1909 NSWRFL season

1909 NSWRFL season
Teams	8
Premiers	South Sydney (2nd title)
Minor premiers	South Sydney (2nd title)
Matches played	42
Points scored	975 (total) 23.214 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Arthur Conlin (43)
Top try scorer(s)	Tommy Anderson (11)

The 1909 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the second season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Eight teams contested during the season for the premiership and the Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield; seven teams from Sydney and one team from Newcastle, New South Wales.

At the begninning of the season, the nearly broke NSWRFL had met and kicked out its founders Henry Hoyle, Victor Trumper and J J Giltinan.^[1] Part-way through the season, Edward Larkin was appointed full-tme secretary of the NSWRFL.^[2]

Also in 1909 north of the border, the Queensland Rugby Football League got its club competition started for the rebel football code of rugby league.

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.

• Balmain, formed on 23 January 1908 at Balmain Town Hall
• Eastern Suburbs, formed on 24 January 1908 at Paddington Town Hall
• Glebe, formed on 9 January 1908
• Newcastle, formed on 8 February 1908 at Pike's Rooms, Bolton Street, Newcastle
• Newtown, formed on 14 January 1908
• North Sydney, formed on 7 February 1908
• South Sydney, formed on 17 January 1908 at Redfern Town Hall
• Western Suburbs formed on 4 February 1908

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

The jerseys of the 8 teams for the 1909 season are shown below.

Balmain	Eastern Suburbs	Glebe	Newcastle
Newtown	North Sydney	South Sydney	Western Suburbs

Ladder

The geographical locations of the teams that contested the 1909 premiership across Sydney.

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	South Sydney	10	9	0	1	210	41	+169	18
2	Balmain	10	8	0	2	130	62	+68	16
3	Newcastle	10	5	0	5	144	93	+51	10
4	Eastern Suburbs	10	5	0	5	167	141	+26	10
5	Glebe	10	4	0	6	62	159	-97	8
6	Newtown	10	3	1	6	73	107	-34	7
7	North Sydney	10	2	2	6	104	157	-53	6
8	Western Suburbs	10	2	1	7	42	172	-130	5

Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 4.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	South Sydney	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	18	18
2	Balmain	0	0	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16
3	Newcastle	2	2	2	2	2	4	6	6	8	10
4	Eastern Suburbs	2	4	6	6	8	10	10	10	10	10
5	Glebe	0	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	8	8
6	Newtown	0	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	5	7
7	North Sydney	0	0	0	2	3	3	3	3	4	6
8	Western Suburbs	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	5	5	5

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. Another version states that Balmain refused to play in protest against the match being held at Souths' home ground.^[3] The final was deemed to be a forfeit as a result, with South Sydney claiming their second premiership in as many years.^[4] Requests from Balmain for the match to be played at a later date were refused by the League.^[5] Conflict over whether there was an agreement between the two clubs not to play a final^[6] caused a deep seated resentment towards Souths by Balmain which lasted many years.

	Semi-finals				Final
	14 August 1909 - Wentworth
	Balmain	15
	Eastern Suburbs	8
					14 September 1909 - Showground
					South Sydney
					Balmain	(forfeit)
	14 August 1909 - Agricultural
	South Sydney	20
	Newcastle	0

South Sydney: controversial 1909 Premiers.

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 • W.Cann • P.Carroll • Arthur Hennessy (coach)

References

1. ^ Heads, Ian. "Controversy". League of Legends. National Museum of Australia. http://www.nma.gov.au/shared/libraries/attachments/league_of_legends/controversy/files/22455/H_controversy.pdf. Retrieved 9 October 2011. 
2. ^ Cunneen, Chris (2001). The best ever Australian Sports Writing. Australia: Black Inc.. p. 321. ISBN 1 86395 266 7. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=66OBschGE_YC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 19 February 2011. 
3. ^ Coady, Ben (28 September 2009). "Grand final dramas". WA Today (Australia: Fairfax Digital). http://blogs.watoday.com.au/executive-style/sportandstyle/bencoady/2009/09/28/grandfinaldra.html. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 
4. ^ Premiership Roll of Honour at rl1908.com
5. ^ "Football". The Sydney Mail (Australia): pp. 59. 29 September 1909. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0oYQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=95QDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4925,4405488. Retrieved 20 November 2009. 
6. ^ Graham McNeice and Ian Collis (November 1997). "That’s Rugby League: New Light on Football’s Greatest Controversies". Sporting Traditions • vol. 14 no. 1 (Sydney): pp. 160. http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportingTraditions/1997/st1401/st1401p.pdf. 

• Rugby League Tables - Notes The World of Rugby League
• Rugby League Tables - Season 1909 The World of Rugby League
• Premiership History and Statistics RL1908
• 1909 - Souths Win After Balmain Forfeits! RL1908
• Cumberland RLFC RL1908
• Results: 1908-1910 at rabbitohs.com.au