Cliff Lyons: Shark, Tiger, Bear

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

Cliff Lyons - made his debut for the North Sydney Bears in 1985.

The road to first grade at Manly in 1986, before ultimately winning premierships and playing for NSW and Australia, was a long path for Cliff Lyons.

There was a time when a player from country NSW or Queensland could try his luck out in the big league by trialing with a Sydney or Brisbane club in the hope of making an impression.

With NRL clubs now scouring the bush for players in their midteens and turning them into "local juniors", if you are a late developer you may never get a chance.

Under today's seemingly tight salary caps, instant success is demanded and many players never reach their potential. One of the last players to arrive to premiership football as a late developer was Cliff Lyons.

Cliff Lyons appeared in 1985 at North Sydney and achieved what many called instant success. Yet the rise of Lyons from apparent obscurity was not all as it appeared. Born and bred in Narrandera, a Riverina town near Wagga Wagga, Lyons first came to Sydney when only 12 years of age. He spent two years playing the game with Mt Druitt public school before moving to Sylvania and spending six years as a Cronulla junior while attending Jannali Boys High.

He succeeded at rugby league well enough to be graded at Cronulla in 1981 and was chosen in the opening round in the Under 23's against Penrith. Lyons was picked in the second row along side Royce George with Australian schoolboy star Steve Hardy at lock. Hardy went on to play first grade with Cronulla, Easts and in England. Penrith won the close fought match 13-11 with Lyons grabbing a try.

By the Easter weekend Cronulla First Grade coach, Greg Pierce, had Lyons on the bench for the home game against the premiership bound Parramatta Eels. With the Sharks holding an unbeatable lead nearing fulltime, Lyons was given the word he was to take the field. In his first TV appearance Lyons managed a few on-screen stretches before he was beaten by an apparently early fulltime siren. It would be another four years before Lyons would have the opportunity to take the field in first grade again.

Cronulla were having a great season in the Under 23's and were looking certain semi-finalists when in early August, Manly visited the Sharks. In the Sharks' side that day was Gavin Miller and the Manly team featured their rookie star from Taree, Mal Cochrane playing centre. Cronulla beat the Sea Eagles 15-3 and finished in the top three.

Despite winning a number of awards during the year as best player, by semi-final time Lyons was apparently on the outer with club management for taking a week off for personal reasons. For the Under 23's semi-final against South Sydney, Lyons was left on the bench. The Rabbitohs, who included Mario Fenech and Craig Coleman, defeated the Sharks by 19 points to 5. Following the loss, Lyons parted company with the Sharks and to this day they must regret that he was allowed to go.

Lyons' former Cronulla teammate, Royce George, obtained a captain-coach position with the Gundagai Tigers for the 1982 season, and he encouraged Cliff to join him.

By March of 1982, Lyons signed and the local press noted that while Lyons was a second-rower he also laid claim to being a five-eighth. They were right - by mid season Lyons impressed at five-eighth as a replacement for Riverina Division in their 30 to 8 victory over Central Coast in a Country Championship match. In the second half Lyons showed his skill by eluding three defenders when scoring a fine solo try. Also playing in the Riverina team was a young centre, David French, who would later play for Eastern Suburbs.

Playing consistently well for Gundagai in the Group 9 competition (who made the semi-finals) Lyons was selected to play for Riverina against the touring New Zealand team during the year.

1983 opened with Gundagai playing in the West Wyalong Rugby League Knockout which included teams from throughout New South Wales, Canberra and Adelaide (29 teams competing over three weekends). The Tigers won the play-off for third place by beating Condobolin 40-28 after leading 18-16 at the break. During the competition Lyons won four player of the match awards and was later named man-of-the-series.

On the back of Lyons Gundagai made 1983 their year by winning the Group 9 premiership by defeating the Young "Cherrypickers" 40 to 14 in the Grand Final. It was the Tigers first triumph in twenty years. By 1984 injuries in the Gundagai team forced Lyons back into the second-row.

While he succeeded at club level his opportunities to impress for Country selection were hampered by this positional switch, though he did play for Riverina against Great Britain (who included Ellery Hanley and Garry Schofield). The defending premiers again made the Grand Final but were unable to repeat their 1983 effort.

Unfortunately for Lyons, Harden hooker Peter Litner won the Weissel Medal for the best and fairest Group 9 player by one point, beating Cliff 27-26. After the season Lyons played for Koorie United in the Aboriginal Knockout at Dubbo and again was named player of the tournament. Also playing were Paul Roberts, Paul Shaw and Ewan McGrady.

Cooma offered Lyons a contract for the 1985 season and he went so far as to check the location during the summer. At the same time, former Riverina international Greg Hawick landed the coaching position at North Sydney.

Lyons, then 23, accepted an offer from Hawick to trial with the Bears and returned to Sydney. Impressing in the trials Lyons was chosen in the Bears ' First Grade team for the second game of the 1985 season against the Brian Smith coached Illawarra Steelers. Mitchell Cox had been dumped to make way for Lyons who later admitted he was terrified of his first big time game. The Bears won an exciting game 15 points to 10, with Lyons setting up all three of Norths' tries and adding a field goal in a sparkling debut.

In what turned out to be a year of turmoil at North Sydney, with Hawick being sacked, Lyons was the Bears' saviour. Many commentators saw his style of play as "refreshing" and "entertaining" and he was rewarded with selection in the Sydney Seconds team.

One of Lyons' most remembered games with the luckless Bears came against South Sydney at Redfern Oval where he sparked Norths into two tries in the final moments to win the game - for once the Bears had snatched victory form the "jaws of defeat" instead of the opposite.

Lyons was unhappy at the Bears' treatment of Hawick and looked for success elsewhere. In the meantime Lyons signed a contract to play the coming off-season in England with Leeds.

His form continued well through 1985 and nearing the final round of the season it was announced that Lyons would be off to Manly for 1986. Before flying out to England Lyons was decidely unimpressed when news came through that the Sea Eagles had also signed Norths' other five-eighth Mitchell Cox.

In his first game for Leeds (against Keighley) Lyons scored three tries in the last ten minutes as they won 60 points to 12. In his second game he starred as the famous Yorkshire team beat the premiers St Helens. In November of 1985 Leeds played the visiting Kiwis losing 16-10 in an often violent game.

The NZ team was coached by Graham Lowe and included Olsen Filipaina and Clayton Friend. During the game Lyons put up a bomb to set-up his own (and Leeds' only) try. Leeds made the play-offs of the Challenge Cup that season largely on the success of their Australian players, Tony Currie and Lyons, but were beaten by Hull KR 17-0 in a semi-final replay. Hull KR featured John Dorahy, Peter Johnston and Lyons' ex-Cronulla team mate Gavin Miller. Leeds were impressed by Lyons and he returned again in 1988/89 where they won the coveted Yorkshire Cup.

Lyons returned to Sydney after the 1986 season had already got underway. He consequently spent much of the season at lock while Martin Meredith and Mitchell Cox kept the five-eighth position closed up. Lyons also struggled with consistency and temperament during the season, which ultimately saw him suspended after being sent-off in a semi-final against Balmain. This saw Lyons have a short return stint in England with the Sheffield Eagles to help clear the suspension in time for the start of the next season.

However, under Bob Fulton's coaching, 1987 would see Lyons overcome those concerns to win State Of Origin representation and the Clive Churchill medal as Manly won the 1987 Winfield Cup. For the next decade Lyons was the architect of any Manly success. In the post match reviews he would more often than not be quoted as the reason the Sea Eagles had won the game.

Lyons was not asked to play for the Northern Eagles in their debut season in 2000 and was forced to retire (although he continued to play for the Umina Bunnies on the NSW Central Coast for a season). His premiership career produced all the highs that a player could hope for - State of Origin, four Grand Finals (2 wins), the triumph of winning the Ashes in 1990, the most games ever by a Sea Eagle and Dally M Player of the Year twice (90 and 94). Perhaps his only regret was that he never played a Test for Australia on home soil.

Lyons was clearly a play-maker - the number of tries he set up for other players in his career would be impossible to count. But in the modern game where a play-maker is as valuable as ever, there seems little avenues available for a player to develop these skills. Unless a player has these talents at 18 or 19, it is unlikely that the player will ever get to the NRL. On that basis it is unlikely we will ever see a player follow the path Cliff Lyons took to reach the top ever again.

Original version of this article published in the Rugby League Gazette (1994)