Norm O'Neill failed to fulfil expectations of his batting only because the forecasts of his greatness were so widespread and demanding. Never "the new Bradman" he was tagged at the outset of his career, he was nonetheless a back-foot player of astonishing power, and a broad-shouldered Adonis who gave off a golden aura of good health. He shone in his first series, against England in 1958-59, demonstrated great adaptability in India and Pakistan a year later, and adorned the 1960-61 Tied Test with 181 in 401 minutes: an innings that, in Jack Fingleton's words, "sparkled like champagne". In 1961 EW Swanton was moved to write that O'Neill "reminded us that the art of batting was not dead, merely dormant". Always a nervous starter, he found form more elusive after that, but he was only 28 when Australia dispensed, rather peremptorily, with his services.
Gideon Haigh