Willow | Bluebags
When Potato Sacks Were All the Rage
"They weren't called the Balmainiacs for nothing...!"
- Sean Fagan (RL1908), The Front Row Forums.
Anyone who visits Sydney generally heads towards the harbour.
Restaurants, cafes, bars and tourist attractions overlook what many believe is the best looking creek in the world. The wharves of Pyrmont, Darling Habour and East Balmain hold court to the home of the world famous Balmain bug. Yes, Balmain, the jewel in the crown... prime real estate that rubs shoulders with the rich and famous as they compete for the most sought after view in Australia!
But it wasn't always that way.
I was fortunate enough to see the final days of the old inner-city, before the 2000 Olympics, before Sydney became a tourist trap. In the 1970s, Balmain was still working class, Darling Harbour was a railway yard, Pyrmont Bridge was open to traffic, the old piers had boats docking and there was plenty of work for everyone. Back then, for 20 cents you could take a bus from Newtown to Circular Quay and you could catch a ferry to Manly for $1.00. It sounds cheap now, it was cheap then. It was the greatest city in Australia. To top it off, Sydney was home to the greatest rugby league competition in the world. Good times.
It's history that the old communities were ripped down in the 1980s to make way for the modern communities that we have today. The old working class fought hard to keep their homes, but to no avail. Alas, they were a dying breed, the descendants of street kids - the last of the Balmainiacs.
To get an understanding of the origins of the Balmainiacs, you have to go back to the 1800s, a time when playing football was the pastime of rich gentlemen. Trophies were frowned upon and professionalism was outlawed. Of course, working class children often played in the street, sometimes bare foot and wearing dyed potato sacks as their jerseys. If their fathers wanted to play football, and got injured, they didn't work. If a man didn't work, his family simply went without. Suffice to say, it was a game that only the upper class could afford to play.
By the turn of the century, things had changed. The inequity of class, the growing professionalism and the Great Schism in England saw turmoil erupt in Sydney's rugby circles. In the middle of the mix were Balmain. From the very beginning, they were at loggerheads with the Metropolitan Rugby Union (MRU), usually over home ground allocation. They became a constant thorn in the side of the MRU, thus earning their Balmainiacs nickname.
When the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) was formed in 1908, Balmain didn't need to be asked twice. While most other foundation clubs took about half the players away from Rugby Union in their districts, the Balmain area saw a mass exodus with virtually every player switching to League. Then, in what was a classic protest against authority, the Balmain supporters proceeded to wreak havoc with their old Union directors. At a Balmain Rugby Union's club meeting of 1908, the League converts voted against the election of every official, thereby preventing Balmain from forming a Rugby Union club for the coming season. The Balmainiacs had struck again!
But it didn't end there.
In 1909, a cash-strapped NSWRL convinced clubs to hand over their gate takings to the League. Balmain, the competition's largest draw card, lobbied for the Souths v Balmain Final to be played at a neutral venue, Wentworth Park. The NSWRL scheduled the game for the Agricultural Ground, South Sydney's home ground. To complicate matters further, the Final was billed as a curtain raiser for the 'Wallabies v Kangaroos' match.
As history shows, the Balmainiacs went ballistic. They refused to play and colluded with sacked former NSWRL boss Alexander Knox to white-ant the NSWRL. It didn't go entirely to plan, the NSWRL survived and Knox was banned from rugby league for life. But the Balmainiacs showed yet again that they were not to be trifled with. They were divisive, probably bogan nutters, but there is something to be admired about the anarchistic nature of their methods.
Nowadays, we call it keeping the bastards honest.
But they're all gone. The final remnants of the Balmainiacs finally left us when their descendants were forcibly removed from the landscape in the 1980s. It wasn't long after that the old Sydney competition was absorbed into the 'bigger picture'. A coincidence, perhaps.
Words | 750
Ref | RL1908.com
Pic | View from East Balmain Wharf by 'Ristohannah' c/- travelpod.com
Many thanks to Sean Fagan.
