The rugby league club graveyard – the little Aussie battler (Part 3)

This the third article in the series where we’ll have a look at the 17 rugby league clubs that have come and gone in the last 113 years. Who were they, what happened to them, who were their best players, what legacy did they leave behind, and what did they achieve?

With so many defunct teams to get through, we’ll work through them in the chronological order in which they departed the competition. In parts 1 and 2 we looked at the five clubs that folded between 1908 and 1937, and then, surprisingly, another 46 years were to go by until the next club left the competition. Today we’ll look at the pioneering Newtown club.

Newtown entered the NSWRL competition in 1908 and departed at the end of 1983.

Depending upon whose version of history you believe, Newtown was either the first or second club formed in the fledgling NSWRFL competition in January 1908. Sportsman and entrepreneur J.J. Giltinan was one of the prime movers behind the club’s inception and many consider him to be the father of rugby league in Australia.

Newtown in 1908 wasn’t the Greens-voting, yuppie-infested enclave it is today. The Enmore Theatre hadn’t yet opened its doors, there wasn’t an Asian fusion restaurant in sight, and its residents were more concerned with day-to-day survival than the latest movement in the Sydney residential property price index.

Newtown was where the working class battlers lived, and their rugby league club embodied that battling spirit right throughout its existence.

Success on the field came early for Newtown, winning their first premiership in 1910, in just the league’s third season, after finishing just off the pace in both 1908 and 1909. The 1910 final was a strange affair by any standard, as under the often changing rules, the only finals match required that year was between the top two teams on the ladder in Newtown and South Sydney.

Newtown drew the final 4-all with Souths following a goal kick from a claimed ‘mark’ from the halfway line to level the scores, and were awarded the premiership on the basis that they finished one point ahead of Souths as minor premiers. And we complain about some of today’s rules?

They remained relatively strong performers over the next decade, finishing the season in second place on two occasions, and only lower than fourth in 1916, 1918 and 1919 when they finished sixth, seventh and fifth respectively. Unfortunately, the competition was conducted on a ‘first-past-the-post basis’ in those years so it was a matter of either finishing first or nothing.

The 1920s were less kind to the club, and they picked up the wooden spoon in 1924, 1925 and 1928, before bouncing back with just their second premiership in 26 years when they were victorious in 1933. The won the minor premiership that year and the competition saw the top four teams play a brief finals series.

Newtown defeated South Sydney 17-12 in the semi-final and then toppled St George 18-5 in the grand final at the Sports Ground in front of a crowd of over 18,000.

(Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

They picked up another wooden spoon in 1939 before taking out their third and final premiership four years later in 1943, after just pipping Balmain for minor premiership honours. They met the highly fancied North Sydney team at the SCG in the grand final in front of a crowd of over 60,000, and ran out convincing winners 34-7 in an eight tries to one rout.

Newtown arguably had their best team of all time on the field that season, with a punishing pack featuring noted hard men Frank ‘Bumper’ Farrell, Herb Narvo and Gordon MacLennan, and a talented backline including prolific try-scoring wingers Sid Goodwin and Bruce Ryan, powerful Australian centre Len Smith, and goal kicking ace Tommy Kirk at fullback.

Newtown remained very competitive for the rest of the 1940s and throughout the 1950s, and they always gave their opposition a rugged reception. They made the finals 11 times between 1944 and 1959, finishing as runners-up three times, but a fourth premiership still eluded them.

After a lean time in the 1960s, they had cause for some optimism in 1973 when future ‘super coach’ Jack Gibson had the reins and took the team as far as the preliminary final, where they went down to Cronulla 20-11.

Gibson left the next year to coach the Roosters to a premiership victory, while Newtown’s fortunes began to fade, and they picked up consecutive wooden spoons in 1976, 1977 and 1978. The ’70s marked the beginning of the club’s financial problems, which were exacerbated by the changing demographics in their small inner-city enclave.

Their final glimmer of success came in 1981, when Warren Ryan coached one of the toughest outfits to ever to represent Newtown, led by Tommy Raudonikis. Newtown defeated Manly in the semi-final in one of the most violent games of football ever seen, before putting Eastern Suburbs away in the preliminary final, and then advancing to their first grand final in 26 years.

Their opponents were the Jack Gibson-coached Parramatta team. Newtown were well in the game at halftime, being behind by just one point, but couldn’t match the class of the Eels’ backs in the second half, eventually losing 20-11, with Parramatta taking out their first ever premiership.

Newtown missed the finals in 1982 and had slipped to second last place on the table by 1983, and things weren’t going much better off the field. Ongoing financial issues resulted in the club being suspended from the NSWRL premiership competition at the end of 1983, and despite plans to relocate to Campbelltown, their requests for re-admission were ultimately unsuccessful.

Newtown have produced some of the greatest players in the game over the years, many of whom found fame and fortune with other clubs. Some of their best local products were Johnny Raper, Brian Clay, Len Smith, Frank ‘Bumper’ Farrell, Frank Hyde, Brian Moore, Dick Poole, Herb Narvo and Phil Sigsworth.

Some Newtown fun facts:

•Newtown centre John Scott had the honour of scoring the first ever try in the NSWRFL competition on 20th April 1908. Nineteen years later, he was also the first bowler to dismiss Sir Donald Bradman in first class cricket in 1927
•Newtown’s colours were a royal blue jersey and white shorts
•They were originally nicknamed the ‘Bluebags’, after the laundry product then used in washing clothes. In 1973 their nickname was modernised to the Jets
•Winger Ray Preston has most tries for the club with 107, including an incredible 34 tries in the 1954 season
•Ken Wilson holds the record for most points with 1001
•’Bumper’ Farrell has played most games for Newtown with 204.

Happily for the club, the Jets re-emerged in 1990 to take part in the lower-level NSW rugby league competitions and still compete to this day. It’s still possible to have a great day out and be part of the crowd of 8972 watching the footy at Henson Park.

Next, we’ll look at the 1997 clean out.