs enjoyed in that period. The front rower however was selected to represent his state, New South Wales that season.

Coaching career

Following his retirement from the game as a player, Fearnley enjoyed a successful coaching career, taking the Parramatta Eels to their first ever Grand Final in 1976 and then again in 1977. He had also been successful coach of the New South Wales rugby league team but stood down at the start of the 1978 NSWRFL season to concentrate on club football. Fearnley moved to coach Western Suburbs Magpies in 1982, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (1983–84). Returning to representative coaching in 1985, he became the first successful New South Wales State of Origin coach. He was also selected as Australian coach for the mid-season 1985 Kangaroo tour of New Zealand.

Fearnley moved to coach Illawarra Steelers in 1988.

Selection controversy

It was during his 1985 tenure as Australian coach that four players – all Queenslanders in Chris Close, Mark Murray, Greg Dowling and Greg Conescu – were controversially sacked in favour of New South Wales players (Steve Ella, Des Hasler, Peter Tunks and Benny Elias), despite Australia having won the first two Tests of the three match series. Fearnley also had a frosty relationship with Australian (and Queensland) captain Wally Lewis, with Lewis claiming to close friend and fellow Maroon Paul Vautin that Fearnley seemed to be conferring on team selections with vice-captain Wayne Pearce (who was also the new NSW captain following Steve Mortimer's representative retirement) rather than Lewis himself. Lewis claimed he had found the pair privately talking over selection of the Test team in Fearnley's hotel room, though this is disputed by Pearce who claimed he was there for different reasons. Dropping the four Queenslanders backfired on Fearnley as New Zealand defeated Australia 18–0 in the final Test of the series at Carlaw Park in Auckland. It was the first time since the final Ashes Test of the 1956–57 Kangaroo Tour that Australia had been held scoreless in a Test match.

Queensland Rugby League Chairman, Senator Ron McAuliffe, publicly condemned the dropping of the four Queensland players from a winning Test side, saying "Its a football assassination and beyond all reasoning. And there can be no reasonable excuse for it".

The NZ tour took place while the 1985 State of Origin series was still in progress. NSW had won the series for the first time, taking the first two games before the Australian team was chosen for the NZ tour. Fearnley would later claim that the Queensland players in the team were unhappy that they'd just lost the Origin series, though he later admitted he didn't handle the situation as well as he could have. In Origin game three that year played at Lang Park, one of the sacked players, Maroons prop Greg Dowling, aimed a tirade of abuse at Fearnley from the sidelines after a Queensland try. The Maroons went on to win the dead rubber game 20–6. NSW captain Steve Mortimer, who announced his representative retirement following the Blues win in game II at the Sydney Cricket Ground, later regretted his decision. After clearly out-playing Maroons half Mark Murray, he was in the box seat to keep his test jumper against the Kiwis (he had been the halfback for the 3rd Ashes Test against the touring Great Britain Lions in Australia's most recent Test in 1984), and as the likely team vice-captain he felt he could have used his personal friendship with both Fearnley and Lewis to ease tensions on the tour.

Because of the controversy surrounding the NZ tour the Australian Rugby League instituted a new rule for national coaching which prevents any current serving State of Origin coach, being the national coach.

Following his retirement as a coach, Fearnley wrote an article for Rugby League Week that was highly critical of Wally Lewis' captaincy. This gained him a rebuke from ARL officials.

Death

Fearnley died from cancer on 4 March 2015.

References

1. Whiticker/Hudson
2. RLP
3. Alan Whitaker & Glen Hudson. The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players. Gary Allen Press, Australia. 1995. (ISBN 1 87516957 1)
4. "Representative coach". The Sun-Herald. 19 March 1978. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
5. Tait, Paul (28 February 1986). "Now Abbot attacks Fearnley". The Sydney Morning Herald. Australia. p. 31. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
6. Lane, Daniel (4 March 2015). "Vale Terry Fearnley, a man's man and gentleman until the end". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 March 2015.

• The Encyclopedia of Rugby League players; Alan Whiticker & Glen Hudson

Sporting positions
Preceded byBrian Smith 1984-1987	Coach Illawarra Steelers 1988	Succeeded byRon Hilditch 1989–1990
Preceded byFrank Stanton 1984	Coach Australia 1985	Succeeded byDon Furner 1986–1988
Preceded byGreg Pierce 1981-1982	Coach Cronulla 1983–1984	Succeeded byJack Gibson 1985–1987
Preceded byRoy Masters 1978-1981	Coach Western Suburbs 1982	Succeeded byLen Stacker 1983
Preceded byFrank Stanton 1984	Coach New South Wales 1977–1985	Succeeded byRon Willey 1986–1987
Preceded byGraeme Langlands 1973–1975	Coach Australia 1977	Succeeded byFrank Stanton 1978–1982
Preceded byNorm Provan 1979	Coach Parramatta 1976–1979	Succeeded byJohn Peard 1980

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

v t e New South Wales State of Origin coaches

1980–1981 Ted Glossop 1982 Frank Stanton 1983 Ted Glossop 1984 Frank Stanton 1985 Terry Fearnley 1986–1987 Ron Willey 1988 John Peard 1989–1990 Jack Gibson 1991 Tim Sheens 1992–1996 Phil Gould 1997–1998 Tommy Raudonikis 1999–2001 Wayne Pearce 2002–2004 Phil Gould 2005 Ricky Stuart 2006–2007 Graham Murray 2008–2010 Craig Bellamy 2011–2012 Ricky Stuart 2013–2017 Laurie Daley 2018-2023 Brad Fittler 2024– Michael Maguire

• 1933 births
• 2015 deaths
• Australia national rugby league team coaches
• Australian rugby league coaches
• Australian rugby league players
• Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks coaches
• Deaths from cancer in New South Wales
• Illawarra Steelers coaches
• New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin coaches
• Parramatta Eels coaches
• Rugby league players from Sydney
• Rugby league props
• Sydney Roosters coaches
• Sydney Roosters players
• Sydney Roosters captains
• Western Suburbs Magpies coaches
• New South Wales rugby league team players