St George DCC and its Rugby League Connections - Pt 2 - Reg Gasnier
St George Cricket Club | March 06, 2026
"Puff The Magic Dragon" - Reg Gasnier
In 1959-60 when thirty eight year-old Lindwall played his last Test match and took his record Australian total of wickets to 228, twenty year-old Gasnier announced his genius to the world with a dazzling display on the 1959-60 Kangaroos tour of England and France.
The gifted centre enjoyed such a meteoric rise to stardom that by the first week of July, 1959, he had made more representative appearances than he'd played senior games for St George.
As critics sought new superlatives to describe his change of pace and uncanny anticipation and fans gave him the sobriquet of "Puff the Magic Dragon", his rich promise as a cricketer was all but forgotten.
Yet for all his love of rugby league Gasnier had a great affection for cricket and, as a boy, meticulously tended a pitch he laid across the chook yard of the family home.
He batted against a ball swinging from a rotary clothes line and honed his fielding skills by intercepting tennis balls thrown forcefully against a brick wall.
Gasnier played one game in the A W Green Shield team in 1952-53. It was his efforts the following season (89 runs and 8 wickets) that gave notice of his potential. Indeed, the annual report said of Gasnier: This lad should prove a tower of strength in this competition next year because of his sound batting and general all round ability.
It was a prescient comment as he topped the 1954-55 averages with 194 runs with a top score of an undefeated 110. For good measure he took six wickets and played in Fourth Grade. So consistent were his performances in Poidevin-Gray and Third
Grade in 1956-57 he was promoted to Second Grade and was rewarded with 186 runs at 62.00 in a premiership year. He made his solitary First Grade appearance the following season before he made his painful choice.
Gasnier is one of the most decorated players in the annals of rugby league. When the code celebrated its centenary in 2008, he was named in the list of Australia's greatest one hundred players and, along with Mal Meninga, was named as one of the centres in the Team of the Century. Furthermore he is a member of both the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame and Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame.
He played in seven of the Dragon's astonishing eleven consecutive premierships from 1956 to 1966.
Much to the excitement of the district's fervent sports lovers at the same period St George District Cricket Club won the Club Championship seven times, six consecutively from 1960-61 to 1965-66.
Upon retirement in 1967, Gasnier embarked on a career as sports writer and broadcaster.He provided expert analysis on the ABC's Grandstand television coverage during the 1970s. He returned back to St George DCC as a guest and participant at various club events such as Golf Days where guests were treated to his comments on his career and sport in general.
Reg Gasnier passed away on Sunday the 11th of May at a nursing home in Miranda after a long battle with Illness.
All up for St George DCC, between 1952 and 1959 he scored 1690 runs including Green Shield and PG's. In just 3 first grade innings he scored 76 runs at 25.33 and a top score of 59. His highest score was 110* in Green Shield followed by 109 in Fourth Grade in 55-56.
With the ball he finished with 60 wickets at just 21.52.
