April 20, 1908: Club rugby league is born in Australia
That famous day at Birchgrove Oval was 114 years ago.
Occasionally we stray outside our focus of 1997 - our current clippings are actually from 1998 - but we’ve never wandered this far!
However, if we don’t mark he day club rugby league was born in Australia today, who will?
In fact while Birchgrove Oval in Balmain gets all the glory, there were actually two double-headers with the other being staged at Wentworth Park, a 45 minutes walk away.
There, Eastern Suburbs beat Newtown 32-16 and Glebe downed Newcastle 8-5. At Birchgrove, it was an 11-7 win for South Sydney over North Sydney and a 24-0 belting handed out by Western Suburbs to their future joint venture partners Western Suburbs.
On the same day, Cumberland Fruitpickers were formed as the Premiership’s ninth club.
HOP-TO-IT RABBITOHS CONFUSE THE COACH
Sydney Morning Herald, Monday , April 20 1998
SOUTH SYDNEY 41
WESTERN SUBURBS 10
By STEVE MASCORD
Sydney Football Stadium
TURNING a 34-point loss into a 31-point win in the space of six days can, no doubt, elicit many emotions - but frustration isn't the first to come to mind.
But that's what South Sydney coach Steve Martin said he felt yesterday when his Rabbitohs flogged Western Suburbs after they were lapped by the Bears on Easter Monday.
As two of yesterday's stars, Julian O'Neill and Tim Brasher, sat alongside him at the post-match media conference at the Sydney Football Stadium, grinning, Martin was asked if he was happy.
"No," he said abruptly. "I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated they haven't done it every week, I'm frustrated they don't do it for 80 minutes every week.
"With a bit more luck we could be three and three this year and we'd be right up there.
"We're due another bad performance, aren't we?"
Wests were without the likes of Paul Langmack, Ciriaco Mescia and Harvey Howard yesterday and five-eighth Steve Georgallis (knee) and prop Brenton Pomery (broken wrist) were added to the list.
In fact, the Magpies were so short on experience that centre Ken McGuinness was denied the day off to be with his wife who was in labour.
But if you're looking for a reason that Souths led 12-0 after eight minutes, then look no further than O'Neill's boot and a kick called the bomb.
McGuinness spilt an O'Neill bomb for Rabbitoh Jeremy Schloss to score the first try after only 54 seconds.
Late Wests inclusion Leo Clark couldn't take an O'Neill bomb seven minutes later and it was 12-0 with O'Neill's second conversion.
Darrell Trindall then took his cue, throwing tricky passes for tries to Brasher (31 minutes) and O'Neill (38) before half-time.
Wests did eventually diffuse a bomb safely in the 76th minute when they were trailing 41-4.
There was hope of a Wests' comeback when winger Darren Willis snuck over out wide four minutes into the second half but it was short-lived.
Rabbitoh hooker Geordie Peats and second-rower Jim Smith each scored before Wests bagged a consolation try to winger Aseri Laing with three minutes remaining.
Souths managed to create the perfect platform for the likes of O'Neill, Trindall and Brasher by overpowering the Magpies up front and most significantly playing the ball quickly.
Kiwi prop Terry Hermansson, called up yesterday for the Anzac Test for the injured Tony Puletua, was the leader here, with 18-hit-ups.
O'Neill claimed this simple pattern would work against anyone even next Sunday's Brookvale Oval opponents, Manly.
"If we get our go-forward working, we can use the kicks and the other things you saw today," he said.
"We had a point to prove today. We don't lack the right players or the right coach or the fans what we have probably lacked in recent weeks is the competitive spirit.
“We had that today.
"We played for the rabbit on our jumpers and we want South Sydney to be in the competition for decades to come."
O'Neill is honing in on Michael Cronin's record for most number of successive goals kicked in the competition, 26.
His eight yesterday made it 21. Magpies coach Tom Raudonikis refused to blame the injury toll for the defeat but insisted:"I'm not about to throw in the towel and neither are the players".
GAMES
Australian Rugby League round seven:
Manly 22 Newcastle 8 at Brookvale Oval
South Sydney 24 South Queensland 20 at Sydney Football Stadium
Super League Australia round eight:
Canberra 40 North Queensland 16 at Bruce Stadium
Super League Europe round seven:
Halifax 28 Castleford 12 at Wheldon Road
St Helens 60 Warrington 16 at Knowsley Road
