Eric Simms

Eric Simms (born 2 August 1945) is an Indigenous Australian former professional and national representative rugby league footballer who has been named among the nation's finest of the 20th century. His primary position was at although he could also play as a . Simms played his entire first grade career for South Sydney with whom he won four premierships and was top point-scorer for four consecutive seasons.

In August 2008, Simms was named at fullback in the Indigenous Team of the Century.

Eric attended Karuah Public School, and Raymond Terrace High School where "he was taught the art of goalkicking by Les Leggatt, sportsmaster".

Playing career Simms moved to La Perouse where he played for La Perouse Panthers Junior Rugby League Football Club in the 1964 premiership-winning team. He was a 19-year-old truck driver when he was signed for South Sydney in 1965. He played in the centres for Souths’ grand finalist team which lost to St George (128) before a then record crowd of 78,056; Simms scored the last points in the game with a penalty goal.

Simms went on to play 206 first grade games, including grand final winning teams in 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1971, scoring a total of 1,841 career points. In 1969, he broke the record for the most points scored in a premiership season with 265, previously held by Dave Brown of Eastern Suburbs. He held the record until broken by Mick Cronin over a decade later.

In 1973 he overtook Keith Barnes' record for the most points scored in an NSWRFL career (1,519); Simms' eventual total of 1,841 stood as the new career record for ten seasons until it was surpassed by Graham Eadie in 1983.

Club records Simms set and still holds a number of South Sydney club records:

Coaching career After the 1975 season, Simms moved to Crookwell, New South Wales, with his wife Sue and three children, Brendon, Kristie and Simone where he was captain-coach in 1976 until an arm injury (sustained in a tackle) forced his playing retirement at age 31. He coached Crookwell in 1977 and returned to Sydney where he coached the La Perouse team in 1978.

Ron Coote has said that Simms' kicking ability was a combination of talent and hard work: "Eric would get to training and stand on the halfway line and Clive Churchill would stand under the posts ... . Eric would practise field goals from halfway one after the other for half an hour. Bang, bang, bang straight over. He hardly ever missed." The team was chosen by a panel chaired by then Senator Aden Ridgeway, a former South Sydney junior league player and then deputy leader of the Australian Democrats in the Australian Senate; other panel members were Ian Heads (rugby league journalist and historian), Frank Hyde, Roy Masters and David Middleton (a rugby league historian). The Eric Simms Challenge was described by the Rabbitohs' marketing manager as "a salute to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island players, past and present" and was a match between the NRL Rabbitohs team and a representative Aboriginal team, the Murdi Paaki Warriors, a development side from western New South Wales ("from the Queensland border, across to Burren Junction in the east, to Gulargambone in the south-east, through to Bourke, Cobar, Ivanhoe and down to the Victorian border").

Life after league In 1977, Simms returned to the family home, Chifley Sydney where he started work on the wharves, an industry in which he has worked for more than 30 years. He worked at Port Botany where the demands of shift work put an end to his coaching days and his rugby league career. By 1997, he was a foreman for P&O on the White Bay wharves at Port Sydney. | years = 1973 (1,520) - 1983 (1,841)|