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Sports correspondent & historian with |
The NRL season kicked-off last Sunday night in the razzle dazzle capital of the world with back-to-back games in Las Vegas.
The season opening extravaganza, with all the bells and whistles of modern sport, was a far cry from the debut of Australian Rugby League over a century ago.
The back-to-back NRL season-openers in the USA, were played at Allegiant Stadium adjacent to the Las Vegas strip.
Built in 2020, it’s the second most expensive stadium ever built in the world, at $1.9 billion.
The NRL showcase in Las Vegas is a million miles away from the start of the game in Australia, in 1908.
NSW Rugby League was formed after a meeting at a Sydney Hotel in 1907, with the first competition kicking-off the following year.
Rugby League began in the North of England in 1895 as the Northern Union, when clubs broke away from the RFU.
The club's wanted to compensate their working class players for time away from work, for injuries and rugby tours.
The split between (rugby) union and league was bitter and long-standing, and lasted until rugby union went professional in the mid-1990s.
The game was established in Queensland in 1909, and is the dominant sport in New South Wales, Queensland and Australian Capital Territory today.
The eight original NSW Club's were Glebe, Balmain, Eastern Suburbs, Newtown, North Sydney, South Sydney, Western Suburbs and Newcastle. Cumberland based in Homebush joined the competition in the second round, exiting the league at the end of the season.
A real boost to the game in its inaugural season was rugby union star Dally Messenger jumping ship to the code.
He is remembered today with the presentation of the Dally M Medal, for the player voted the best and fairest at the NRL Season Awards.
The 1908 Premiers were South Sydney.
Of the eight original teams, the Rabbitohs (South Sydney) and the Roosters remain in the NRL, while Balmain and Western Suburbs came together in 1999 to form West Tigers.
The NSWRL club competition evolved into a national competition in the 1990s and became the National Rugby League in 1998.
The NRL competition spans the traditional league areas of NSW, Queensland and ACT, as well as Victoria (Melbourne Storm) and New Zealand (Warriors).
The NRL took the two season opening games to Las Vegas as part of their mission to take and grow the game in the USA.
Australian actor and South Sydney part owner, Russell Crowe, promised the American audience "that they would get to see Football but not as you know it".
A crowd in excess of 40,000, was reported as an even split of curious locals and the swarms of Aussies who piled into Nevada after eleven hour flights.
For the record, the Manly Sea Eagles beat the Rabbits 36-24 with the Roosters defeating the Broncos 20-10, in the second match-up.
The wait for the large band of diehard New Zealand fans ends on Friday night, when “OUR” New Zealand Warriors host the Cronulla Sharks, at Mount Smart.
