Monday Milestone: Foundation

 "The day that God invented Rugby League, he didn't do anything else but sit around and feel good"
– Jack Gibson

This Week in History:
1908,  April 20
Rugby league begins in Australia as the first matches are played at Birchgrove Oval, in Balmain.

Step off the bus and wander through the streets of Balmain, where the millionaire boats are docked down around the harbour.  Stroll through the leafy lined streets of picturesque Birchgrove and turn down onto the Terrace.

From there Birchgrove Park opens out in its wide expanse, nestled against the backdrop of the water with the Harbour Bridge ever present in the background. This humble yet hallowed turf has a wealth of history buried in it, because standing on what was once Birchgrove Oval, this week, celebrates one of the truly great moments in Australian sport.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine it. It was Easter Monday, 1908 when the crowds first formed both here, and over at Wentworth Park, across the water from Blackwattle Bay. A new game was beginning, ushered in under a cloud of rebellion. Sides from Balmain, Eastern Suburbs, Glebe, South Sydney, Newtown, North Sydney, Western Suburbs and Newcastle had converged, forming a breakaway league from the more established rugby competition in Sydney.

It must have been tremendously exciting. The brand new NSW Rugby Football League, complete with star recruit Dally Messenger were ready to introduce rugby league into Australia.

Two double headers were played on that historic day, at Birchgrove Oval and Wentworth Park with Eastern Suburbs defeating Newtown, 32-16, Glebe bettering the visiting Newcastle side 8-5, South Sydney lowering the colours of North Sydney 11-7, and Balmain shutting out Western Suburbs 24-0. A reported three thousand people in total watched on, as rugby league in Australia was born.

Over the remainder of that season, these eight clubs drew crowds of up to 20,000 driving the first wedge between the existing rugby union and this new, exciting, superior game of rugby league. Rebel players were publicly ostracised and sacked from weekday jobs. The backlash was fierce. But importantly, rugby league established a foothold and survived.

Now after 104 years, of those eight foundation clubs only South Sydney and Eastern Suburbs survive in their original form. Newcastle left after just two seasons to join a more local competition. Glebe did not survive beyond the Great Depression. Newtown fell financially in the 1980s, North Sydney was the sacrifice of Super League whilst Balmain and Western Suburbs now share an identity.

But each of these clubs has their own fascinating story to tell, sharing the commonality that they were part of history on that Easter Monday back in 1908. Rugby league in Australia owes them a debt of gratitude, as without these pioneers, we would not have the NRL today.

So, when standing on the turf of Birchgrove Park, close your eyes and try to imagine it all back on Easter Monday in 1908. Then picture that first Sunday in October in front of 80,000 fans at a packed stadium at Homebush. Immerse yourself in the extraordinary journey over the past 104 years, and appreciate on a whole new level what is truly people’s game.

Happy birthday, rugby league.

 

Milestone Five: Disused rugby league grounds in Sydney

 5.  Metters Sports Ground, Erskinville – Before Henson Park, the Newtown club played their early seasons here. Named after a foundry it was in essence the first ground to have naming rights. 

4. Royal Agricultural Society Ground, Moore Park – Now home to Fox Studios, for a long time it was the Sydney Showground and located only a couple of blocks from where the Sydney Football Stadium now stands.

3. Pratten Park, Ashfield – Once home to the Western Suburbs Magpies, for almost half a century until they moved to Lidbcombe Oval, it is now primarily a cricketing ground with Bob Simpson and Michael Clarke once calling it home.

2. Wentworth Park, Glebe – Home once to rugby league’s ‘Dirty Reds’, the grounds that co-hosted the birth of rugby league, are now home to one of Australia’s premier greyhound tracks.

1. Birchgrove Oval, Balmain – Now a park used primarily for cricket on the waterfront , it remains the original home of the Tigers and the scene of the birth of rugby league in Australia.