The
dash for the door
1907
- 1910:
Mid
1907: St George can trace it's Rugby
League history back to 1907 when the new
game was first mentioned in local newspaper,
the St George Call. This was during
the early days of Australia's breakaway
from Rugby Union with James Giltinan,
Henry Hoyle and cricketer Victor
Trumper attending meetings in an effort
to attract players to Rugby League.
Joe McGraw |
Rockdale
Town Hall, Friday, February 28, 1908:
A meeting was held at Rockdale Town Hall,
south of Sydney. Mainly instigated by St
George Rugby League pioneers, Messers W.
Munn and Joe McGraw, the meeting
was attended by New South Wales Rugby League
officials and Rugby Union players from the
local district.
At
this meeting, a St George Rugby League club
was definitely formed with chairman of the
meeting, Alderman and Mayor W. Taylor
being elected as President.
NSWRL chairman, Henry Clement Hoyle
delivered a convincing address and the Rugby
Union players in attendance unanimously
voted in favour of joining the new Rugby
League.
However, pressure from Rugby Union saw a
swift change of mind with only three players
actually signing up, one of those being
Ted Courtney who later became a member
of the first Kangaroos.
According to The Bulletin, in campaigning
against the new game, there was a hasty
exit to the door. But other reports in The
St George Call and The Rugby League
News painted a different picture, stating
the meeting was well attended and that the
motion to form a League club in St George
was carried. Nevertheless, the end result
was disappointment for the organisers and
a new approach was required.
 Sans
Souci, April 30, 1910: It took two more
years but in 1910, the "St George Third
Grade Rugby League Football Club" was
formed and admitted into the NSWRL third
grade competition.
The colours of the club were red and white.
The jerseys had red and white horizontal
hoops which were four inches wide. They
wore black shorts, black socks with red
and white tops. The headquarters were at
Stroud's Hotel, Kogarah, and the training
room was the small hall (old church) in
Gray Street. The club's home ground was
at Sans Souci and Mr A. Farrat was
installed as coach.
The St George third graders of 1910 became
the first St George Rugby League team to
take to the field and did so in convincing
fashion, thrashing the Newtown thirds by
36-0 at Sans Souci.
The scorers for this historic match were:
C Haydon 3, J Thomson 2, F Holt, B Haydon,
A.Gore tries. C Haydon 4, A Larkin, S Territt
goals. Referee: C Negus.
Relentless
persistence
1911-1920:
St
George
made numerous attempts to join the first
grade competition. The third grade competition
which St George belonged to was enjoying
a growing local support base.
Rugby
League matches in Sydney were attracting
large crowds and became even more popular
than Rugby Union which was suspended in
World War I.
Allan
Clark |
Unfortunately,
there was considerable opposition from
within the NSWRL to a St George first
grade team being admitted into the premiership
competition. The main problem being the
reluctance of the NSWRL to upset the eight
team comp and introduce a weekly bye.
Relentless
in their lobbying of the NSWRL were men
like Joe McGraw (a local referee)
and Allan Clark. They also had
strong support from the likes of Arthur
V. Moymow (president, St George Juniors),
J.H. Burt and G.B. Holt.
On March 4, 1911 at Morris's Hotel, Rockdale,
the St George Juniors were born. Allan
Clark was largely responsible for
forming this new junior competition and
eight 'A-Grade' clubs resulted from his
initial efforts.
In
1911, St George also joined the separate
'Presidents Cup' competition.
A
moving of the NSWRL boundaries saw the
official name of the club changed to 'Wests
III' although the club was still referred
to as St George. This remained the case
until 1915
when the proper St George name returned.
By
1920, St George had a strong junior base
with an 'A-Grade' (10 teams), a 'B-Grade'
(11 teams) and a 'C-Grade' (14 teams).
The
cornerstone is finally set
Wednesday
13 October 1920:
The NSWRL granted St George a first grade
team, and decided to eliminate Annandale.
The discussion took the best part of three
hours in which the St George representatives,
G.B. Holt, Allan Clark and
Joe McGraw, lobbied hard.
Monday
8 November 1920:
A public meeting to discuss the introduction
of St George into the first grade competition
was arranged. An advertisement on October
30 in The St George Call read as
follows:
"A
public meeting will be held in the Kogarah
School of Arts on Monday, November 8 at
8pm to form a grade club for the district
of St George, to take part in the 1921
competition of the NSWRL. All players
and supporters are cordially invited to
attend. J. McGraw, Convener."
Thus
laid the foundation of the St George District
RLFC and all the history that was to follow.
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