Tom ‘Tommy’ McLachlan was a 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 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).

A South Sydney

South Sydney Rabbitohs

The South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Redfern, a suburb of South-central Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League premiership and are one of nine existing teams from the state capital...

 junior, McLachlan made his 1st grade debut for that club in 1931. In 1934 Tommy McLachlan joined the Eastern Suburbs

Sydney Roosters

The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League and is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Australian rugby league history, having won twelve New South Wales Rugby League...

 club where he remained until his retirement at the end of the 1937 Season. A hooker

Rugby league positions

A rugby league football team consists of thirteen players on the field, with four substitutes on the bench. Players are divided into two general categories: "forwards" and "backs"....

, McLachlan played in some of East’s greatest sides, winning premierships with the club in 1935, ’36 and ’37. He was also a member of the Eastern Suburbs side that was defeated by Western Suburbs

Western Suburbs Magpies

The Western Suburbs Magpies are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly referred to, were one of the nine foundation clubs of the first New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...

 in the 1934 premiership decider.

McLachlan went onto become president of the Australian Postal Workers’ Union.