Former Greats - Des O'Reilly /

Des O'Reilly

Des O’Reilly was one of the most popular clubmen to play for the Roosters. Graded in 1974 from the Clovelly club, O’Reilly made his first grade debut in 1975 and by late in that season he had established himself as a regular in a star studded team that many rate as one of the best of all time. He played all finals games in 1975, scoring a try in the preliminary final and he went on to win a premiership in just his twelfth first grade game. He was to go on and play 204 grade games in his nine-season grade career at Easts, including 126 first grade games over eight seasons. Over half of those first grade games happened through 1980 – 1982 and included back-to-back minor premierships in 1980 and 1981, in which he one of Easts’ key forwards. He played second row in the 1980 grand final against Canterbury-Bankstown.

O’Reilly played all 11 finals games through the 1975, 1977, 1980 and 1981 seasons and was a starting second rower in all except those three finals in his rookie first grade season of 1975. A hard worker with a very solid defensive game, O’Reilly was chosen in the second row for NSW in 1981 in a Blues team that included five of his club team mates (Kerry Boustead, Robert Laurie, Paul McCabe, Jeff Masterman and John Harvey).