John Sattler death 2023 | The Mole on rugby league great dealing with old school thuggery, brutality
John Sattler was rugby league’s reluctant hard man – a gentle giant who wanted nothing to do with the game for much of his early life.
Sattler died on Monday, aged 80, and the rugby league world is poorer for his passing – a legendary figure on the field and a true gentleman off it.
But Sattler, who was born in Kurri near Newcastle, did anything to avoid playing football throughout his childhood.
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“I was more interested in horses and stuff like that,” Sattler told me several years ago.
“I used to look at league and think, ‘Gosh, that is a rough game’. They tried to make me play it at school but I was too smart for them. As soon as the lunch bell went, I’d bolt out the front door, catch the bus home and play with the horses.
“One day when I was around 16, I was breaking in a horse when a neighbour told me to join in a local game of touch. So I tied up the horse and joined in – jeans, riding boots and all. I found I actually enjoyed it, and it all started from there.”
Sattler quickly developed a reputation, and by 1964, was signed by Souths.
Burgess’ tribute to Sattler
But rival forwards were quick to pick on the new boy.
“My first game, against Parramatta, I ended up in the hospital getting a bunch of stitches in a cut above my eye from a punch,” he said.
“My dad was normally a quiet bloke but he was shocked when he saw the state of my face. ‘You can’t take this sort of thing every week; you’re going to have to give some back to these blokes or they will kill you.’
“I followed his advice… but I probably did it to the extreme.”
Gould, Gallen pay tribute to John Sattler
Sattler became a renowned hit man – but developed into a league legend because of a vicious assault on him off the ball by Manly’s John Bucknall in the 1970 grand final.
Sattler played over half the match with his jaw broken in three places, spending two weeks in hospital afterwards while surgeons reconstructed his jaw.
Although a kind man off the field, he never forgave his assailant.
“Bucknall was essentially a lower grader who only got into their team because a couple of other blokes were out injured,” Sattler said.
“I think he just went out there looking for some easy pickings. We were running past each other, far from the ball, when he hit me with the best forearm jolt you will ever see. I was down on one knee but got up, and he belted me again.”
Sattler led Souths to a convincing win over Manly, one of his six grand final appearances, before moving up to the Gold Coast and finishing his career as Queensland captain.
For all his ferocity on the field, friends remember him as a kind and generous soul who will go down as one of the game’s true champions.
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