first test, Australia won the second. The decider was won 11–3 by Australia, with, "the one sour note" of the match being "the dismissal of veteran hooker Noel Kelly only three minutes from the end" after a stiff arm tackle on opposition half Tommy Bishop. Facing suspension for the tackle, Kelly was allowed to play in the test against France a week later, while waiting for official notification from the English Rugby League to arrive in the mail. The third in the series was Kelly's 28th and last test. Kelly's last game was at the end of the 1969 season, with his team winning their fifth game straight, in a "mire" at Penrith. After leaving Wests, he received a number of inquiries, including one from Canterbury. "One minute I am happily retired, the next I have more offers than ever in my career," a "perplexed" Kelly said. He eventually signed a two-year, $5000 per season contract to join Wollongong from 1970 but only remained for one season, a period he later said he regretted. Post-playing Kelly returned to Sydney to coach the North Sydney Bears from 1973 to 1976, never making the semi-finals. At the end of 1976, having retired from coaching with Norths, he was named to coach a Sydney team in a tour of New Zealand. He became a board member and an ambassador for the Men of League Foundation. In September 2004 Kelly was named as captain and hooker of the Western Suburbs Magpies team of the century. In February 2008, he was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the Australian Rugby League and the National Rugby League to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. Kelly went on to be named as hooker in Australian rugby league's Team of the Century. Announced on 17 April 2008, the team is the panel's majority choice for each of the thirteen starting positions and four interchange players. In June 2008, he was chosen in the Queensland Rugby League's Team of the Century at hooker. The yearly award for the best forward at the Wests Tigers club is named the Noel Kelly Medal in his honour. In the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours, Kelly was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to rugby league. Kelly died on 14 June 2020 in Sydney. He was 84, and had suffered