All guts, no glory but a belated honour: Rugby league’s unofficial champions

Life and sport can be unfair sometimes. You work and sacrifice in pursuit of a goal but never quite get there, either because of a little mistake or circumstances beyond your control, or because somebody else is just smarter and/or luckier.

As Thomas Hardy once wrote (not about rugby league), “You concede nothing to me and I have to concede everything to you.”

Of course, this is a reductive view of things, but many elite athletes are rather hyper-focused and reductive, and missing out on that ultimate goal can remain a sore point even if they achieve other great things – longevity, financial reward, representative honours, the esteem of the public and their peers.

While that’s all great, it’d still be nice to get that last piece of the puzzle, that white whale.

This was a theme recently explored by The Roar’s Tony who wrote of rugby league players with 250 first-grade appearances in Australia and no premiership. I happened to notice that four of the players chosen – Nathan Hindmarsh, Luke Burt, Matt Bowen and Ben Hunt – are also part of another select group, and that they do possess an end-of-season honour of sorts.

It’s not a premiership, not even close, but it’s an honour nonetheless – they’re all unofficial rugby league champions.

The unofficial rugby league champions

The concept is simple and based loosely on the unofficial football world championship concept; that the championship is up for grabs whenever the champion team steps onto the field, just like one of the many boxing championship belts available to any challenger.

Rugby league’s unofficial championship started on 29 August 1908 when Souths beats Easts to win the inaugural NSWRL premiership Final. For the purposes of this exercise, Souths also won the inaugural and mythical rugby league championship belt that day.

From that point on, the belt has been in play whenever its holder has taken the field in a premiership match. 115 years and more than 950 usurpers later, it’s currently held by the Gold Coast Titans who pinched it from Brisbane in Round 17 of the current season.

Given the NRL premiership and its predecessors have almost always been decided after a series of knockout rounds, the championship belt has usually been decided at the same time as the actual championship. But sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.

Twenty-two teams across the history of top-flight rugby league in Australia have held the championship belt while the actual championship was being won by somebody else. These are rugby league’s unofficial champion teams.

It’s all a bit silly, of course, but there are some pleasing results, most notably Parramatta holding their championship belt and becoming unofficial champions in 2009. There are also some individual ‘unofficial champions’ who never tasted premiership success and who deserve a belated honour. Here’s the pick of them.

1. Andrew Walker (Manly 2004)

Walker was with the Dragons in 1992 and ‘93, though not part of either Grand Final team, and the Roosters as they made strides toward premiership contention later in the decade, before he switched to rugby union in 1999 and missed the Roosters’ premiership renaissance of 2002.

Even though he achieved a lot in rugby, there’s a sense that the sublimely gifted Walker should’ve had more. Ongoing discipline and substance abuse issues prematurely ended his Wallabies career, and by the time of the 2003 World Cup, Walker had already signed with Manly in the NRL.

But there was one last hurrah, with Walker kicking two goals in his final NRL game as Manly pinched the championship belt from Melbourne and won the unofficial championship at Brookvale in the final round of 2004.

Honourable mention: Doug McGregor (Glebe 1913)

2. Johnno Stuntz (Easts 1910)

Stuntz is an intriguing and tragic figure in Australian rugby league’s early history. He played alongside Dally Messenger for NSW against the touring All Golds in 1907, the games which led to establishment of the NSWRL Premiership in 1908. He was then the star of the premiership’s opening weekend in April 1908 when he scored four tries for Easts against Newtown.

He went on to represent Australia against New Zealand Maori in 1909 and was posthumously recognised as a Kangaroo in 2004. Then, at the end of 1910, with Easts on the precipice of a hat-trick of premierships, Stuntz defected to Souths and missed them all.

But Stuntz, who later died in France during the Great War, had already become one of the original unofficial champions when Easts took the belt off eventual finalists Souths late in the 1910 season.

Honourable mention: Sam Perrett (Sydney Roosters 2007)

3. Cec Fifield (Wests 1926)

Oh, the vagaries of fate and fortune. Fifield was part of the great Ashes series of 1929-30 and started the famous fourth Test at Rochdale in January 1930, only to break his leg during the gripping 3-0 win by Jim Sullivan’s England.

At club level, Fifield was part of the emerging Wests team of the late 1920s, falling just short of premiership finals in 1927 and ‘29. Then, in 1930, Fifield accepted the captain-coach job at Balmain, the same year Wests, led by the great Jim Craig, finally won their first premiership.

However, four years earlier, Fifield had claimed an unofficial championship when his four tries at Pratten Park saw Wests pinch the championship belt from Norths in the season’s final round.

Honourable mention: Alec Bolewski (Newtown 1920 and ‘21)

4. Paul Bowman (North Queensland 2001)

Cowboys stalwart Paul Bowman will forever be part of club lore, having debuted in their foundation season and later been a key part of the club’s first rise to premiership contention in 2004 and ‘05. Fittingly, the Cowboys’ best and fairest award is the Paul Bowman Medal.

While Bowman never quite made it to the promised land, he was the Cowboys’ unofficial championship-winning captain in 2001 when he led fellow stalwarts Matt Bowen and Josh Hannay to unofficial glory in a decisive victory against the Warriors in 2001.

Honourable mention: Jamie Ainscough (Wests 1990)

5. Cody Ramsey (St George Illawarra 2020)

The COVID-19-shortened season in 2020 threw up a few oddities, including the 12th-placed Dragons winning the most recent unofficial championship after a 30-22 victory over Melbourne in the season’s final round. Apropos of nothing, Matt Dufty scored two tries in that game.

Cody Ramsey, in just his third first-grade game, was there too and has since seen his promising career derailed by a serious and career-threatening illness. Get well soon, Cody, and may you one day win a premiership to go with your unofficial championship.

Cody Ramsey. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

Honourable mention: Eric Grothe Jr (Sydney Roosters 2007)

6. Steve Rogers (Cronulla 1977)

Rogers achieved everything in rugby league except a premiership and he suffered two Grand Final defeats with Cronulla, including the replay against Manly in 1978. But Rogers did play a key role in Cronulla’s first and only unofficial championship in 1977 when he scored a try and kicked seven goals in the Sharks’ upset 23-18 victory over minor premiers Parramatta at Shark Park.

Honourable mention: Chris McKivat (Glebe 1913)

7. Jack Holmes (Newtown 1931)

By the late 1920s, Jack Holmes had established himself as one of rugby league’s best halves, while his Newtown team were an inconsistent but dangerous outfit who played in the 1929 premiership final and eventually won the club’s second premiership in 1933.

While Holmes’ selection for the 1929 Kangaroo Tour was well deserved, it meant he missed the premiership final against Souths. By the time the Bluebags broke through in ‘33, Holmes was gone, having died of appendicitis in September 1931 at just 26. But a few weeks before he passed, Holmes was part of Newtown’s late winning streak and third unofficial championship.

Honourable mention: Jason Taylor (Wests 1990)

8. Noel Kelly (Wests 1969)

Kelly was another who achieved great things – multiple interstate Series victories with Queensland, success at international level, election to the Rugby League Hall of Fame – but not that elusive premiership. He lost three Grand Finals in a row between 1961 and ‘63 to the great Dragons team of the era.

Then, with his career winding down and with Kelly now captain-coach, he led the Magpies to an upset victory over the eventual premiers Balmain late in the 1969 season to claim his unofficial championship.

Honourable mention: Don McKinnon (Norths 1981)

9. John Gray (Norths 1981)

John Gray is still widely remembered as the man who pioneered around-the-corner goal-kicking in Australian rugby league, even though he didn’t (it was Parramatta’s John Archibald).

Gray was undoubtedly a first-class cricketer, taking 21 wickets at 25.4 runs apiece for Warwickshire in the late 1960s, and he did well in rugby league with Wigan and Norths before securing a move to Manly in ‘78 in search of a premiership. It didn’t work out, with Gray sent off against Parramatta in the semi-finals and missing Manly’s grand final replay win over Cronulla.

Gray returned to Norths in 1981 and had to make do with a spot in the Bears Team of the Century, as well as an unofficial championship, won courtesy of his three goals as the Bears beat Canterbury 18-15 late in 1981.

Honourable mention: Kurt Sherlock (Easts 1989)

10. Danny Nutley (Sydney Roosters 2007)

Who didn’t like Nutley, the burly, bustling former South Queensland Crusher who gradually became one of the better props in the league at Cronulla and who bustled his way into a Queensland jersey for game three of the 2005 State of Origin series?

Nutley’s one and only Origin didn’t go well for him or Queensland, and his bustling wasn’t required for the dawn of the Maroons’ golden era the following year. But in the final round of the 2007 season Nutley did claim a belated honour when he inspired the Roosters to a 26-12 win over Souths to claim the belt and unofficial championship.

Honourable mention: Dane Sorenson (Cronulla 1977)

11. Cameron Blair (Wests 1990)

Blair toiled for some ordinary teams and never came close to a premiership, but he’s still remembered for an outstanding act of chivalry in 1989 when he came to the aid of a concussed and imperilled opponent, Parramatta’s Tony Cossato, later receiving an official commendation for his actions.

Here’s another honour for the chivalrous Blair: he’s an unofficial champion, having been a key part of the Wests team who beat Penrith 22-12 at Campbelltown in the final round of 1990 to pinch the championship belt. He was also part of the Western Reds team who beat Manly and claimed the championship belt for the only time in their history, and held it for four glorious weeks, in 1996.

Honourable mention: Iosia Soliola (Sydney Roosters 2007)

12. Nathan Hindmarsh (Parramatta 2009)

Tony wasn’t the first and won’t be the last to mention that Nathan Hindmarsh never won a premiership. Poor old ‘Hindy’ seems to be reminded of it on a weekly basis.

I doubt an unofficial championship will make much difference, but it should still be recognised: Hindmarsh is a championship winner, albeit unofficially. Maybe his mates at Fox League can make him a trophy.

Nathan Hindmarsh. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Honourable mention: Bill Marsh (Balmain 1952)

13. Frank Burge (Glebe 1913)

There’ve been a few tragic, hard-luck and misbegotten adventure stories in this list so far. So, how does the greatest try-scoring forward in rugby league history and one of the 13 Immortals fit in?

It’s another case of the ‘what ifs?’. What if Glebe hadn’t been weakened by the Kangaroo Tour in 1911? What if the premiership was awarded to the league winners rather than through a weird, two-team, points-based finals format? What if Dally Messenger, just retired from internationals, hadn’t landed goals from everywhere? What if Glebe knew what they had in the rookie Burge?

When success did come calling for Glebe in their 1913 City Cup Final victory, Burge was unavailable. But he had been part of Glebe’s 1913 NSWRFL team who gained some mostly unsatisfactory revenge for 1911 by winning the unofficial championship after Easts had already clinched the premiership through the first-past-the-post format.

Honourable mention: Mark Graham (Norths 1981)