£l,000 BONUS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 110, 30 July 1927, Page 11

£l,ooo BONUS

AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE STAR ACCEPTS BIG OFFER FROM ENGLISH CLUB

O’ROURKE GOING HOME Frank O’Rourke, perhaps the finest all-round Rugby League centre-three-quarter in Australia, has definitely signed on with the Leeds Club, says Sydney “Sun.” O’Rourke received a bcnus of £I,OOO, is to get £6 a match and a position as a school teacher at £321 a year. Before lie sails for England at the end of this month O’Rourke will marry Miss Mary Dunworth, sister of Bob and Jim Dunworth, both formerly members of the University League team, and close friends of O’Rourke. Before taking this step O’Rourke was an amateur, as the constitution of the University Club does not permit of its members receiving payment. O’Rourke had never taken the fees allotted players in inter-State matches, but one fine afternoon recently he caused a mild sensation when he walked into the Rugby League office in Phillip Street and drew £l3 10s, the amount allowed the players in the two recent matches against Queensland. By this action O’Rourke automatically disqualified himself from mem-bership-of the University Club and the committee took the action which ended the great three-quarter’s active connection with the club of which he has been the mainstay in recent years. The services of O’Rourke will be greatly missed by New South Wales in the match against Queensland in Brisbane to-morrow (July 30). The bonus paid O’Rourke by the Leeds Club is the largest ever given an Australian or a New Zealander and would not be far from the record for any man in the English Rugby League. A similar sum has been offered Tom Gorman, of Brisbane, by Huddersfield, but has not yet been accepted. Gorman is expected to make a final decision within a few days, but it is believed it will be against acceptance. Queensland League has moneyed men in its ranks who are enthusiastic enough to pay to retain their best players. Through their generous actions Cecil Aynsley and Jimmy Craig were able to turn down propositions made them by English clubs. The negotiations with O’Rourke and the Leeds Club were carried out by “Dinny” Campbell, who played for the team for nine years. O’Rourke will go to England on the Ormonde, which carries the “Waratahs”—the N.S.W. Rugby Union team —and leaves Sydney on July 23.