1909 NSWRFL season

Teams

The teams that made up the 1909 premiership season were the same as the 1908 season with the exception of Cumberland who were dissolved, being unable to field a competitive team. Their last premiership match turned out to be a 45-0 loss at the hands of North Sydney on 25 July 1908, a game where the team had to "borrow" two of North Sydney's officials in order to make up a 13-man side. Seven of Cumberland's players ended up going to Western Suburbs the following year, but only three of these players were able to play another premiership match.

Souths lost only one game in the regular season, to Newcastle in Newcastle, 3 days after the Novocastrians had beaten the New Zealand Māori team.

Glebe included Peter Moko, the first player of Polynesian background to play in the premiership.

Newcastle exited the League at the end of the season.

Touring sides

During the season the New Zealand national side toured in June–July, followed by the second New Zealand Māori rugby league tour of Australia.

Ladder progression

Finals

In 1909 semi-finals were played amongst the four highest placed teams. Top two finishers South Sydney and Balmain were able to win their respective semi-finals. However, after the New South Wales Rugby League had planned a match between the Australian rugby union and rugby league teams that would upstage the premiership final, both South Sydney and Balmain unofficially agreed to not play out a final. But unknown to Balmain, South Sydney turned up ready to play. The final was deemed to be a forfeit as a result, with South Sydney claiming their second premiership in as many years. Requests from Balmain for the match to be played at a later date were refused by the League. Conflict over whether there was an agreement between the two clubs not to play a final caused a deep seated resentment towards Souths by Balmain which lasted many years. It was the most dramatic action ever taken by a rugby league club – the 1909 Balmain team forfeited the premiership Final. Arguments have raged as to what led to Balmain’s actions, and the day’s events have caused the ‘Tigers’ and the South Sydney Rabbitohs to generally harbour nothing but ill-will towards each other ever-since.

The seeds of the dramatic events of 1909 lay in the years before rugby league was formed, back when Balmain and Souths were rugby union clubs.

In 1900 the Metropolitan Rugby Union (MRU) replaced the private clubs of the 1800s with district clubs.

This was done to more evenly distribute the talent between clubs, and to build upon the growing support for suburban based clubs.

While Balmain had use of ‘the best ground in the colony’ in Birchgrove Park [Oval], the MRU inexplicably ignored its ‘home-and-away’ scheduling for club matches, and refused to allocate South Sydney matches anywhere but at the SCG or Sports Ground.

Between 1900 and 1906, Souths and Balmain had met 14 times, yet the ‘red-and-greens’ had only twice been required to play at Birchgrove.

While most clubs trained indoors at night or on fields under moonlight, Souths and Easts had exclusive use of the lights of the Sports Ground. Understandably, other clubs, particularly Balmain and Norths felt that Souths and Easts were receiving favourable treatment.

The newspapers and opposing fans had come to call the Balmain club “the Balmainiacs”. Unafraid to vent their feelings, especially at home games, Balmain were not the most popular club amongst Sydney ‘rugbyites’.

When the opportunity came to join the newly formed rugby league in the early months of 1908, most rugby union clubs lost approximately half of their players and members. In Balmain’s case, the League got just about everybody.

When the Balmain Union club held its first meeting of 1908, all the district’s League supporters attended and voted against the election of every official for the coming season.

While they really had no cause to even be at the Union club’s meeting, the presence of the League supporters prevented the Union club from being formed for the coming season. The MRU organised the follow-up meeting for the same night as the next Balmain League meeting, just so it could carry on its business.

By the start of the 1909 season, the NSWRL was in a dire financial crisis – its founding fathers, James Giltinan, Victor Trumper and ‘Harry’ Hoyle, all lost their positions.

Under the stewardship of North Sydney’s Alexander Knox, the NSWRL convinced the clubs to forgo their gate receipts from matches, and hand it all over to the League.

It quickly became apparent to Knox that the only club attracting reasonable crowds was Balmain at Birchgrove Park. Consequently, Balmain were given a home game in almost every round.

As a result, they enjoyed great on-field success and climbed the premiership ladder. Balmain reached the Final against South Sydney.

However, as Souths had won the minor premiership by two points, the NSWRL play-offs system meant that Balmain had to beat them in the Final, and then beat them again in a second Final to claim the title. It seemed unlikely.

Balmain lobbied the NSWRL to schedule the Final at Wentworth Park, which was half-way between the two districts. The League refused, and put the match on at the Agricultural Ground – Souths home field.

Balmain’s complaints were quickly overtaken by outside events when more than half of the 1908 Wallabies team suddenly defected to rugby league for a series of matches against the Kangaroos.

The Final was postponed indefinitely.

Knox publicly criticised the NSWRL officials who were involved in ‘bringing-down’ the NSWRU via paying huge sums to the Wallabies. Other officials didn’t see a problem with the League’s actions, and Knox soon lost his position on the NSWRL.

Funded by entrepreneur James Joynton-Smith, the three ‘Wallabies v Kangaroos’ matches did not earn enough gate-money to fully cover his costs or those of the NSWRL. So a fourth game was arranged. To increase interest and gate-takings, the NSWRL scheduled the Final on the under-card.

Balmain were seemingly aggrieved at the demotion of importance of the Final, and asked the NSWRL to ensure it was played on a separate day. They also argued that their players’ labour should not go towards paying money owed to Joynton-Smith and the NSWRL. The League refused and Balmain announced that they would not play.

On the day of the Final the Balmain players arrived outside the ground in the early afternoon, well before the scheduled kick-off time of 2 o’clock. They then picketed the entrance, endeavouring to convince patrons not to enter.

Despite very heavy rain and the protests of the Balmain footballers, enough of a crowd turned up to clear the debts of Joynton-Smith and the NSWRL. Balmain stuck to their word and did not appear on the field. Souths kicked-off, picked up the ball and scored a try. The referee awarded them the match, and with it the 1909 premiership.

In the days that followed a public meeting was held at Balmain to decide what to do about challenging Souths being credited as premiers. It then became apparent what Balmain had been trying to achieve. The first speaker at the meeting was North Sydney’s Alexander Knox. He had convinced Balmain to forfeit the Final in the hope that the NSWRL would not earn enough money to pay off its debts or be able to reimburse Joynton-Smith.

With the NSWRL bankrupted, Balmain and Norths officials would lead the formation of a new rugby league body – one in which they, and not South Sydney and Easts, would be the dominant office-holders. With little hope of winning the premiership, Balmain felt they had more to gain by causing the NSWRL to collapse.

Further meetings were held, attempting to instigate legal proceedings and investigate forming a new League, but they eventually stalled.

In the opening round of the 1910 competition, the NSWRL scheduled a ‘re-match’ between Souths and Balmain at Birchgrove Park to appease the local supporters.

‘The Balmainiacs’ responded by establishing a record crowd for a NSWRL club match of over 5,000. The home team though were beaten 13-5 in a very tough and physical encounter.

The Referee thought it necessary to praise the Birchgrove crowd for their behaviour, offering: “Naturally they like to see their favourites win, and what district does not? In the present instance, however, their team had to play second fiddle, but as sports they took the defeat in good spirit, and liberally applauded the visitors.”

At the first NSWRL meeting of 1910, Norths’ Alexander Knox was banned from rugby league for life.

Members of the South Sydney side who showed up on Grand Final day and won by forfeit were:

Arthur Butler • Arthur Conlin (c) • Harry Butler • Howard Hallett • T.Anderson • J.Davis • Frank Storie • Ed Fry • Dick Green • Jack Coxon • Billy Cann • P.Carroll • Arthur Hennessy (coach)

Lower Grades

The NSWRFL held two lower grade competitions in 1909.

With varying consistency, results were published in newspapers: The Sydney Morning Herald, The Evening News, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Sun. The first three are currently available in digital format on the National Library of Australia's Trove website. The latter two newspapers are available on microfilm at the State Library of NSW. The results published in these newspapers have been used to compile the tables below, particularly The Sunday Sun which published the most lower grade results.

Second Grade

Eight teams competed in the Second Grade competition: Balmain, Eastern Suburbs, Glebe, North Sydney, South Sydney, Sydney and Western Suburbs.
Second grade followed the same draw as First Grade, with the exception that Sydney replaced Newcastle. Many but not all second grade matches were played on the same ground used later that day for first grade matches involving the same pairing of clubs.

The semi-finals were played on August 14. Glebe 15 defeated Sydney 6 at Wentworth Park and Eastern Suburbs 14 beat North Sydney 0 at Birchgrove.

The second grade final was played on September 4 as a curtain-raiser to the first Wallabies v Kangaroos match. The two teams had not met since the opening weekend, when Glebe had won by 15 to 3. Eastern Suburbs reversed that result, winning the final, 11 points to 7, to claim the premiership.

Third Grade

Nine teams competed in the Third Grade competition: Balmain, Eastern Suburbs, Glebe, South Sydney and Sydney were joined by Drummoyne on May 1 and Rozelle on May 22. South Sydney Federal were listed to play Newtown on May 1 and May 15 but their first actual match played appears to be on May 22. All three new clubs began with a win.

North Sydney and Western Suburbs were listed to play in Third Grade on the season opening Saturday, April 24, but no result was published and they were not subsequently mentioned in Third Grade during 1909.

The late withdrawals, late entries, missing results and multiple forfeits make it difficult to reconstruct an accurate competition table.

The semi-finals were played on August 14 at the Royal Agricultural Ground. South Sydney Federal 16 defeated Drummoyne 0 and Rozelle 8 beat Eastern Suburbs 2. The third grade final was played on August 21 as a curtain-raiser to an Australia versus New Zealand Maori match, "A good game ended in a win for the South Sydney team by 2 points to nil. Turnbull kicked a penalty goal. As the points indicate the tussle was a close one all through."