A Centenary of League Simplified

As Rugby League celebrates its centenary this year, here is a brief history of the 100 years that have made this simple game, such a large part of Australian life.

Rugby League originated in northern England in 1895 and began in Australia in 1908 as a breakaway from Rugby Union. This was mainly because Rugby Union prohibited clubs from compensating players for loss of wages and for providing compensation for injuries. One of the key reasons for its success in Australia was the conversion of the great H. H. "Dally" Messenger from Rugby Union to Rugby League.

Some of the initial differences between the breakaway Rugby League and Rugby Union included the reduction of players from 15 to 13 and the introduction of a play-the-ball.

Rugby League has traditionally been a Sydney-based competition with deep roots in specific areas of Sydney. The original teams in the 1908 competition were Eastern Suburbs, South Sydney, Western Suburbs, North Sydney, Balmain, Newtown, Glebe, Cumberland and Newcastle. Newcastle left the league in 1910 to form its own local competition and was replaced by Annandale. As Sydney continued to grow, more clubs were added to represent new areas. In 1920 and 1921, University and St George joined followed by Canterbury- Bankstown in 1935, Many- Warringah and Parramatta in 1947 and Cronulla- Sutherland and Penrith in 1967. Up until 1970 there had been seven new clubs added. However, the competition also lost teams: Newcastle, Cumberland, Annandale, Glebe and University.

During this time there were more changes made that further separated it from Rugby Union. The four- tackle rule was introduced in 1967. This was mainly due to St George’s 11 consecutive premiership dominance of the competition, which coincidently ended when the rule was introduced. In 1971 this four- tackle rule was changed to the current six- tackle rule and a field goal was changed from two- points to one.

In the 1980s a number of new clubs were added from outside the Sydney metropolitan area. Illawarra and Canberra were introduced in 1982, followed in 1988 by Brisbane, Gold Coast and the re-instatement of Newcastle. It also saw the loss of Newtown in 1983, argued to be Australia’s first Rugby League club. This meant that not only had the competition expanded into regional New South Wales but also into southern Queensland. State of Origin, one of Australia’s most successful sporting competitions, also commenced. This was where players would represent the state they were born in or first played their senior football. This continues to be the pinnacle of Rugby League in Australia, still hotly contested and producing some of the best Rugby League contests in the world.

In 1995 it became an Australian competition, changing its name from the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) to the Australian Rugby League (ARL). It introduced the North Queensland Cowboys (Townsville), South Queensland Crushers (Brisbane) and the Western Reds (Perth), as well as the Auckland Warriors, making the competition not just a national one but an international one. This may have been a result of increased popularity or an attempt to compete with the Australian Football League (AFL) as the main football code in Australia. This was a big move away from a Sydney suburban competition to an Australian-based competition.

In 1997 the Murdoch-backed Super League split the game into two competitions. The Super League competition was a much more entertainment-based Rugby League competition. This was to be faster and more visually appealing for television. It also introduced the Adelaide Rams and the Hunter Mariners (Newcastle). Games were broadcast on pay TV, with most being broadcast live.

The two competitions merged in 1998 as the National Rugby League (NRL) with two important conditions. One was that Murdoch (News Limited) and the ARL would each have a 50% control of the new competition and the other was that the number of teams would be reduced from twenty to fourteen by 2000. The Hunter Mariners, South Queensland and Western Reds were dropped and the Melbourne Storm was introduced in 1998. Adelaide and Gold Coast were cut from the competition at the end of 1998. Along with this, St George merged with Illawarra in 1999, Wests with Balmain and Norths with Manly in 2000. Put simply, this meant many of Rugby League’s traditional teams were lost. South Sydney was dropped from the competition in 2000 after a criteria assessment, bringing the number of teams to the agreed fourteen. Souths fought this decision in the courts and the High Court of Australia reinstated South Sydney in 2002. In 2005, the Gold Coast Titans were announced as the 16th team to enter the competition in 2007.

In 1989, Canberra had become the first non- Sydney team to win a Grand Final but it was 2006 that saw the first Grand Final contested between two non- Sydney teams when the Brisbane Broncos defeated the Melbourne Storm, demonstrating how far this game has come.