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A history of the Brisbane Rugby League

Roar Guru
21st July, 2020
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Roar Guru
21st July, 2020
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Rugby league in Australia is well known to have begun its life with a few visionaries meeting in Sydney to form the NSWRL that would, over the next century, evolve into the premier rugby league competition in the world.

Stories of the likes of Dally Messenger, Harold Horder and Frank Burge together with the histories of South Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, Norths Sydney, Newtown, Balmain and the rest are well established at NRL headquarters and throughout NSW.

Throughout a series of articles, I will delve into what was happening north of the border and highlight another great rugby league competition rich in history – the Brisbane Rugby League (BRL).

The story of rugby league in South East Queensland is one of struggle. From humble beginnings, and with no Dally Messenger to jump-start interest, the game clawed and scratched its way into the public consciousness. In its formative years, the BRL had to gain a foothold against a hostile rugby union, establish its own identity in a bitter political struggle with the Queensland Rugby League and was often outmatched on the field by representative teams from the strong regional centres of Ipswich and Toowoomba.

Controversy was never far away and teams, players, grounds and structures shifted regularly. But somehow rugby league survived and eventually thrived in Brisbane, establishing a competition rich in history and quality.

Prior to the Brisbane Broncos entering the NSWRL, Queensland’s local competitions enjoyed three golden eras of rugby league.

In the 1920s, when the local rugby union competitions fell apart, quality players flooded the league competitions, particularly in Toowoomba and Ipswich, but also in Brisbane, leading to a decade when Queensland was the dominant rugby league state. Queensland won the interstate series eight times between 1922 and 1932.

In the 1950s there was a period after World War II – before poker machine money provided NSW with a competitive advantage – when Brisbane was able to retain a rich group of quality players, particularly forwards. During this period Queensland was not dominant, but was highly competitive. During this period Queensland won the interstate competition in 1951, 1959 and 1960.

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And finally, in the 1980s, an extremely talented group of young players emerged in Brisbane and their exposure to State of Origin and the professionalism of their southern counterparts raised the bar in the Brisbane competition, even as the clubs bankrupted themselves in one final push to keep those players in the local competition. During this period Queensland D won the first two clashes in 1980 and 1981 and then won seven series between 1982 and 1991 with this nucleus of players.

In putting these articles together I happily acknowledge a particularly invaluable resource. In 2016 author Steve Haddan published Our Game: The Celebration of Brisbane Rugby League 1909-1987. I have a signed copy and highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in rugby league history. If you head to Haddan’s website you will see he is about to release another book, a new biography of the Emperor – Wally Lewis. I’m sure it will be a worthy read.

Beginnings – 1907 to 1908
The history of rugby league in Queensland began mere months after the first steps taken down south, but Brisbane had already seen games of various codes of football for decades. For example, the first recorded official game of ‘Victorian rules’ played in Brisbane occurred in 1866 and this code was the premier game in South East Queensland until the late 1880s, being the game of choice in the grammar schools.

However, the sport of rugby union was gaining popularity, particularly since it provided opportunities for spirited representative fixtures against NSW. The first of these was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1882 and the following year saw Queensland defeat NSW in Brisbane, significantly adding to the game’s popularity. In 1887 the grammar schools in South East Queensland voted to defect from Victorian rules to rugby union, cementing its place as the state’s premier code.

Less than a decade later the seeds for change were planted in the north of England when in 1895 a Northern Union was formed, splitting from the rugby establishment and allowing compensation payments to injured players. Rugby league was born, sort of. It wasn’t until 1906 that the rules of the games significantly diverged when the play-the-ball was introduced and teams were reduced to 13-a-side.

Only 12 months later, New Zealand had formed a breakaway team and the ‘All Golds’ set off on a historic tour of Great Britain, playing against ‘Northern Union’ teams. Meanwhile, powerbrokers in Sydney established the NSW Rugby League in August 1907 and signed rugby union pin-up boy Dally Messenger along with many others to launch a competition in 1908. The All Golds played a series against NSW in August 1907 before heading to Europe (using rugby union rules as the league rules had not yet been obtained by the locals). Dally Messenger proved such a drawcard that he was invited on the All Golds tour.

Rebels up in Brisbane were following a similar path, with the ‘Queensland Rugby Association’ being formed late in February 1908, just six months after their Sydney counterparts. It was considered too rushed to form a proper club competition in 1908. Instead, a series of representative fixtures and exhibition games were held. Three Queenslanders were selected in the first-ever Australian team, who played the All Golds in Sydney in May 1908 upon their return from Britain.

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The following week, 16 May 1908 saw a Queensland team play the All Golds at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground, losing 34 to 12. Three further games were played in Brisbane as part of the tour. The Queenslanders were no match for the battle-hardened Kiwis, to the point that Dally Messenger switched sides and played for Queensland for their second encounter, helping the home side to a 12-all draw. Finally, on 30 May Brisbane hosted its first Test match, with New Zealand emerging victorious 24 to 12 in front of 6000 spectators.

A New Zealand Maori representative team toured South East Queensland through June, playing five matches. Then, in July 1908 we saw the very first interstate clashes between Queensland and NSW. It was not an auspicious beginning. The Queenslanders, still learning the rules and with no week-to-week competition, were no match for the New South Welshmen. NSW won the first two encounters in Sydney by a whopping combined 80 to 8 and a third encounter, featuring 12 out of 13 new selections for NSW, was a victory to the southerners by a more respectable 12 to 3. Over 11,000 spectators attended the games.

It would be another 14 years and a fair few one-sided matches before Queensland would win its first interstate match in 1922. From there, Queensland would win eight encounters in a row (and 17 from 24 over the next five years), showing how far the game had come in the north in a short time. Also, by 1923 the two interstate encounters drew a combined total of 57,000 spectators, showing just how quickly the game itself had grown.

Why did it take some decades for Queensland to catch up to NSW in interstate matches, despite the games themselves starting within months of each other? The answer lies in 1909 when the NSWRL swooped on the 1908/09 Wallabies and signed fourteen rebels to the new code.

This had the simultaneous effect of boosting NSW Rugby League and crippling its union rivals, but since not one of the players signed was from Queensland, it also concentrated rugby league talent south of the border and set Queensland Rugby League up for a long, hard road to parity. It was not until the 1920s that Queensland Rugby League were able to facilitate defections of their own from a crippled Queensland Rugby Union that some sort of parity was achieved.

But back in 1908 all that was still to come. The rules had been learnt and the appetite of spectators whetted. The stage was set for the 1909 inaugural Brisbane Rugby League season.

Early Years: 1909 to 1912
There were some club games played in 1908 prior to the ‘official’ competition commencing. These were played as curtain-raisers to representative fixtures. Toombul were the first ‘premiers’, winning a match ‘Toombul versus the Rest’ to take the trophy. The official home-and-away competition commenced in 1909.

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Four teams lined up in May 1909 for the first Brisbane Rugby League season – Fortitude Valley (inner city), South Brisbane and North Brisbane were all splits from existing rugby union clubs and they were joined by Toombul, the unofficial 1908 ‘Premiers’.

The competition was run by the Queensland Rugby League (first called the Queensland Rugby Association, then the Queensland Amateur Rugby League) with no separate Brisbane administrative body. Games were played at the Brisbane Cricket Ground (i.e. The Gabba, now the home of AFL’s Brisbane Lions). Players were paid for out of pocket expenses only.

In a doubleheader at the Gabba on 8 May, North Brisbane defeated Toombul 8 to 0 and South Brisbane beat Fortitude Valley 12 to 2 in front of 800 hardy supporters.

By the end of the six-round season, South Brisbane finished on top of the table, equal with Fortitude Valley on four wins apiece. Despite only four teams competing, a finals series was still held. The competition was halted for four weeks in June to accommodate the higher drawing representative fixtures and again for six weeks between the semi-finals and grand final.

Finally, on 4 September 1909 Fortitude Valley won the very first grand final, by 22 points to 4 over Souths Brisbane. It was a sign of things to come, with the Diehards to become the most successful club in the competition’s history.

In a sign of things to come, the referee was targeted by abuse from ‘local barrackers’. The newspaper report of the time noted such comments as “Get a guernsey, Umpire!” and “Valley’s playin’ fourteen men!”. It was also noted that “the teams were not playing a very friendly game”. After the match, 200 angry Souths fans had to be restrained by police as the referee hid in the change rooms then slipped away.

The president of the Valleys club was pushed down a slope and had to fight his way past supporters using “a heavy stick he carried”.

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1910 saw an all-too-common theme in the Brisbane game throughout its early years – changes of teams, structure and venues and struggles for crowds compared to representative league fixtures and their union competitors. East Brisbane and Ipswich were added to the competition.

For some reason, the leader of the competition at the halfway mark played the grand final against the ‘winner’ of the second half of the season. Matches were played at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground and the North Ipswich Reserve as well as the Gabba and the new Ipswich team – the coal miners from the west – won the title in their first year.

It took until 1977 before the NSWRL saw its first drawn grand final (between Parramatta and St George), but in Brisbane, it occurred in only the second season. A 10-all draw between Ipswich and Toombul at the Exhibition Ground resulted in a replay at the Gabba the following week, where Ipswich proved too strong, winning 17 points to 2. After the first match, the referee called for extra time, but the Toombul team had already hit the showers, so a replay was organised instead.

Another strange thing was that a photo of the action during that game shows a Toombul player participating while wearing a dress hat!

Ipswich teams would drift in and out of the competition over the early years. Travel between the centres was not what it is now and Ipswich had started their own local competition from 1910 which often matched the Brisbane competition for quality. In addition, from the 1930s a representative Ipswich side competed against Brisbane and Toowoomba in the Bulimba Cup. The Ipswich Jets re-entered the competition in 1986 and are now in their 33rd year of consecutive competition.

The continual shuffling of teams must have been confusing for fans, with the 1911 competition won by an amalgamated Valley-Toombul over a team called Ipswich B, while East Brisbane had dropped out. In addition to the existing South Brisbane team, that year there was also South Brisbane United – a second offshoot from the Souths Rugby Union Club, who played just this single year without making much of an impact. The young league did struggle for numbers during 1911.

In the semi-final between Ipswich B and Ipswich A, the B team had to lend the A team some players and in the final against Valleys-Toombul, Ipswich B fielded players from Starlights and also Blackstone, a local Ipswich club.

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At this stage, the rules of rugby league were still developing. In 1911 a player who ‘marked’ an opposition kick on the full, could elect to take a place kick for goal.

1912 saw another new team – Natives. Based in Red Hill, Natives took out the title over South Brisbane. The usual turnover of clubs had occurred, with Woolloongabba and Kurilpa also joining. Valley-Toombul and Souths were the only clubs to continue from the previous year. The grand final was a source of trouble that year with the Souths crowd being extremely hostile to the referee and the team leaving the field before the end of the game in protest over the officiating. Natives did well to win, with their captain and their first choice halfback both being unavailable for the match.

The club merry-go-round
The list of teams that played during the competition’s first 20 years is lengthy. Teams that not only competed but participated in finals during the era include such long-forgotten names as Bulimba, Merthyr, Kurilpa, Westerns, West End, Railways, Ipswich Starlights (the first Ipswich club champions in 1910), Toowong, Woolloongabba and two teams still playing in Ipswich – Ipswich Past Brothers and West End (Ipswich). Other Brisbane clubs established in these formative years went on to enjoy lengthy existences:

  • East Brisbane, Woolloongabba and Coorparoo were all forerunners of the Easts Tigers that still play.
  • Souths Brisbane played from 1909 to 1914, then took a few years off. At the same time, West End were also representing the district. The district returned as Carlton in 1918 and are still playing today as the Souths-Logan Magpies.
  • Western Suburbs joined in 1914 and the Panthers survived in the top tier until 2003.
  • Past Christian Brothers (initially also known as Merthyr) were initially short-lived but returned and the Brethren or Fighting Irish played at the top level from 1920 to 1998.
  • A North Brisbane team played from 1909 to 1911 and disappeared. Later, an unrelated Past Grammars club joined in 1920 (they had been a rugby union club since 1891), became North Brisbane, who later reverted to Past Grammars and then formed the nucleus of Northern Suburbs team who are still trotting around as the Norths Devils.

Other teams that popped up through the 1920s and 1930s included Tivoli from out near Ipswich and Queensland University, who competed from 1920 and won back-to-back titles in the late 1920s before returning to rugby union in 1934.

It wasn’t until the 1921 and 1922 seasons that the same group of teams competed for two seasons in a row. The ‘traditional’ six-team competition played from the mid-1930s until the 1950s. They were then joined by Wynnum Manly in 1951 and Redcliffe in 1960 to form the classic eight-team competition that lasted until 1985. Ipswich joined in 1986 but after 1987 regular change resumed as the Brisbane Rugby League dealt with the primacy of the Broncos and the NRL before establishing a settled and successful Queensland Cup competition.

Next time – From oblivion to consolidation and WWI: 1913 to 1921.

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