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The Newtown RLFC, Australia’s first Rugby League football club, is 100 years old on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008.
The club was formed at a public meeting in the Newtown Town Hall on the 8th January, 1908 and has always been known as the definitive battlers club, having experienced the highs and lows of the fortunes of the Rugby League game.
Newtown played in the NSW Rugby League first grade premiership competition between 1908 and 1983, before succumbing to a long struggle with soaring costs and disadvantageous social and demographic changes in its confined inner-western catchment area. The club had won first grade premierships in 1910, 1933 and 1943, and narrowly lost to Parramatta in the memorable Grand Final of 1981. Originally known as the Bluebags from 1908 to 1972, they have been called the Jets since 1973 because of the location of their longstanding home-ground (Henson Park) being directly under Sydney Airport’s major flight path.
The Jets re-entered senior Rugby League football in the NSW Rugby League Metropolitan Cup in 1991. They dominated this competition, winning first grade premierships in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1997, and finished as preliminary finalists in 1994 and 1998.
The Jets were invited to participate in the NSW Rugby League First Division competition in 2000, and the club is now gearing up for its ninth season in the flagship competition of the NSW Rugby League, to be known from 2008 onwards as the NSWRL New South Wales Cup. The club entered into a strategic partnership with the powerful Sydney Roosters DRLFC in late 2005, whereby the Jets became the Roosters’ official feeder club.
Source: Newtown Jets media release
The club was formed at a public meeting in the Newtown Town Hall on the 8th January, 1908 and has always been known as the definitive battlers club, having experienced the highs and lows of the fortunes of the Rugby League game.
Newtown played in the NSW Rugby League first grade premiership competition between 1908 and 1983, before succumbing to a long struggle with soaring costs and disadvantageous social and demographic changes in its confined inner-western catchment area. The club had won first grade premierships in 1910, 1933 and 1943, and narrowly lost to Parramatta in the memorable Grand Final of 1981. Originally known as the Bluebags from 1908 to 1972, they have been called the Jets since 1973 because of the location of their longstanding home-ground (Henson Park) being directly under Sydney Airport’s major flight path.
The Jets re-entered senior Rugby League football in the NSW Rugby League Metropolitan Cup in 1991. They dominated this competition, winning first grade premierships in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1997, and finished as preliminary finalists in 1994 and 1998.
The Jets were invited to participate in the NSW Rugby League First Division competition in 2000, and the club is now gearing up for its ninth season in the flagship competition of the NSW Rugby League, to be known from 2008 onwards as the NSWRL New South Wales Cup. The club entered into a strategic partnership with the powerful Sydney Roosters DRLFC in late 2005, whereby the Jets became the Roosters’ official feeder club.
Source: Newtown Jets media release
