This is what I mean by a Bridge Builder. There are plenty of people who have helped make the Parramatta RLFC one of the great sporting Clubs, not only in the NRL but Australian sport.
Billy Rayner, was one of those bridge builders. He played with the Club when success meant staying within 20 points of winning. Kept turning up year after year. He got his rewards in 1962 when Ken Thornett arrived and the Parra boys made the semis for the FIRST time.
Bill epitomised all the GOOD things about Parramatta. I loved the guy and the way he played the game
"The Bridge Builder"
An old man going down a lone highway
Came in the evening cold and grey
To a chasm vast and deep and wide
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
That swollen stream held no fears for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man" said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You may never again must pass this way;
Why build you this bridge at the eventide?'
The builder lifted his old grey head.
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This swollen stream which was naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim,
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
