Broken time payments are a little different to getting paid full time. While the game may have turned professional, the money earned was very little in real terms.
Plus, to say it was only about money isn't telling the full story IMO, it was much more about the class divide that existed in Britain during the 1800s. At the centre of this was the very posh Rugby school in the lower English midlands.
People think that the first big schism in football happened when the Rugby Football Union and Northern Union (Rugby League) spilt into two camps in 1895. In fact, the first schism was when Rugby Football left the newly established Football Association in the 1860s, taking a few like-minded social clubs with them. The two camps fought over professionalism, sure. But it was also about class attitudes.
It was also about the rules. in particular the practice of 'hacking'. Hacking sometimes resulted in players being kicked to death. For some reason there were people who didn't like this, but the old rugbeians insisted it turned boys into men. Dare I say, bring back the hack!
The Rugby Football Union didn't come into existence until 1872, years after the Football Association - aka soccer. Of course the rules changed dramatically, they went from being very similar games to completely different games in the years that followed.
When did Rugby Football become professional? Well yes, officially it was in 1895. That is, when the northerners decided they'd had enough of dealing with the upper class of England who were trying to drive them out of the game. Their old Rugby Union counterparts took another 100 years before they followed suit and officially became professional.... BUT to say RU weren't paying their players prior to this is incorrect. Fact is (since the 1800s), they were already turning a blind eye to 'boot money' for their southern players - ie money under the table (originally it was coins and notes secretly stuffed in the boots of players after the game). But they were not giving the same latitude to the Northern English or Welsh players... hence, it being more about class than money.
In the early 20th Century, when the Northern Union was marching south and gaining more clubs, the old rugbeians started shitting their pants. Professional Rugby League was gaining interest in Leicester and Coventry, right on the doorstep of Rugby School itself. RL was also becoming popular amongst the miners in Wales. RU finally relented in full and decided unanimously to turn a blind eye to boot money for the players in Wales and the Midlands. This act of double standards was all RU could do to stop RL taking over. RU players receiving secret payments or 'favours' remained standard practice until the late 20th century.
Sorry for the long post, but it would be a pretty boring world if it was only about money.
@SBD82 To answer the OP, players receiving big money is a relatively new thing.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was said if a player could leave the game with a house to live in, then it was a successful career. You only have to look at some of the greats from that era, not all became financially well off.
RL players, even successful players, were not rich.
Norm Provan once declined to go on a Kangaroo tour so he could spend time setting up his business and his family's future. And first grade players used to be paid win bonuses - maybe there's something to be said for bringing that back. And on at least one occasion (as was told to me) senior players colluded in order to pick the first try scorers, just so they could win the doubles and earn themselves a carton of beer - as was the prize in those days. Funny story if true, and I have no reason doubt the story teller.
I remember when we started seeing more games on TV. Players' day jobs were given as they ran onto the field. I recall a number of them were cellar men, suggesting they worked for the club. A few of them were garbos, which we were told helped to keep them fit. I vaguely remember seeing a very young Nathan Brown working behind the bar at St George Leagues Club, although he didn't stay there for long.
One day, Martin Offiah ran on the field and the TV had him listed as a 'Professional Rugby League Player'. Now this was something of a novelty.
So from the names above, you can see it wasn't until the 1990s that players started going full time. Some fans even thought it was a bad thing for a player to be paid more than his team mates, thinking it would lead to low morale. But that argument didn't last long.
The old sports writers rarely wrote about a players earnings because there wasn't much to report. They wrote more about the game and the players' abilities on the field. Nowadays, it does seem to be all about money, and.modern sports writers are a product of this. Sport in general has seen enormous growth since the 1990s. And the elite level in any sporting endeavour has become a business first, sport second.
To put things in perspective, look at how the NRLW is reported on. The sports writers don't talk very much at all about players' paypackets because they are earning very little when compared to the men. Sure, they will write about the players and look for a human interest angle, but after that they tend to focus on the actual game. That's right, they actually do a match report... as weird as that may sound.
