Arthur Halloway

Arthur 'Pony' Halloway (1885–1961), was a pioneering Australian rugby league footballer and coach. Born in Sydney, New South Wales he played for the Glebe Dirty Reds, Balmain Tigers (1909–1911 and 1915–1920) and Eastern Suburbs (1912–1914), in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership. He played for New South Wales in the first rugby match run by the newly created 'New South Wales Rugby Football League' which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.

He was a half-back for the Australian national team. He played in ten Tests between 1908 and 1919, as captain on three occasions in 1919. Halloway was nicknamed 'Pony', but despite his small stature he was recognised as one of the fiercest competitors to play the game and one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century. Halloway holds the record for the most premierships won as a coach in Australian rugby league history with eight premierships.

Playing career Arthur was playing rugby union with Easts in Sydney when the defections to rugby league commenced in 1908. He was recruited by the Glebe club after taking part in the rebel series against Baskerville's New Zealand 'All Golds'. Late in the 1908 season Halloway was selected to go away on the inaugural Kangaroo Tour . He played in 29 matches on tour including the 1st Anglo-Australian Test in London.

Character and playing style The story is recounted of him chopping off a finger in a work related accident one Saturday morning, then leading his club side, Balmain, to victory that afternoon with his hand swathed in a blood-stained bandage.

In 2007 he was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame. In February 2008, Halloway was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. He was assigned inductee number 6 in the NRL Hall of Fame.

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