Alan Thompson is a former professional rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 footballer and coach. He played for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. They compete in the National Rugby League's Telstra Premiership, the premier rugby league competition of Australasia...

 in the New South Wales Rugby League

New South Wales Rugby League

The New South Wales Rugby League is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and is a member of the Australian Rugby League. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was known as the New South Wales Rugby Football League until 1984 when forward thinking marketing managers decided...

 (NSWRL) competition. He primarily played at five-eighth.

Thompson was selected to represent New South Wales as five-eighth on ten occasions, seven of which were Origin

Rugby League State of Origin

State of Origin is an annual best of three series of rugby league football matches contested by the Maroons and the Blues, who represent the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales respectively...

 matches. He played in the inaugural 1980 game

1980 Rugby League State of Origin game

The 1980 State of Origin game between the Queensland Maroons and the New South Wales Blues was the inaugural match under the newly configured rules by which a player would represent his "state of origin", i.e. the state in which he was born or in which he started playing registered first grade...

, the complete 1982 series

1982 Rugby League State of Origin series

The 1982 State of Origin series was the first annual full 3-match series, between New South Wales and Queensland to be played under "state of origin" selection rules. This year the Origin concept was fully embraced, with no matches using the previous seventy-four years' residential-based selection...

, games I and II of the 1983 series

1983 Rugby League State of Origin series

The 1983 State of Origin series was the 2nd annual interstate representative series between rivals New South Wales and Queensland to be played under "state of origin" selection rules.-Game I:...

 and game I of the 1984 series

1984 Rugby League State of Origin series

The 1984 State of Origin series was the 3rd annual series contested between the representative rugby league football teams of New South Wales and Queensland under "state of origin" selection rules...

, the final year of his playing career.

At the time of his retirement in 1984, Thompson held the record for the most Manly club games: 261 with 62 tries and two field goals.

Thompson moved into coaching and took the Manly reserve grade side to a premiership in 1988. In 1989, following Bob Fulton's

Bob Fulton

Robert "Bob" Fulton AM is an Australian rugby league football identity. Fulton played, coached, selected for and has commentated on the game with great success at the highest levels and has been named amongst Australia's greatest rugby league players of the 20th century.As a player Fulton won...

 appointment as Australian coach, Thompson was appointed as first grade coach but a turbulent and unsettled year within the club led to a disappointing season for Thompson and he was replaced at the end of the season by Graham Lowe.

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