When was nrl founded

Download historian Sean Fagan's League of Legends catalogue extract for more on the beginnings of the game. Explore more League of Legends.

The National Museum of Australia acknowledges First Australians and recognises their continuous connection to country, community and culture.

League of Legends The game begins. Australian Rugby Union team, Australian Rugby Union team. The game begins. A key aspect of the new code was that players would be paid for playing the game. All golds A catalyst for the establishment of a breakaway code was the visit to Sydney of a professional New Zealand side in August Early supporters.

The master: Dally Messenger. Portrait of Dally Messenger on the —09 tour of England. Foundation clubs. Test football pioneers At the end of the season the first Australian representative rugby league side sailed for England.

The first Australian Kangaroos side, The first Australian Kangaroos. Wallabies versus Kangaroos The year saw the ultimate clash between the two rugby codes. An assortment of early rugby league caps. Early rugby league caps. Here to stay After struggling through its first 2 years of competition, rugby league consolidated its position in The game begins Download historian Sean Fagan's League of Legends catalogue extract for more on the beginnings of the game.

Download The game begins — Sean Fagan One of the most dramatic events in Australian sporting history occurred in Sydney at the end of the season, when virtually the entire Wallaby touring team to the United Kingdom switched to league. In the first English League side to come to these shores, played three games in Brisbane - two against Queensland and one, a Test against Australia.

During World War 1 , rugby union all but closed up shop, while league continued apace. There was a feeling in union, that it was improper to participate in sport, during war, whereas league was only too willing to provide the citizens of Queensland with a respite from the ravages of war. Union made an attempt at a comeback after the war, but by , it ceased to exist.

In the period to '28, with effectively every able-bodied man playing league, Queensland won 17 of 26 matches against NSW. Gympie born Sunderland, a journalist, was secretary of the QRL from to , except for two years when he left the state and lived in Victoria, where he promoted rugby league.

He was a man of great energy, with a world view. In , when rugby union was reforming in Queensland, Sunderland turned up at the annual general meetings of league clubs, imploring them not to switch to the man code. He even offered loyalty payments to the clubs. League had taken its eye off the ball during its decade of dominance, in the s, because of an internal squabble. One of the reasons for a 'breakaway' Brisbane Rugby League, was resentment over the salary paid to Sunderland.

The players felt they were underpaid, and that he was overpaid. The BRL players were banned from representative footy. There was a talk of a mass defection to union, but a peace deal was brokered in July, , with the help of the NSWRL. Sunderland managed an Australian touring side to the UK in ; and to the UK and France in and '37, with Australia's exhibition match against Great Britain in Paris, on January 1, , giving impetus to the birth of league in France that year, with Villeneuve-sur-Lot the first of many clubs to switch from rugby union.

Sunderland left Queensland in , accepting a lucrative offer to manage Wigan in England. He died in Manchester in and to this day the Harry Sunderland Medal is awarded to the best player in the English Super League grand final. The Australian Rugby League also honours Sunderland, with a medal named after him presented to the best player in the end-of-season Tests or World Cup tournaments.

British historian, Geoffrey Moorehouse wrote: 'Harry Sunderland was many things, but, most of all, he was uncommonly astute'. In today's language, he was a 'mover and shaker'. Ron McAuliffe, an orphan, raised at Sandgate, believed the best committee was a committee of three, with one on leave and the other ill.

By then the poker machine-backed Sydney clubs were mounting raid after raid on Queensland talent, and the Maroons had not won a series against the Blues in the decade since McAuliffe's departure. Something had to be done. In , 20 players, headed by current QRL chairman, Bruce Hatcher, were chosen for a special training squad. For eight weeks the players lived in the dressing rooms at Lang Park, and were put through gruelling physical and psychological challenges.

The last two weeks, the players were allowed out a couple of nights, but they had to be in by 10pm. You have to remember, some of them were married men. Des Morris and a few others got back late and had to scale the fence. Eight car loads of police turned up, because they thought Lang Park was under siege. Queensland lost all three matches against NSW that year, and won only one of the next 24 matches against the Blues, before the first Origin in There were two draws. In , thanks to McAuliffe, Queensland, for the first time, had equal representation on the national selection panel.

He always stood up for Queensland, and got under the skin of NSW officials many times, with calls from south of the border to cite him. On one occasion he threatened to withdraw Queensland from Australian Rugby League, when Manly-Warringah refused to play the Brisbane representative side at Lang Park, with a Queensland referee.

McAuliffe got his way. Specifically, it did away with the lineout, focussed on running rugby and made the scum nothing more than an excuse to sniff bums. Despite being designed to be aesthetically superior to union, rugby league struggled to build a following in markets where union had been established. This was mainly because union used its influence to have league banned from grounds.

In France, rugby union ever went a step further. It had rugby league banned outright, its assets seized, and league players blacklisted. Australia was one of the few countries where league was able to gain a foothold. This was mainly because a battle with Australian football had kept rugby union weak. In , that weakness was exploited when Australia's first rugby league competition was established in Sydney by test cricketer Victor Trumper. Rugby league quickly attracted the professional-minded players of both rugby union and Australian football, and went from strength to strength.

Union retreated to private schools, and Australian football retreated to the Southern states. By the s, rugby league was powerful enough to start expanding nation wide.

In , the Canberra Raiders were established. In , the Brisbane Broncos were established. In , the Newcastle Knights were established. Rugby league was taking the fight for national supremacy directly up to Australian football, and winning. Unfortunately for the code, its potential caught the eye of News Ltd; a media giant that saw rugby league as an inefficient business that could be streamlined, and reconstituted into Australia's premier football code.

News Ltd made a raid upon rugby league ranks. They signed up the best players, all the international boards, all of Australia's expansion teams and three teams in Sydney Penrith, Cronulla and Canterbury. A new competition was launched, Super League, and News Ltd's global media might went into overdrive to sell the vision.

But Super League flopped - largely because it was unable to attain critical mass in Sydney. Although Super League failed, it was hugley influential because it caused Rugby Union to turn professional.

With rugby league paying a fortune to anyone who could pass or tackle, the entire Wallaby and All Black teams threatened to defect.