Tributes for Central West rugby union icon John 'Blue' Stanbrook

From his days terrorising opposition wingers for the Yeoval Eagles, to helping bring to life a club in Tullamore, Mr Stanbrook was looked upon as a great of the game by all those in the Central West.

So when former teammate and current Eagles coach Dick Leach heard of his friend's death on April 27 at the age of 89, a list of stories a mile long came flooding back to him. There's one in particular which is still talked about to this day, that of Mr Stanbrook turning down the opportunity to play for the Wallabies.

"As the story goes, the original letter he sent back to selectors was 'thank you very much for your selection, but I'm sorry, dad said I've got to stay home and feed the pigs," Mr Leach said.

"That's how the story was recounted to us at least."

Mr Stanbrook's list of accomplishments as a rugby player are clear as day.

From lining up for NSW Country against a strong Springboks side in 1956 - a match that prompted the South Africans to rate them a stronger side than the NSW side they played a week before - to scoring a try and kicking three goals for a victorious Central West side against the touring NZ Maori team in 1958, Mr Stanbrook could do it all. He even had the opportunity to face off against the All Blacks in 1957 where he scored the only points for Western NSW (two penalty goals).

"Not many people actually knew what he'd done because he was so unassuming," Mr Leach added.

"It was only a few years after I started playing with him when we happened to be having a few beers at his house and his wife Judy pulled out the scrapbook and we saw what he had done. His quality of play was without a doubt just beautiful to watch."

It's those same stories told about him that will see Mr Stanbrook's legacy live on forever.

"When he first got picked for NSW, he was quite young," Mr Leach added.

"They were on a tour up in QLD and as he was getting off the bus, the manager said 'Stanbrook, you pick up my bags and take them to my room'. His reply was 'my name is John and I don't carry bags for (anyone). That was a man who was very straight to the point."

The Eagles coach could go on for hours about the legendary player, but noted that although Mr Stanbrook had rubbed shoulders with some of the best players going around, he had no trouble bringing people back down to earth.

"He was refereeing a match in Tullamore one day after the ref didn't turn up and he was a fair way behind the play," Mr Leach added.

"One of our Tullamore players had made a fairly bustling run and thrown off about half-a-dozen of the opposition players. He's finally scored and as he's gone down, the opposition claimed he dropped the ball.

"Blue was just getting over halfway and he awarded the try from about 40 metres out. As play had stopped, he walked up to where we'd scored and they were still complaining. Blue said 'you shouldn't have let him get that far anyway, it's a try'. They couldn't say anything to that."

Mr Stanbrook played most of his football as a winger or centre but in 1963 shifted to number 8 in the forwards.

The move was a big success with Yeoval winning the Central West premiership in 1963 and 1964.

He was the husband of the late Judy Stanbrook, father and father-in-law of Tracy, Paul and Sandra, Sandra and Buddhie and Jennifer, pop of Adam, Tegan, Matthew, Zachary, Chloe, Marnie, Thomas, Justin, Andrew, Niamh, Eloise and their families.

Mr Stanbrook was the first person to be awarded life membership of Central West Rugby Union. In 1995, he was awarded a plaque to commemorate this achievement. He was also a Country and State selector in the late 1970s.

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens.

Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.