The Partisan
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Conversation with a work colleague prompted this line of thought.
Taken from the writings of the great Tony Collins !
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/SportingTraditions/2000/st1602/ST1602i.pdf
At the same time, British rugby league was sinking into a malaise:
crowds had slumped and the traditional industries from which the game
had historically drawn its support, such as mining and textiles, were in
acute decline. This was also the era of the Ten Pound Poms.
Thanks to the encouragement of the Australian governments Assisted Passage
Scheme, emigration to Australia from Britain had become, if not exactly
commonplace, a well-used option for those seeking better life and
employment prospects in the 1950s and 1960s. For cash-strapped British
rugby league clubs, the possibility of large transfer fees from Australian
clubs for British players was highly attractive and the RFL consequently
gave permission to transfer to a steady stream of British players who had
declared their intentions to emigrate.
In 1960 Phil Jackson, the Barrow centre who had starred on the 1958
British tour of Australia, accepted an offer to become captain and coach of
the Goulburn Workers club. He thus became the first British player of the
modern era to move down under to play; the only previous example was
Huddersfields Welsh forward Ben Gronow who moved to Grenfell in
New South Wales in 1925 as their coach but returned two years later.17 In
1963 Derek Hallas moved from Leeds to Parramatta and, over the next
decade and a half a series of leading British players made their way down
under.
The football boot was now firmly on the other foot. If the Australian
game had suffered in the past because of its talents being siphoned by
British clubs, the reverse was now true. Britain lost almost an entire test
team to Sydney clubs in the 1960s and 1970s. Dick Huddart to St George,
Dave Bolton to Balmain, Malcolm Reilly and Phil Lowe to Manly, Roger
Millward, Cliff Watson and Tommy Bishop to Cronulla and John Gray to
North Sydney were some of the players who became league stars in both
hemispheres.
British league was becoming seriously weakened at
international level and the 1977 World Cup, in which Great Britain was forced to field a drastically understrength side due to the loss of numerous
leading players to Sydney clubs, was the final straw for the RFL, who
successfully lobbied for a new international transfer ban.
One wonders what would have happened if theyd stayed in England and won the Ashes and World Cups of the late 70s / possibly even been competitive for the 82 Kangaroos.
Guessing there was a few Kiwis in the same boat ( if the ban applied to them as well).
Could you imagine the current squad told that the Burgess boys, Graham and Widdop would not be eligible to play in the 4N's !
Taken from the writings of the great Tony Collins !
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/SportingTraditions/2000/st1602/ST1602i.pdf
At the same time, British rugby league was sinking into a malaise:
crowds had slumped and the traditional industries from which the game
had historically drawn its support, such as mining and textiles, were in
acute decline. This was also the era of the Ten Pound Poms.
Thanks to the encouragement of the Australian governments Assisted Passage
Scheme, emigration to Australia from Britain had become, if not exactly
commonplace, a well-used option for those seeking better life and
employment prospects in the 1950s and 1960s. For cash-strapped British
rugby league clubs, the possibility of large transfer fees from Australian
clubs for British players was highly attractive and the RFL consequently
gave permission to transfer to a steady stream of British players who had
declared their intentions to emigrate.
In 1960 Phil Jackson, the Barrow centre who had starred on the 1958
British tour of Australia, accepted an offer to become captain and coach of
the Goulburn Workers club. He thus became the first British player of the
modern era to move down under to play; the only previous example was
Huddersfields Welsh forward Ben Gronow who moved to Grenfell in
New South Wales in 1925 as their coach but returned two years later.17 In
1963 Derek Hallas moved from Leeds to Parramatta and, over the next
decade and a half a series of leading British players made their way down
under.
The football boot was now firmly on the other foot. If the Australian
game had suffered in the past because of its talents being siphoned by
British clubs, the reverse was now true. Britain lost almost an entire test
team to Sydney clubs in the 1960s and 1970s. Dick Huddart to St George,
Dave Bolton to Balmain, Malcolm Reilly and Phil Lowe to Manly, Roger
Millward, Cliff Watson and Tommy Bishop to Cronulla and John Gray to
North Sydney were some of the players who became league stars in both
hemispheres.
British league was becoming seriously weakened at
international level and the 1977 World Cup, in which Great Britain was forced to field a drastically understrength side due to the loss of numerous
leading players to Sydney clubs, was the final straw for the RFL, who
successfully lobbied for a new international transfer ban.
One wonders what would have happened if theyd stayed in England and won the Ashes and World Cups of the late 70s / possibly even been competitive for the 82 Kangaroos.
Guessing there was a few Kiwis in the same boat ( if the ban applied to them as well).
Could you imagine the current squad told that the Burgess boys, Graham and Widdop would not be eligible to play in the 4N's !
