In 1907, a long forgotten Waratahs side ventured to Australia’s west. Though their matches and player caps mysteriously don’t appear in the record books, their tour was part of NSWRU’s plan to help return rugby as Western Australia’s preferred winter game.
Actions by rival codes in Sydney and Perth would dash the hope.
Organised football in Western Australia began with rugby games at Perth’s Hale School in the late 1870s, followed by the establishment of rugby clubs in Perth and Fremantle. Rugby remained the only football played until in 1883 the Fremantle FC switched to Australian rules.
WA’s cities were increasingly forging economic, education, migration and social ties with their sea-trading neighbours of Melbourne and Adelaide, where only Australian rules was played. In 1884 rugby was still in the ascendant, but more Australian rules clubs were formed (or changed from rugby).
By 1885 the ‘football’ community had divided its loyalties into two camps. In a robust but reasoned debate, the relative merits of the games on the field were supplanted in favour of an acceptance that Western Australia did not have the playing stocks to support both games and grow the sport. Playing two codes meant two uninspiring club competitions, and inevitably producing two inferior WA representative teams. It was acknowledged one code would have to be given away, but which?
The fatal blow to rugby came in the acknowledgement that its adoption rendered impossible the prospect of inter-colonial matches at all, let alone annually (Sydney-Fremantle by sea was over 5000 kms and two weeks away).
At a meeting by the majority of football clubs of Perth and Fremantle in May 1885 it was agreed to form the West Australian Football Association (later WAFL), and to adopt Australian rules as the colony’s game.
In the space of two winters rugby had gone from being the only code to not being played at all.
The discovery of gold in WA in the early 1890s saw a westward rush of miners and others looking for work opportunities. While many came from Victoria and South Australia, significant numbers also came from the rugby-playing colonies and the UK.
The surge in interest led to the founding of the WARU with seven clubs in Fremantle and Perth, and many others under a flourishing ‘Goldfields Union’ (Kalgoorlie, Wallaroos, Centennials, Boulder Pirates, Bulong, Kanowa, Warriors, Mines, ‘Sydney’, Hannans, Leonora, Kookynie and Coolgardie).
Rugby later struggled and in 1901 the WARU disbanded. The game continued only in the state’s goldfields, until it was revived in the coastal cities in 1905 with five new clubs.
In early 1907 the support of the NSWRU was sought by the WARU, and it was agreed that a New South Wales team would undertake a four-match tour of WA in August. The Sydney press wrote: “With a view of helping the game along in West Australia, a fairly strong team was sent away by the NSWRU. All expenses are being paid by the Union named, and all the net proceeds are to be handed over to the W.A. (rugby) authorities.”
The sheer distance meant players had to find five to six weeks unpaid leave from work, curtailing the inclusion of many top New South Wales footballers. Even so, the side still had Arthur McCabe, Bob Craig and Bede Daly, who were all later selected in the Wallabies squad that visited the UK and North America in 1908/09.
Hearing of the proposed New South Wales team’s tour, the WAFL Secretary, Jack Simons, told the management committees of both the Fremantle Oval and Perth’s WACA ground that WAFL would move all of their gate-taking Australian rules games elsewhere if bookings for the inter-state rugby contests were accepted. The Fremantle Oval board buckled, but the WACA custodians agreed to host both of the two scheduled New South Wales versus Western Australia matches.
The Waratahs (at that time still called ‘the Blues’) won all four matches, defeating ‘Metropolitan’ (17-0 at Fremantle), ‘Gold Fields’ (16-7 at Kalgoorlie), and Western Australia (16-3 and 3-0 in Perth).
At a civic function for the team in Perth, captain N Johnson (Sydney University) told the audience that the NSWRU “looked upon Western Australia as the rugby baby, and they intended to nurse it as much as they possibly could” and “this was not the only visit they would make to Western Australia, for as long as they were in a position to finance these trips they would keep them going.”
With this in mind the NSWRU had promised that in a year’s time the England-bound Wallabies would break their sea journey by stopping in the West for matches against Western Australia and a week long tour through the Goldfields towns.
The NSWRU also offered to fully cover the costs of any Western Australian footballers prepared to venture to Sydney for Wallabies selection trials in July 1908 (though the bill would only be met if the player made it into the Australian squad and, unsurprisingly, no one took up the offer.)
Unfortunately for rugby in Western Australia, by the time the Waratahs returned to Sydney in late August 1907, a rebel “NSW rugby league” had been founded, and with its arrival, the financial priorities of the NSWRU changed dramatically. All thoughts of funding future tours to or from WA evaporated.
At the last moment the NSWRU cancelled the Wallabies tour of the WA goldfields towns, permitting the team to play Western Australia in a one-off game while their ship was in port at Fremantle. In a rushed affair, the Wallabies players changed into their playing kit on board the ship, and then hurriedly got to the ground. A disappointing WA state team was thrashed by the Wallabies 58-6.
The scale of the defeat and the late abandoning of the inland tour deflated local enthusiasm for rugby. A general malaise was already pervading the game following an inability to produce junior footballers to replace the generation that had migrated to WA from elsewhere – “the English game” had been successfully kept out of the state’s schools by the activism of the nationalistic Young Australia League youth corps (founded by WAFL’s Jack Simon in a direct response to the rise of rugby and football in 1905).
The YAL’s target was really soccer which was already long established as the preferred school sport. While the British-trained school teachers and principals battled on against the YAL and its insistence that Australian rules be played, rugby quietly fell from view, and by 1912 was again extinct in WA.
The success and playing style of the 1927/28 Waratahs through their UK tour led to a revitalised interest in rugby across the eastern states throughout 1928, and in WA as well where the WARU was again re-formed.
Through the remainder of the 1900s the Western Australian team regularly met South Australia (1935 on) and Victoria (1937 on), and took on visiting international sides including the Springboks, All Blacks, British Lions, France, Ireland, England, Wales, Japan, Fiji, USA and even the Wallabies.
With the ARU’s founding still a decade in the future, in 1938 the WARU organised and funded an invitational ‘Australian team’ that sailed to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for five games.
In its first century support for the code in WA ebbed and flowed, but as historian Jack Pollard concluded in 1984, if rugby in the West could hold out, its time would finally come when the costs and duration of air flights made the annual interchange of visits with Australia’s east coast teams viable.
88 years after their first contests, in late February 1995 the Waratahs and Western Australia again met on the rugby field. Captained by David Campese, New South Wales won 65-10 at Perth’s Perry Lakes Stadium.
A few weeks later rugby union recognised professionalism, and soon after the Super Rugby concept was devised. Conveniently situated as a stop-over leg for teams flying to/from South Africa and Australasia, the once remote Perth was now seen as logical base for a future Super Rugby franchise.
In 2006 the Western Force entered the competition, joining the Reds, Brumbies and Waratahs as Australia’s representatives.
Paul
Guest
I have the original progamme for nsw welcome to wa tour 1907. I cant imagine that there are many left
chris
Guest
When I read great articles likes this it makes me cry as it show's you what might have been. Australia could of had there own NFL style Football code if NSWRL and the VFL had got together. If the British snobs had said yes to broken time then Rugby in England could of rivaled Soccer and hence most of the whole world might be watching the HEC as well as the Champions League and EPL. What if before Soccer FA formed they sorted out the rules with the different English Football codes in the 1850's and the we could have a whole Earth Football code and tehre wouldn't be any need for Union,League,AFL,NFL.CFL,GAA as long it kicked goals. was hard tackling and had try's.
ManInBlack
Guest
Uncle Eric - the announcements back in June last year specified that the Tassie State Budget has no impact re the TT line. As the TT line is not required to provide a dividend back to the state. This is quite clearly distinct from State Govt funds which the premier made clear that she was unable to provide at the time. Premier, Lara Giddings said "the TT-Line had decided to support the two-game-a-year deal, which also includes financial backing from the Southern councils and the business community." She also pointed out that the Hawthorn experience thus far has seen generally 30% of the attendance from interstate - so, anytime 12,000-15,000 attend a game, that implies 3000-5000 (roughly) interstate tourists for what Giddings described as "during the slow winter-period". Giddings spoke of the desire that TT line had to develop a better relationship with the AFL : "I understand TT-Line has been looking for an opportunity to tap into the lucrative AFL market and this commercial arrangement will create opportunities for advertising at the MCG and Bellerive oval, as well as direct marketing to North Melbourne members," Ms Giddings said. "It will also allow the company to market package deals, both for North Melbourne games in Hobart and Hawthorn matches at Aurora Stadium in Launceston, to bring more tourists to the state. "Research has shown that visitors who arrive on the Sprit of Tasmania ferries spend more, stay longer and travel further than those who arrive by air and as such, the benefits of increased passenger numbers will be felt right across Tasmania." so, you might think it to be money poorly spent - - for me, I've got myself and my family of 5 booked on the ferry with our car for the easter game (Rnd 2) and we are all counting down to our little Tassie get away that happens to take in a game of footy. For a club like North Melbourne - the main issue is that even 25,000 at Etihad vs the Giants would probably lose money. Whereas, if Geelong had 25,000 v Giants at Geelong - they'd clear half a mill. So, for North, to go to Hobart, draw maybe 15,000 and come away with any profit is far, far better than losing money at Etihad.
Uncle Eric
Guest
ManInBlack, isn't the North Melbourne deal de facto government support, through a half million sponsorship from the Spirit of Tasmania operation? Allegedly part of the Spirit's marketing spend and therefore one can only assume money poorly spent.
p.Tah
Guest
ManinBlack our talent pool for RU in Australia is limited do you have to take our players from the islands as well :) I agree if it gives more career paths that's a good thing but leave us the Digby Ioane type players please. ;) I hadn't realized until recent how large the PI population is in Melbourne. I'm surprised we haven't seen more PI players in AFL to date.
ManInBlack
Guest
David Rodan is interesting. He won consecutive Morrish Medals in the U18s TAC cup and even then was no certainty to be drafted (considered too short......similar story to Tony Liberatore years earlier, highly decorated junior). He did get picked up by Richmond but eventually moved on to Port and has blossomed and is great to watch. Will he open doors for other young Sth Pacific background players? Perhaps - the AFL is looking seriously at that demographic. Rodan though is a driven young man which more than body type is the real measure of potential to succeed. Actually, the Rodan family (David jnr and his dad David snr) are heavily involved in Aust Footy in Fiji, along with help from other Fijian descended players in Alipate Carlile (a tall defender) and Nic Naitanui (a ruckman) [niether the traditional body type that one might think of]. Interestingly, Aaron Edwards' (Nth Melb - Samoan heritage) mother, Mitty, is heavily involved in Aust Footy in Samoa. And with Izzie Folau and Karmichael Hunt having islander heritage, they've done a fair bit of promotion for the AFL in the region. In fact, Izzie's 2nd cousin Peni Mahina is the captain of Samoa. The Mahina family had been heavily into RU and RL but now, Peni's dad and brothers/cousins are heavily into Aust footy. Point of all this - - perhaps you don't want more 'Rodan' type stories. However - the clear lesson is that no one is trying to unseat RU in the islanders. Instead, these families see the benefit of opening up MORE potential sports career paths - and that's a good thing.
ManInBlack
Guest
the reality of Tasmania presently is there's no state funds. So, if you're happy playing at a footy oval then fine (and we saw the decent crowd to the NRL trial game at North Hobart oval). re the funds - we saw that the current upgrades slated for Bellerive Oval include zero funds from the state coffers. So, if a Super team were to base there - it'd need to attract other funding to set up facilities and to bankroll the side. For Uncle Eric's benefit. Hawthorn plays out of Launceston and there is a state govt deal in place. It's North Melbourne now that will play 2 games a year at Hobart but in this case there's stuff all state govt support compared to the Hawthorn deal. Noting too - Hawthorn is sponsored by Tasmania.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Uncle Eric surely a Super team in Tasmania would get a lot of support because there is no other elite winter sports team?
Uncle Eric
Guest
Ncart the AFL plays a small number of fixtures in Tassie each year, I think Hawthorn play a few games in Launceston and the inimitable state government here has just forked out a fair bit of money to get some other AFL team (whose name escapes me) to play two games a year at Bellerive Oval. The main issue with this is that the games appear to be against relatively low light teams which won't attract big crowds in Melbourne, but in footy mad Tasmania do get reasonable attendance. Rugby would get following here, due to the number of expats from the mainland, NZ and South Africa as well as a few poms. Tasmania is always looking for ways to attract tourists and the fact that SR starts up in prime Tassie tourist time could get the government here, through the auspices of Tourism Tasmania looking at the prospect of SR here favourably. Time for the ARU to get off their a#@*s and do some market research. To top it all there is a reasonable nine team comp here, but as I understand it this doesn't get much support from the ARU, surprise, surprise!
Uncle Eric
Guest
Lots of Queenslanders, New South Welshmen, South Africans and Kiwis in Tasmania, plus a small but reasonable comp. The main problem is that there is virtually no junior rugby here. The recent NRL trial match in Hobart, Storm V Broncos drew a crowd of nearly 15,000 paying customers, not counting kids who I believe were admitted free.
Uncle Eric
Guest
Do you head up the ARU's marketing department KOG?
Crashy
Guest
Its closer to 9% KPM.lol Think they are close to 8 - 10,000 players in WA from memory.
sixo_clock
Roar Guru
The expat Saffies and Rhodies in Perth were probably the tipping point. The Force enjoy decent crowds so the move was a good call. And by the by the Rebels crowd has really responded to the 2006 rebuff. That event was probably a factor in the energy behind their 'Army'. On the thread below re: South Australia. There may just be enough SA Rugby interest for one of our local derbies to be played there. A Rebels-Force or Brumbies-Force game may just draw a crowd. Just musing - would the ARU want to throw some money in the pot to entice this I wonder. Take down a development team and get a picture of the deeper interest.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
ncart I'm planning to write an article on this very subject within the next 24 hours although the Roar is so quiet this week I'm not entirely sure. In fact putting rugby into schools is very inexpensive, but I just don't think anyone considers it. They just assume the players are who they are already, and that there's no other way to develop things. Anyway rather than tell you at monumental length here I will try to write the article.
ncart
Guest
KPM, I agree with the schools idea, but there doesn't seem to be a planned approach by the ARU or any of the States towards schools, regardless of location that I can see. When I look at school rugby info on any of the state websites it only ever seems to focus on the existing schools that play the game, and not on really developing the game in other schools. I may be completely wrong on this, it may just be under the radar. I think that targeting an area where there are say half a dozen primary schools in a geographic area (cities we are talking here of course) and introducing the game to each of them with the aim of each school playing each other in a sort of localised comp - having an overall winner doesn't really matter, but taking a few areas like this would result in a lot more schools playing, and be manageable. What is needed I believe is for it to be very easy for the schools to participate - i.e. take away all the organising responsibility from them so that they can be involved but without the time overhead as their staff have a lot of other demands and in most schools playing a sport is not something that the school is measured on or accountable for. So my approach would be for the State RU to plan on what schools to target and develop a whole training/playing package to take to these schools. Involve visits from the rep players (kids love to see a 'star' even if they are not one of the big names they just have to be a player wearing the gear) and over time you will develop more and more players and interest.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Crazy Horse WA is only producing 8% of the country's players, which isn't really enough.
Crazy Horse
Guest
Good article but omits some of the history. For example last year's WA Premier Grade winners, University, is over 80 years old and fields team in all age groups and grades from under 6 right through to Premier Grade and Women. The Force have had a significant impact but they gave the existing significant Rugby infrastructure a boost rather than starting from scratch. The major problem facing Rugby in WA at the moment is a lack of grounds rather than any shortage of players.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
ncart recently on the Roar I've said a lot on this subject so I'll be brief: Southern Australia with 1.7 million and no NRL could very easily support a team and would make Super rugby truly national and bring new TV revenue. There should naturally be teams in Western Sydney and the Gold Coast for any number of reasons. Tasmania and Northern Territory are different cases. Tasmania is half a million and NT about half that. As there is no winter elite sport at all Tasmania could probably produce crowds, as there is simply nothing else for them to do. The Northern Territory is a longer term prospect but not one to be neglected on that account. My favoured route into these smaller areas (and the larger ones for that matter) is through the schools. It would cost nothing to bring rugby to every school in those two regions, and little for Southern Australia.
ncart
Guest
kpm, I think that the best way to develop support for the game in these areas (SA, TAS, NT) is to have the Super Rugby teams play regular competition games there (not trials) each season - AFL did this with the Gold Coast and does it with Tasmania still I think. That way people living in those locations would actually get to see games and the teams visiting could do development work while they are there - visiting the local clubs and juniors etc. With a planned, structured approach of say 2 SR games in Adelaide each season it could help to generate interest, media coverage and help the local players see some sort of future. Whether they are ever able to sustain a team themselves is another story, but taking games to these places helps to develop support and from the SR teams that go there they can create a supporter base in another location, which helps with merchandising etc over time. If growth of the game is the plan then we need to invest in developing these areas. At the same time I would say the Waratahs should take competition games to Western Sydney - played at somewhere like Penrith or Parramatta stadiums, rather than ANZ and actively promote the game in the local Western suburbs community - free tickets for families of junior rugby club players in the local areas etc to encourage them to come along to the game, get the local juniors playing a curtain raiser and being ball boys etc, visit the local state schools for talks and coaching clinics. This all takes money and the argument would be that they are losing money by taking the games away from their usual locations but a long term view needs to be taken about investing in the growth of the game.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Sean I see: it's a shame to see the obscure presence in the national game of areas such as Southern Australia and Tasmania with such history :-(