Name Edward Root | ||
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Eddie Root (1902-1986) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s and 1930s. A New South Wales state and Australia national representative forward, his club career was played in Sydney with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Newtown Bluebags and St. George Dragons. Enlisted in World War I at the age of just 16 years, he had the distinction of being the last representative footballer to go to the Great War.
Career
A South Sydney junior, Root started playing first grade for the Rabbitohs in 1923, becoming a mainstay in the side in 1926. That year he first tasted premiership success with the Rabbitohs, who also won the following two years' competitions. He was sent off in the 1926 decider against University. He made his representative debut for New South Wales in 1927 and was regularly selected for the Blues over the next six seasons. He was selected to go on the 1929–30 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain, playing in fifteen tour matches but no Tests. When the NSWRL changed the South Sydney/Newtown boundary distinction in 1930 Root spent the following season with Newtown Jets due to the strict residential criteria of the time. He then returned to the Rabbitohs and played in the back-to-back premiership-winning Souths sides of 1931 and 1932. In 1935 he was signed by St. George Dragons and played in the record-breaking 91-6 win over competition newcomers Canterbury-Bankstown before later becoming the club's captain-coach. He played with the Dragons for two seasons before retiring.