St George DCC and its Rugby League Connections Part IV - Les Johns
St George Cricket Club | April 27, 2026
While Lindwall and Gasnier felt obliged to concentrate on one sport international fullback Les Johns managed to embrace both rugby league and cricket.
Johns, who played with Canterbury for nine seasons from 1963 and made fourteen appearances for both New South Wales and Australia during a distinguished career, was a most competent left-handed batsman who appeared with Bankstown, Petersham, Sutherland and St George over a twenty five year period.
The 1980-81 season was the first of four at Hurstville Oval and his most productive. His 269 runs at 44.83 in second grade earned him speedy promotion to First Grade and he maintained his form with 361 runs at 72.20 for an imposing season aggregate of 630 Runs.
His complete Grade career makes for impressive reading given his amazing Rugby League career.
1st Grade Average – 34.36
Highest Score – 166 for Sutherland in 84-85
1st Grade Centuries – 8 and 32 half centuries
Les Johns scored centuries in each of his final two innings with his final innings century, 101 for Sutherland vs ND’s was scored at the age of 43 years & 237 days. 4 of his 8 first grade centuries were scored in his 40’s.
His most productive season was his final one in 1985-86 when playing for Sutherland he scored 726 runs including 4 centuries
Here is a little more on his Rugby League Career
Key Statistics & Career Highlights
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (104 matches, 1963–1971).
Total Points: 1,157 (First Class).
Bulldogs Points: 545+ (14 tries, 233 goals, 19 field goals).
Representative: 14 Tests for Australia (1963–69), 16 matches for NSW.
Tours: Kangaroo Tours (1963–64, 1967–68).
Awards: 1968 NSWRL Player of the Year, 1967 Grand Final Man of the Match, 1969 Sun-Herald Best and Fairest.
Key Achievements
Top 100 Players: Named in the 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007).
Team of the 60s: Named in the NRL Team of the 1960s (2006).
Bulldogs Legend: Named in the Berries to Bulldogs 70 Year Team of Champions (2004) and Bulldogs Ring of Champions.
Playing Style and Legacy
Regarded as the Bulldogs' greatest-ever fullback, Les Johns was renowned for his exceptional attacking flair and solid defence despite a "slightly built" frame. His career was often interrupted by injuries, leading to an early retirement in 1971 but despite this he was known for his "brilliant" kicking game. Below is his Bibliography from the NRL Hall Of Fame -
Like Clive Churchill, Les Johns began his football career in Newcastle. Also like Churchill, Johns could kick goals, tackle and run like a greyhound. And like the Little Master he was rarely less than dynamic, a match-winner in a small economy-sized package who came south to try his luck in the big league and stayed to build a wonderful career.
When, in 2006, a selection panel rich in experience sat down in Sydney to pick the ''team of the '60s'', Johns was fullback, an extraordinary tribute considering the quality of his contemporaries at fullback: Keith Barnes, Ken Thornett and Graeme Langlands.
The blonde-haired Johns made his early mark in football with a dazzling display for Newcastle against Great Britain in 1962, a match won famously by the home side. He was in Sydney by 1963, signed by Canterbury, the start of a richly successful nine-year partnership.
Arguably Johns' most spectacular moment came in 1966 when he felled Balmain's flying Kevin Yow Yeh at the Sydney Sports Ground with one of the greatest cover tackles ever made by a fullback.
The 1967–68 Kangaroo tour was probably his masterpiece. Journalists who accompanied the team, such as EE Christensen, Mike Gibson and Alan Clarkson, offered rave reviews about his unorthodoxy and brilliant attacking skills when the team came home.
With these statistics in both Cricket and Rugby League surely Les Johns finds himself in the upper echelons of Great Australian Sportsmen.
