Vale & Funeral Details - Michael ‘Mick’ Stynes

• Date: This Friday, 30th January
• Time: 10.30am
• Where: St Francis of Assisi Church, Oxford St Paddington

Unfortunately, a very difficult period for our club in losing some of our best people continues. This time, it is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of one of nature’s absolute gentlemen and decorated former player Michael Stynes - who was diminutive in stature, but a giant of Randwick Rugby.

Michael or Mick as he was more widely known had been struggling with a heart condition and some other ailments for a few years, and finally succumbed to his illness after a long stint in POW Hospital, last Tuesday, aged 86 years.

Mick was a local Coogee boy from very humble beginnings, which shaped his approach, personality and work ethic for his entire life. He was educated firstly at De La Salle, Coogee and then up the road at Marcellin College, Randwick.

Mick’s playing journey began in our inaugural Colts team in 1956 where he played with his lifelong mate Mick ‘Yogi’ Young and also a young Jeffrey Leonard Sayle. He made his Grade debut in Myrtle Green in 1957 and went onto play 181 Grade games until 1969, with 100 of those in First Grade.

He was an incredibly talented half back who actually went to Gordon in 1960 at the behest of the legendary Wally Meagher. The story goes that Wally selflessly advised Mick he was too good to play Reserve Grade, but he would have to do so, due to the impending arrival of one of the greatest halfback’s this country and our club would ever produce in Ken Catchpole. Wally even arranged the transfer with Gordon directly, which showed the respect he had for Mick.

However, Mick was always a Wick at heart, so he eventually returned to Coogee in 1962, where he reinvented himself as a fullback and went on to set all sorts of point-scoring records, courtesy of his freakish playing ability and incredibly accurate goal-kicking, which won many tight and important games for the club.

All up, he scored 1142 points for us in his Grade career via 15 tries, 262 conversions and 191 penalty goals. He was the leading point-scorer in 1st Grade between 1965-1969 and was the first player in our club’s history to score 500 points. In 1966, he also became the first player in Australian rugby to score 200 points in a season.

To put Mick’s feats in even greater context, he was the leading total point-scorer in the history of the club, until Warwick Wheeler took his mantle in the mid-1970’s. Mick currently stands in 4th position on the all-time club point scoring list behind David Knox, Gareth Smith and ‘Wheels’ - so he is in very rarefied air at Randwick Rugby.

He was also awarded the club’s overall Best & Fairest Player in 1969 - which took some winning, considering the calibre of wonderful players we had in that era.

Mick was a member of our First Grade Premiership winning teams in 1965 and 1967, which contained some of the luminaries of Australian rugby in Peter Johnson, John Brass, Denis Cleary, Phil Hawthorne, John Weber, Jeffrey, Yogi & Catchy of course, to name but a few. He was also a member of the victorious 1959 Reserve Grade premiership team and played in two losing Grand Finals in 1963 and 1964. At representative level he was also capped for NSW in 1966 and played 1 game.

Mick’s grandson Cooper has been playing Colts and Grade with us in recent years and told us that he really had no idea what a star his pop was in his playing days and said “He barely ever talked about it and was always so humble about his abilities, on the off chance he ever did”. That was hardly surprising, knowing the man he was.

After his playing retirement, Mick began coaching our lower grades for a few seasons in the early 70’s, before focusing on his career and burgeoning business interests.

Mick returned to coach our Colts teams in the early 1990’s and met with great success, coaching 1st Colts to a premiership, which contained the likes of Owen Finegan, Stu Pinkerton and his own son Chris. We know that he was an incredible coach and life mentor to this cohort of young men and was hugely respected by them. Mick also spent many years coaching at Subbies level with the Colleagues club, close to his home at Rose Bay.

Professionally, Mick began his career post school in the Public Service, but yearned to be a Surveyor and showed his commitment and determination to do so by undertaking many years of night studies at TAFE and then getting a degree at UNSW in the same manner. He went on to have his own hugely successful surveying business at Bondi Junction, which he operated until he retired and was highly respected in.

Said to possess incredible hand-eye coordination, it was no shock that Mick was an excellent all-round sportsman and off the rugby field was an A Grade squash competition player, a low handicap golfer and an accomplished sailor.

On behalf of all at Randwick Rugby, we extend our deepest sympathy to Mick’s loving wife Carol, his four daughters Katrina, Justine, Alexandra and Georgia, his son Christopher, all their families, including his 12 grandchildren and his vast array of friends and admirers across all walks of his life.

RIP Mick. God bless you.

Up the Wicks!

Mark Harrison

General Manager

Randwick Rugby Club

1964 NZ Tour - front row, first on the left.

1967 First Grade Premiers - middle row, first on the left.