Steve Rogers (rugby league)

Steve Rogers (20 November 1954 – 3 January 2006) was an Australian rugby league footballer of the 1970s and 80s. He played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and St. George Dragons teams in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership competition and for Widnes in the English Championship, usually in the position of centre. Rogers represented New South Wales and Australia captaining the national team once in 1981.

After his retirement, Rogers was named as one of the five "immortals" of the Cronulla club (see [2]).

He became involved in the administration of rugby league, and held the position of Cronulla's CEO at the time of his death.

Steve Rogers died after swallowing a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol on 3 January 2006. In April 2006, the NSW state coroner ruled that the death was accidental, and that Rogers had not intended to commit suicide. He is survived by his sons, Mat and Don, his daughter Melanie, and his second wife Ingrid.

Steve Rogers played his first senior game on the Gold Coast for the Southport Tigers. In the 1972 Gold Coast Group 18 competition 17-year-old centre Steve Rogers helped a Gold Coast Tigers outfit to victory in the Grand Final against Tweed Heads Seagulls. The following season he moved to Sydney to play in the NSWRFL Premiership.

Rogers began playing first grade rugby league at the age of eighteen for the Cronulla-Sutherland club in 1973. Playing the position of centre, his talent did not go unnoticed. He was described by the club's captain/coach, Tommy Bishop as a "rare, rare talent – the greatest all round centre three-quarter I have seen." In that year, he played in his first Grand final, which Cronulla lost to the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and made the first of three Kangaroo Tours.