One of the most feared players in rugby league history is fighting for life in a Sydney hospital.
Barry 'Bunny' Reilly - a much loved member of the Roosters' premiership-winning teams of 1974-75 - has kidney failure and is being kept alive by three five-hour dialysis sessions a week.
Because of coronavirus restrictions, worried teammates are barred from visiting him.
Back-rower Reilly was smaller than most modern day halfbacks but was known as 'The Axe' during his career - because his fearsome defensive technique would virtually cut rivals in half.
"I played with and against 'Bunny' and I can tell you, I much preferred the former," league legend Ron Coote told Wide World of Sports.
"He was only little, but he had this way of driving you under the ribs and rattling your whole body.
"He got me a beauty once when I played for Souths - I think I can still feel it now.
"Pound for pound, there probably wasn't a tougher player."
Reilly, who turned 72 this week, was a Roosters junior who came into first grade in 1966 - the year the club didn't win a game.
But he toughed it out and was a Jack Gibson favourite when the Roosters won their two consecutive titles in 1974-75.
The week before the 1975 grand final, Reilly badly tore his calf and was ruled out of the starting side.
But Gibson so loved his little tackling dynamo that late in the game, Reilly hobbled out on to the field so he could play a part in the win over St George - despite barely being able to walk.
Former teammate John Peard remembers the fear Reilly instilled into opponents.
"Even in the Easts juniors, everyone knew the legend of 'Bunny'," he once told me.
"If he wasn't playing for us, we could hear chatter and laughter in the opposition room before the game.
"If he was, there was silence and all you could hear was the nervous rattling on the floor of the players' boots, terrified of what they were about to face."
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/barry-bunny-reilly-hospitalised-eastern-suburbs-roosters-legend/9619d92f-d4d0-4562-8580-9343671fa403
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