1896
Dally Messenger’s cap
The workingman’s game
Herbert Henry ‘Dally’ Messenger was a genius of Rugby and he was given this cap as a representative player for New South Wales. The tradition of ‘capping’ started in cricket and flowed to other sports. When you joined a state or national representative team you got a cap. Two years after Messenger was presented with this one he threw it in and joined the fledgling Rugby League as its superstar player, and Australia was never the same.
From the turn of the 20th century, Messenger had played Rugby Union as a centre for the Warrigal club and then Eastern Suburbs, New South Wales and Australia. Like most footballers, he was a working-class boy – his father had a boatshed. Rugby Union, or just Rugby as it was known then, was a gentlemen’s game: players were not paid or compensated for time off work. In the autumn of 1908 Messenger made a decision to leave Rugby to play Rugby League, the professional code.
Messenger’s skill with the ball was breathtaking and his strategy as captain was simply stated: ‘Just bung the ball out to me, boys, as quickly as you can.’ He was said to be able to score from anywhere on the park. One famous story has him kicking a goal while another player was holding one of his legs.
On 8 August 1907, a consortium headed by businessman J J Giltinan and cricketer Victor Trumper formed the New South Wales Rugby Football League at Bateman’s Hotel in George Street, Sydney. The foundation teams were Glebe, Newtown, Western Suburbs, South Sydney, North Sydney, Balmain, Eastern Suburbs, Newcastle and Cumberland, and the first matches were scheduled for Easter Sunday 1908, 20 April, to be played in double-headers at either Glebe or Birchgrove (Balmain).
Messenger was a critical part of the plan: his prestige and drawing power were essential for the League’s authority. The New South Wales Rugby Union struck Messenger’s Rugby games from the record books when he defected. (It was to be 100 years before they were restored.) That didn’t seem to bother Messenger, who signed on with Eastern Suburbs and scored the League’s first try and first goal.
In 1909, the two codes went head to head in a four-match series of the Wallabies (Rugby) versus the Kangaroos (League). As they say these days, ‘rugby league was the winner’. Not only did the Kangaroos prevail on the field but most of the best Union players signed on for the 1910 season.
Messenger, known as ‘The Master’, was Rugby League’s first and greatest hero. In 1910, Messenger got another cap as captain of the Kangaroos in their first test against England. There were plenty of other legends to follow. In the 1950s, diminutive South Sydney fullback Clive Churchill was dubbed ‘The Little Master’ because of his ball-handling skills and elusiveness. He even played a game with a broken arm and kicked the winning goal. In the 1960s, Arthur Beetson became the first Indigenous player to captain any Australian representative team.
In the 1980s League faced increased competition from other sports – including a resurgent Rugby Union, and Australian Rules – but it has thrived.