1910 NSWRFL season

1910 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams 8
Premiers Newtown[1] (1st title)
Minor premiers Newtown (1st title)
Matches played 57
Points scored 1578 (total)
27.684 (per match)
Top point scorer(s) Dally Messenger (71)
Top try scorer(s) Arthur McCabe (18)

The 1910 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the third season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football club competition, Australia's first. Eight teams from across the city contested during the season for the premiership and the Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield. Also during the season, many of the League's top players took part in matches of the 1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia.

Season summary

On 23 July 1910 at the Sydney Showground the South Sydney club defeated Western Suburbs 67 – 0. This would stand as Souths' highest ever score and biggest winning margin in a premiership game for over one hundred years.[2]

During the season Annandale's Ray, Roy, Rex and Bernard Norman became the first set of four brothers to play in the same NSWRFL side.[3]

The League's takings for all matches this year amounted to £13,512, an increase of over £6,000 on the previous season.[4]

Teams

With the loss of Cumberland at the end of the 1908 season, the league remained with eight teams; a preferable outcome since no byes would be needed. However by the end of the 1909 season, interest for a local Newcastle competition as well as the difficulties of longer travel for the Newcastle side saw it pull out of the premiership. As a result, a team from Annandale joined the premiership to leave the competition with eight teams.[5] Also this season St. Luke's Park became the Western Suburbs club's homeground.

Annandale
1st season
Ground: Wentworth Park
Coach:
Captain: George Wilcox
Balmain
3rd season
Ground: Birchgrove Park
Coach: Robert Graves
Captain: Arthur Halloway		 Eastern Suburbs
3rd season
Ground: RAS Showground
Captain- Coach: Dally Messenger 		Glebe
3rd season
Ground: Wentworth Park
Coach:Chris McKivat
Captain: Alex Burdon
Newtown
3rd season
Ground: Erskineville Metters Park
Captain-Coach: Charles 'Boxer' Russell
North Sydney
3rd season
Ground: North Sydney Oval
Coach:
Captain: Tedda Courtney 		South Sydney
3rd season
Ground: RAS Showground
Captain-Coach: Arthur Hennessy		 Western Suburbs
3rd season
Ground: St. Luke's Park
Coach:
Captain: Percy Bolt

Ladder

Newtown finished on top of the League's ladder at the end of the regular season.

The geographical locations of the teams that contested the 1910 premiership across Sydney.
Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Newtown 14111226292+17023
2 South Sydney 141103326109+21722
3 Eastern Suburbs 14923248116+13220
4 Balmain 14806153190-3716
5 Glebe 14608175194-1912
6 Annandale 14518145200-5511
7 North Sydney 143011146283-1376
8 Western Suburbs 141013115386-2712

Ladder progression

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
1 Newtown 2 4 6 8 8 10 12 14 15 15 17 19 21 23
2 South Sydney 2 4 6 6 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 18 20 22
3 Eastern Suburbs 2 4 4 6 8 8 8 10 11 12 14 16 18 20
4 Balmain 0 2 4 6 6 8 8 10 12 14 14 16 16 16
5 Glebe 0 0 2 4 6 6 8 8 8 10 12 12 12 12
6 Annandale 0 0 0 0 2 4 4 4 6 7 7 9 11 11
7 North Sydney 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6
8 Western Suburbs 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

Final

Newtown Position South Sydney
William "Webby" Neill FB Frank Twiss
Charles Russell (Ca./Co.) WG Tommy Anderson
Viv Farnsworth CE Howard Hallett
Albert Hawkes CE Jack Levison
F. Munnery WG Arthur Conlin
Bill Farnsworth FE Arthur McCabe
William Hayes HB Arthur Butler
J. Morgan PR Bill Spence
J. Chevall HK Jim "Barra" Davis
David Grundie PR Ernie Hucker
Jack Barnett SR Harry Butler
Patrick McCue SR Johnny Rosewell
Joe Murray LK Arthur Hennessy (Ca./Co.)

Unlike the previous two seasons where a play-off system was used to decide the premier, there was only one game played in 1910. The top two teams, Newtown and South Sydney, played off in a memorable match in front of fifteen or sixteen thousand[6] people at the Sydney Showground on 17 September 1910. Leading 4-2 with reportedly only seconds to go, South Sydney seemed set to take out their third straight premiership. However, after Souths player Howard Hallett was forced to kick the ball clear from his own line, Newtown centre Albert Hawkes caught the ball on the full just metres away from halfway and the touch line. The rules at the time allowed Hawkes to claim a "fair mark" and Newtown to have a shot at goal. Newtown captain Charles "Boxer" Russell was successful in kicking the goal from a difficult position, allowing Newtown to tie the game and win the competition as they had been minor premiers.[7]

Newtown 4 (Goals: Charles Russell 2)

drew with

South Sydney Rabbitohs 4 (Goals: Jim Davis 2)

References

Sources

  1. ↑ "Premiership Roll of Honour". rl1908.com. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011.
  2. ↑ "Club Records". rabbitohs.com.au. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012.
  3. ↑ "Rugby league history as FOUR English brothers star for Russell Crowe's side". Mirror. 30 August 2013. Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "A Flourishing League". Grey River Argus (New Zealand). 1911-03-21. p. 5. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
  5. ↑ "History of the Premiership". centenaryofrugbyleague.com.au. Australian Rugby League. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  6. ↑ "Football". The Sydney Mail. 1910-09-21. p. 54. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
  7. ↑ "League football.". Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 69 (New Zealand). 1910-09-19. p. 4. Retrieved 2009-12-03.

Collis, Ian; Whiticker, Alan (2007). 100 Years of Rugby League 1. Chatswood, NSW: New Holland. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-1-74110-463-9. 

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