Dally Messenger - Australian Rugby's First Superstar

Sean Fagan - ColonialRugby.com.au

The impact of Herbert 'Dally' Messenger on Australia's winter football landscape remains with us today.

This article is based on the book about Dally Messenger: The Master.

The son of a boat builder and professional sculler, and a grandson of a man who had been barge-master to Queen Victoria on the Thames in England, Herbert Henry Messenger was bestowed the nickname of "Dally" early in life by his father.

The young Messenger's portly figure apparently reminded all of NSW colonial parliamentarian, William Dalley (the "e" disappearing by the time Messenger came to prominence as a footballer).

Born in Sydney's working-class suburb of Balmain in 1883, Messenger moved with his family to Double Bay when he was 18 months old. There his father erected a boat shed and family home. His father built boats for the local rowing and sailing clubs, and was part of internationally famous sculler Bill Beach's support team.

Messenger played rugby union for the Double Bay Primary School, and also Australian football while living in Melbourne for a time. He left school at the age of fifteen, working alongside his father and older brothers as an apprentice boat builder.

He continued playing rugby union in local semi-formal "pick-up" matches, however, rowing and sailing took his interest when it came to serious competitive sport.

Late in the 1905 football season, Messenger finally entered the first grade rugby union scene (with Eastern Suburbs). A year later, at the age of twenty-three, his assent to the top echelon of rugby union was complete with his selection in the NSW team for matches against Queensland in Brisbane.

In the return contests in Sydney, playing as a centre three-quarter, he quickly became a favourite with the public for his bright, creative, individual and "crowd pleasing" style of play, and propensity to land long-range place-kick and drop goals.

He was not without critics though, with more than a few Sydney newspaper journalists and NSWRU officials chastising him for not playing the team game, and not sticking to his assigned position in the backline.

In 1907 Messenger played for NSW against Queensland and New Zealand. In the second NSW v. New Zealand contest of the winter, he was man-of-the-match in the home team's 14-0 defeat of the All Blacks. It had been a decade since NSW had last tasted victory over New Zealand, and the first time they had kept the New Zealanders scoreless.

The most memorable feat of the day, was a spectacular leap over the heads of New Zealand defenders to score a dramatic try - a moment that lived in the collective memory of Sydneysiders for generations. It was not the only time in his Union and League careers though that he would produce something of such magnitude.

Messenger missed the first Test against New Zealand due to injury, but played in the final two Tests of the series. Two days after the final Test, amidst ever-growing rumours, he announced that he was joining rugby league.

The story of his defection to the thirteen man code has taken on legendary status in both rugby codes.

Messenger's involvement with the formation of rugby league extends back months before he quit rugby union. Like many of his contemporaries, he argued that the NSWRU should have been far more liberal when it came to sharing the vast profits it was making from gate-takings at the time.

The day after the final Test match, the League's founder, James J. Giltinan, visited the Messenger family boatshed at Double Bay. There, Messenger and Giltinan met with Messenger's mother. Ultimately, Giltinan agreed to pay Messenger £50 to join rugby league, and, effectively, buy him his place in the "All Golds" tour team. The money was given directly to Messenger's mother for safe-keeping.

The significance of the loss of Messenger to Australian rugby union is difficult to quantify. There was no hue and cry from the NSWRU or rugby supporters amongst the newspapers, lamenting Messenger's defection.

It is naive to suggest that without Messenger rugby league would have failed, and that had it disappeared, rugby union would have prevailed as the leading winter sport. A predominantly working class city, a professional football code (either Australian football or soccer or even professional rugby union) would have arisen in Sydney before too long and usurped amateur rugby union.

Messenger became the foundation rock upon which rugby league built itself in Australia. His exploits have become legend, and, remarkably, many can now be confirmed thanks to match reports in newspapers of the time.

He continued playing rugby league from late 1907 until retiring at the end of the 1913 season. In that time he played for the NSW "Blues", Queensland "Maroons", Australia, New Zealand, Australasia, and twice toured England and Wales (with the "All Golds" & the first Kangaroos). He also captained his club side, Eastern Suburbs, to premiership titles in 1911, 1912 and 1913.

In conjunction with the publication of "The Master" in August 2007, the NSWRU removed the century long ban that still existed upon on Messenger for switching to rugby league.

After retiring at the end of the 1913 season, Messenger spent much of his time as a sort of ambassador for rugby league, visiting cities and towns across NSW and Queensland where he trained junior teams, kicked-off matches and attended presentation evenings.

This article is based on the book about Dally Messenger: The Master.

He also claimed to have made an unsanctioned return to playing rugby union with the local club in Manila during World War One, when he moved to the northern NSW township to run the local hotel.

Messenger also worked various jobs around Sydney, ranging from boat building, working as a carpenter on new dwellings, a boat master on Sydney Harbour, and for a time, operated a banana plantation in Buderim in Queensland.

Unlike others who have subsequently crossed the rugby divide, Messenger refused throughout his life to denounce his former code. He was always happy to meet and talk to anyone about his Union or League days.

Messenger passed away in August 1959, he was 76 years old.

(For more details visit: "The Master" )

© Copyright - Sean Fagan - ColonialRugby.com.au