John William Raper (12 April 1939 – 9 February 2022) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach. Nicknamed "Chook", he was a lock-forward who earned a then-record of 33 Test caps in the Australia national team between 1959 and 1968. He also played six World Cup games between 1960 and 1968. Raper captained Australia on eight occasions from 1967 to 68 and played in eight consecutive NSWRFL first-grade grand final victories for the St George Dragons club. He was named as one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century. Early life Raper was born in Camperdown and grew up in Revesby in south-western Sydney in a working-class family with nine boys. He played his junior rugby league for the Camperdown Dragons before representing Newtown's President's Cup side in 1956. Professional playing career Sydney Raper joined and made his first grade debut for Newtown in 1957 as an eighteen-year-old. He represented New South Wales Colts as a lock against Great Britain in 1958. Having agreed terms to leave Newtown to join the reigning premiers St George, Raper sat out most of the 1958 season to comply with residential criteria. In 1959 Raper joined St George as a lock forward and in this position he became an international rugby league star. His legendary cover defence and ball skills saw him acknowledged during his playing career as the best loose-forward the world had ever seen. He played in eight Grand final wins with St George between 1959 and 1966. Raper attributed his success to a training discipline and fitness fanaticism that was ahead of its time. While St George's early adoption of circuit training in the late 1950s was a major contributing factor in their eleven-year premiership run, Raper's own commitment to additional running and weights every day and often alone, enabled him to achieve a personal goal of being the fittest player in the fittest team in the competition. In 1959–60 he made the first of his three Kangaroo tours, scoring a try on debut in the third Test loss vs Great Britain at Wigan. For the next ten years he was rarely, except for injury, out of the Australian Test team. Raper's performance in the second Test of the 1963 tour at Swinton which saw the Kangaroos register the biggest win in Anglo-Australian Test history and become the first Australian touring team in fifty years to win