Rod Silva


Rodney "Rod" Silva is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of indigenous background who played in the 1980s and 1990s for Eastern Suburbs and Canterbury-Bankstown.

Playing career

He initially played football for Eastern Suburbs from 1988 to 1994. Silva made his first grade debut for the club in round 20 1988 against the Gold Coast Giants at Seagulls Stadium.
He was named Daly M Fullback of the year in 1993. In 1995, Phil Gould joined Eastern Suburbs as coach and moved Silva to reserve grade, ultimately cutting him from the team.
In the middle of the season of that year Silva joined the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and took their troubled fullback position, ultimately scoring the final try in Canterbury's grand final win against Manly-Warringah that year.
In the 1998 NRL season, Silva played 13 games as Canterbury finished 9th on the table and qualified for the finals. Canterbury proceeded to make the 1998 NRL Grand Final after winning 4 sudden death elimination matches in a row including the club's famous preliminary final victory over rivals Parramatta which is considered to be one of the greatest comebacks of all time. After being 18-2 down with less than 10 minutes remaining, Canterbury scored 3 tries including one of those by Silva to take the game into extra-time before winning the match 32–20.
The following week, Silva played at fullback for Canterbury in their loss to the Brisbane Broncos in the 1998 NRL Grand Final. Silva retired from professional Rugby League in 2001. It has been remarked that he is the last of the pedigree of NRL players that also worked as Police Officers.