Ken Arthurson
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Personal information
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| Full name | Kenneth Richard Arthurson | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Arko The Godfather of Manly |
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| Born |
1 October 1929 Glebe, New South Wales, Australia |
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Playing information
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| Position | Halfback | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Coaching information
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Kenneth Richard "Arko" Arthurson AM (born 1 October 1929) is an Australian rugby league football identity. Affectionately known as "The Godfather of Manly", he played, coached and was later an administrator at the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club of the New South Wales Rugby League premiership. Later he ran the NSWRL, and then the Australian Rugby League during the 1990s' Super League war, resigning in 1997 as part of the peace process for creating the unified National Rugby League.
Born in the Sydney suburb of in Glebe, Ken Arthurson became a rugby league footballer through the Freshwater Surf Club, playing in their 1945 D-Grade premiership win alongside another future Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles legend, and the club's first home-grown Australian international, Roy Bull.
Ken Arthurson made his first grade debut in the 1950 NSWRFL season for the three-year-old Manly-Warringah club under the coaching of former Kangaroo tourist and Australian test captain Wally O'Connell, who had moved to Manly from Eastern Suburbs. Arko played at half-back in Manly-Warringah's first Grand Final appearance in the 1951 NSWRFL Grand Final against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at the Sydney Sports Ground. The day didn't go as planned for the Sea Eagles though as Souths ran out easy 42-14 winners. Although Manly were easily defeated by Souths, they gained respect around the league for having reached the Grand Final in just their fifth year in the premiership having joined in 1947 (fellow 1947 entrant Parramatta would not play their first Grand Final until 1976, ironically a 13-10 loss to Manly). Arthurson, by then regarded as one of the best young halfbacks in the league, then played another full season at Manly in 1952, before accepting the role of player/coach with NSW Country Group 11 team Parkes' for 1953. His reason for leaving Manly and going to Parkes was that with players such as Australian and NSW halfback Keith Holman generally being the first picked for representative teams (City Firsts, NSW and Australia), Arthurson felt he would have a better chance at NSW and Australian selection playing for Country Firsts.
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