Les_Brennan
Les Brennan
Australian rugby league footballer (born 1931)
Leslie Brennan (born 18 April 1931) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the New South Wales Rugby League competition.
Brennan holds the record for the highest strike rate (tries per game) in Australian first grade rugby league history (minimum 20 games), scoring 32 tries in 24 games (1.33 per game). Brennan also holds the record for the fourth most number of tries scored in a season, scoring 29 tries in 19 matches in the 1954 season. This is still today the record for a debut season. Brennan however was not the highest try scorer for the 1954 season, finishing second to Ray Preston of Newtown who scored 34. The only player to have scored more than 34 tries in a season was Dave Brown, who scored 38 tries in 1935, playing just 15 games for Easts. He is also one of only seven players in Australian first grade history who have scored more tries than have played games (minimum 20 games): Les Brennan (32 tries in 24 games), Don Manson (24 tries in 21 games), Harold Horder (152 tries in 136 games), Charlie Hazelton (27 tries in 26 games), Johnny Graves (79 tries in 77 games), Reg Gasnier (127 tries in 125 games), and Fred Tottey (77 tries in 76 games).[3]
Brennan only played a further five matches in his career, scoring three tries before his retirement. A breakout of boils limited his play in the 1955 season, however it was the crushed vertebrae which he suffered in the 1954 grand final that forced him into retirement. After the five games in 1955, Brennan decided to hang up the boots as playing with his injury was unsustainable.[4]