Cec Fifield

Cec "Dicky" Fifield (1903–1957)

Coaching career After a couple of years' involvement with Canterbury-Bankstown, during which he coached the team in 1944, Fifield returned to England. In 1950 he was approached by English club Rochdale Hornets to be Manager-Coach and to select several young players to help strengthen their team. He selected Tom Duffy, Wally Elliot, Cec "Babe" Kelly, Reg Stanford and Ron Stanford. They arrived in Rochdale in September 1950 and commenced training. The Australian Rugby League lodged a complaint against the five boys playing for Rochdale owing to the then current "poaching" ban being in place. The Rugby League case was lost because these boys were junior rugby union players not affiliated to any Rugby League Club, although they had played Rugby League as teenagers. The boys had a successful career before returning to Australia. Fifield's last appointment was as coach of Parramatta for one year in the 1956 NSWRFL season. The blue and golds had struggled massively in their first nine years in the competition, and under Fifield they could not avoid the wooden spoon although his record of four wins and a draw was superior to anything Parramatta would achieve between 1957 and 1961.

Death Cec "Dick" Fifield died suddenly at his Earlwood home on 7 December 1957 at the age of 54. After a largely attended funeral, he was cremated at Rookwood on 11 December 1957.

Accolades In 2008 he was named as one of the Australian Rugby League's 100 Greatest Players of all Time.

Cec never had any sons. Jack and George Fifield were his nephews born to Norman. They both started playing rugby league in Sydney in the late 1940s.

His Epitaph reads: "He was the most marked man on the field but the most respected off"