Bob Fulton, who won 35 Test caps for Australia, was among the inaugural group of players designated as one of rugby league's 'immortals' in 1981; He also had a spell playing in England for Warrington, the town of his birth, in the 1969/70 season
Sunday 23 May 2021 16:02, UK
Tributes have poured in for English-born former Australia captain and coach Bob Fulton, who died on Sunday aged 74 after a battle with cancer.
Fulton, who was born in Warrington and emigrated to Australia at the age of four, was among the first group of players to be granted 'immortal' status by Rugby League Week in 1981 after representing the Kangaroos in 35 Tests as a player and 40 times as a coach.
Fulton, who made 16 appearances for Warrington in the 1969/70 season, played 213 games for Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and a further 50 for Eastern Suburbs Roosters. He won three World Cups and was the Kangaroos' leading try-scorer on the 1978 and 1983 tours to the UK.
Fulton went on to coach both the Sea Eagles and the Roosters and guided Australia to victory in the 1992 and 1995 World Cup finals as well as the 1990 and 1994 Kangaroo tours.
"The word legend is used a lot in tributes but Bob was a genuine legend of rugby league," Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V'landys said.
"Bob will forever be part of rugby league's DNA and our game is richer for having had Bob part of it."
Manly's players wore black armbands and observed a minute's silence ahead of Sunday's NRL match against Parramatta in Sydney, which the Sea Eagles won 28-6.
"Bozo has been an absolute legend of the game," Manly coach Des Hasler, who played under Fulton at both club and Test level, said.
"To many of us he was a friend, a mentor, his legend that he brought to the game while he was playing and then as a coach and an administrator will never be forgotten."
Former England and Australia coach Wayne Bennett was also among those to pay tribute to Fulton.
"I coached against him a lot and we were Australian selectors together when I was a coach," Bennett said. "I've seen a lot of players and he was up there with the greatest players I have ever seen in our game."
