Denis'saints'Freak said:
Willow said:
btw, there was also a St George RLFC formed at Rockdale Town Hall on February 28, 1908. It just took another decade before they gained admittance into the first grade.
So was St George RLFC (formed 1908) the same club that was admitted in 1921?
Its a matter of opinion. A club was formed in 1921 but the people were the same from 1908. So yes and no.
The 1908 meeting at Rockdale Town Hall was organised by a number of the founders including Joe McGraw - At this meeting, a St George Rugby League club was definitely formed with chairman of the meeting, Mayor Taylor as President.
The NSWRL were ready to have them as one of the foundation clubs - as you can imagine, all the clubs were being thrown together from Union recruits and there it was all pretty 'slap dash'. Unfortunately for Saints, the local Rugby Union put a fair deal of pressure on the players who were considering the switch and this was the case with a number of areas.
The founders of the club decided the only choice was to build up a St George RL junior base first... which they started on immediately... but even though RL matches were being organised in the St George district in 1908, the actual juniors were not officially formed until 1911... therein lies a discrepency because the St George third grade NSWRL team had already been playing since 1910.
Joe McGraw, a local referee, and another founder, Alan Clark were instrumental in setting up the St George district grade competition, and they were there when the third grade team was entered into the NSWRL comp in 1910... the team colours were red and white; the jerseys being red and white horizontal hoops.
The club's home ground was at Sans Souci and a Mr A. Farrat was installed as coach.
On April 30, 1910 the St George third graders 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 and S. Territt goals. The referee was C. Negus.
This 36-0 victory in 1910 supports the view that they had a strong and vibrant junior competition (albeit ad-hoc) which was a direct result of the 1908 meeting.
It took years of relentless persistence before the NSWRL finally allowed a St George team into the first grade. The reasons why the NSWRL were reluctant are not entirely clear - but most support the view that they were not fond of having an uneven number of teams (ie forcing a bye). This is backed by the expulsion of Annandale at the end of the 1920 season.
When the NSWRL finally accepted a first grade team from St George for the 1921 season, many of the founders from 1908 were still there including Joe McGraw and Alan Clark.... imo St George fans owe a great debt to these men because they never gave up.
:lol:
