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RL1908 – Sean Fagan

Selected feature articles from the RL1908 archive.
All pages researched and written by Sean Fagan.


>> HEROES OF THE PAST >>

Benny WearingWe know they were great – their names and deeds have left an indelible imprint in the annals of the game. From Messenger “The Master” in 1908, to Churchill “The Little Master” in 1958, and the procession of stars in between. Whether in hectic battles, hard struggles or easy victories, these were the footballers who had the magnetism on the field to set alight the enthusiasm of the crowd. >> Continue reading >>


>> THIS ASHES IS NO GENTLEMANLY GAME >>

Frank Burge“It is a like a war when Australia plays England in either football or cricket, and probably always will be,” wrote Frank Burge in 1953. Burge, Australia’s iron-man forward of the 1910s and ‘20s, had played in three Ashes series, and seen plenty of others. For Burge and everyone else in the game, the contests between the Kangaroos and the Lions were the most demanding of battles you could play in or expect to see. Rugby league delivered the “footballing-Ashes” bi-annual contests that Aussies and the English craved. >> Continue reading >>


>> “THIS WAS A MAN’S GAME” >>

Harold WagstaffMore than a few in the game see the inter-change as something that has robbed rugby league of one its strongest attributes – the ability of a man, and his team, to fight on against their opponents for the full 80 minutes. The real battle of man against man is denied when some can go off the field and rest, before returning to the fray. Many of rugby league’s most celebrated stories centre around epic efforts by depleted teams grimly holding out their adversaries. >> Continue reading >>


>> LEAVE THE DEAD WHERE THEY FALL >>

For some reason we no longer take the ball from an injured player and immediately get on with the game. We wait, not just for the trainer to attend, but to watch the video replay to see if anything untoward happened in the tackle (or even in an earlier tackle of a different player). The tradition in rugby league was that we left the dead and injured where they fell, and got on with the game. >> Continue reading >>


>> BE EXPEDIENT OR PERISH >>

You would think that of all the football codes, the one that would put the interests of its professional players at the top of the game would be rugby league – after all, unlike every other sport, it only came into existence at all as a means to provide fairer treatment for the men who provide us with our weekly football thrills. “When the game was founded in 1908 its first principle was that the players must come first.” >> Continue reading >>


>> PAPA BEAR TAUNTED KANGAROOS >>

George Halas - Chicago BearsFew men, if any, loom larger in the history of American football than George Halas. He founded and coached the Chicago Bears, and was a permanent fixture in the NFL – from the formation of the league in 1920, and then right through its first 50 years. In 1933 Halas was directly involved in a bold attempt to organise a cross-code football game between his Bears and the Australian Kangaroos rugby league team, who were about to cross the USA on their way to England. >> Continue reading >>


>> “THEY HAD NO RIGHT” >>

Len Smith Len Smith was a powerful and hard running centre during and after the 2nd World War period. He was a significant part of Newtown’s success in 1943/1944 and played a major role in re-establishing the credibility of the Australian Test team in the early seasons after the War. Many of the great players of the 1940s and 1950s forever simply referred to Smith as “Coach”, such is the respect he earned from his peers. Smith’s shock exclusion from the 1948-49 Kangaroos tour was the most infamous selection controversy in Australian rugby league history, and has still not been fully explained. >> Continue reading >>


>> CROWN OF SUPREMACY >>

Town & Country Journal - 1914The chase to be the club with the most premierships was a lively battle well into the 1980s. In the premiership’s first four or so decades the residential rule kept powerful teams together. Later teams would be built by shrewd buying from cashed-up club secretaries. The expansion of the competition beyond Sydney, club mergers and expulsion, as well as a strictly enforced salary cap, has made it practically impossible for any club to make any dent upon the race to head the overall tally of premierships and challenge South Sydney for the crown. >> Continue reading >>


>> AFL FUMBLING WESTERN SYDNEY ‘HISTORY’ >>

In an attempt to gain “cultural connection” for its GWS team, Australian rules has turned to the code’s historical ties to Sydney’s west. The stories though being brought forth are at best tenuous, at worse creative myth-making. Two recent instances have suggested that AFL has more historical connection to Sydney’s west than anyone realised, going so far as to claim the code was “invented” and had its “genesis” in the lands beyond Homebush. A closer look though suggests otherwise. >> Continue reading >>


>> ‘LADDO’ & THE NEWCASTLE REVOLT OF 1917 >>

Dan 'Laddo' DaviesSerious and dramatic days in 1917, centred around the NSWRL’s suspension of a Newcastle footballer, resulted in the bulk of the Hunter region’s clubs forming their own League. The revolt it caused, in both the ‘steel city’ and in Sydney, led to serious talk of expanding the rival body state-wide, to directly compete with the NSWRL for control of the game. The turmoil was triggered by the life-time ban imposed upon Newcastle’s Dan Davies. From the coal mining district of Lambton, the powerfully built young miner was affectionately known to all simply as ‘Laddo’. >> Continue reading >>


>> THE GAME MUST GO ON >>

Being a winter sport naturally means rugby league is impacted by the absence of players and officials due to influenza and other tribulations suffered by us all during the colder months. Many will of course recall that just two years ago the “Swine Flu” pandemic impacted upon the National Rugby League competition, with players stood down from matches and quarantined from team mates. The ‘Swine flu’ story though was nothing compared to the deadly ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic that swept the globe during 1918-20. >> Continue reading >>


>> 1920s INTER-VARSITY RUGBY LEAGUE >>

Rugby league in Australian universities in 1920sDuring the 1920s rugby league usurped rugby union for prominence in Australia’s three eastern state universities – the University of Sydney, the University of Queensland (Brisbane), and the University of Melbourne. A combined “Australian Universities” rugby league team was regularly selected, playing matches against the touring British Lions and New Zealand Kiwis, and twice ventured on overseas tours. The code’s officials dreamed of rugby league being the one rugby code in Australia, uniting all classes of society, where the men from all walks of life would positively influence the good character of each other. >> Continue reading >>


>> FIXING GOOD OLD SPORT >>

Hard lessons had been learned in the decades either side of 1900, swearing everyone but mug punters away from betting on athletes and sports teams. It’s difficult to imagine today, but these scandals shook the public’s confidence so deeply, that it brought down some of the most popular sports of the time, and badly damaged the reputations of others. Will administrators and fans of modern sports, including rugby league, heed the warnings from the past? >> Continue reading >>


>> “SAME GAME, DIFFERENT RULES” >>

Rugby league and gridironIn comparing American football (gridiron) and rugby league, legendary coach Jack Gibson summed it up as: “Same game, different rules”. Both codes were born from amateur rugby union in the last quarter of the 1800s, forging themselves into the 20th century’s ball-carrying professional football codes. >> Continue reading >>


>> “JUMPING JACKS” OF INTER-STATE FOOTY >>

Arthur Beetson - 18 games for NSW BluesThey called them “Jumping Jacks” – footballers who switched allegiance between NSW and Queensland. In one winter they were wearing maroon, the next sky blue – or vice versa. Talk about loyalty! It’s apt that the Kangaroos’ centenary jersey is a mix of the two state colours, given these “Jumping Jacks” have been at it since 1908. While the impression portrayed today is that before Origin there were truck-loads of footballers rolling down the Pacific Hwy to Sydney’s league emporium, the truth is there was plenty of traffic “going north” too. >> Continue reading >>


>> TOMMY GORMAN’S MAROON GIANTS >>

Tom GormanLet’s set the scene – it’s the start of the winter of 1922. NSW stands undisputed as the champions of inter-state football. Since 1908, the Sky Blues have crushed the Maroons 21 times in succession. The plucky Queenslanders have always turned up full of hope, been just as determined as their southern rivals, but always gone home beaten and deflated. They have never tasted victory over NSW, and suffered some awful hidings, including 65-9…twice! (in 1911 and 1912). Let’s not quibble, the Maroons were doing it tough – on and off the playing arena. There is no such thing yet as the ARL; the NSWRL runs the game. >> Continue reading >>


>> FORGET THE WAR…IT’S GRAND FINAL DAY >>

The 1943 premiership decider provided drama even before the kick-off. Like most of the world’s major cities, Sydney was a hive of war-time activity. An end to WW2 was still nowhere in sight. The D-Day invasion at Normandy was nine months away and the Japanese loomed to Australia’s north in Papua New Guinea and had sent mini-subs into Sydney Harbour. Watching rugby league became a source of much-needed relief for many Sydneysiders and visitors. Record crowds flocked to the suburban grounds and the SCG’s weekly ‘match-of-the-day’, and now the Grand Final. >> Continue reading >>


>> THE AFL NOW HAS ITS RINGLING BROTHERS >>

Ever since the late 1870s the orbit of the Aussie Rules Comet has every few decades or so brought it close to Sydney. As the ”Australian rulers” again faded into the dark after their 1903-07 passing, one letter writer to the Herald concluded: “The Victorian game may be the best game of football, but if it is so manifestly superior, one would fancy it could plead its own cause, and not require advertising like a quack pill.” >> Continue reading >>


>> NOT GOING THE FULL 80 >>

Rugby league contests end after 80 minutes of play…most of the time…At the game’s elite level in Australia there are less than a handful of another type of ending – the abandoned match – a contest that for some reason or another has kicked-off, but come to an end long before the 80 minutes has expired. The most famous (or should that be “infamous”?) instance was the NSW v Great Britain match, played in front of 27,000 fans at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 10 July 1954. >> Continue reading >>


>> DAY THE KANGAROOS PLAYED 7-A-SIDE >>

Vic Hey“The Australians may never play before such a big attendance as that which to-day crowded round the natural amphitheatre in the glorious Roundhay Park (Leeds) during the twilight 6.30 kick-off before 80,000 spectators,” wrote a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald in August 1933. It was a bold call, but over 75 years later, it remains true. The 1992 World Cup Final at Wembley drew 76,631. The highest drawing Ashes Tests in Sydney in 1932 and 1962 nudged just over 70,000. So what was this Kangaroos match in 1933 that drew so many people? >> Continue reading >>


>> AUSTRALEAGUE – ONE FOOTBALL CODE >>

James Giltinan - Australeague If nothing else, our football predecessors in Sydney and Melbourne a century ago certainly weren’t afraid of setting themselves lofty dreams of a national united football code. Rugby league’s founders in Sydney, entrepreneur James J. Giltinan and cricketer Victor Trumper, had started out with the goal of not only bringing professional rugby to Australia, but of a national football code that brought all of our major cities together – particularly Sydney and Melbourne, where a NSW vs Victoria football series would produce a gate taking bonanza for all involved. >> Continue reading >>


>> THE SUPERIORITY OF THE MELBOURNE GAME >>

The AFL announces it intends establishing two more clubs in its “non-football states” – as they call NSW and Queensland in their lofty manner – and the other codes are portrayed as suddenly facing their ultimate hour of darkness and peril at the feet of the superior Australian game. Hold hard fellow rugbyites (of either brand) and footballers of the round-ball kind, we’ve heard all this hot air before. The AFL trumpeter’s fanfare echoes all the way back to 1883. >> Continue reading >>


>> NEVER SAY DIE – 1955 RABBITOHS >>

South's Bernie Purcell“Never Say Die” was already a tag synonymous with South Sydney – but the 1955 Rabbitohs epitomised that sentiment more than any other Souths team, either before or after. Souths had appeared in every premiership decider between 1950 and 1954, coming away with four titles. Yet halfway through the 1955 season, they were in equal last place, and hopelessly out of form. While you should never write-off champions, Souths had won just three of their first nine premiership games.>> Continue reading >>