The Early Years of Rugby League Quiz

Answer: Eastern Suburbs and South Sydney

South Sydney defeated Eastern Suburbs 14-12. The nine teams were those eight plus Newcastle. Cumberland folded at the end of the first season and Newcastle folded after two seasons. Annandale joined in 1910, which kept it as an eight-team competition (Annandale folded at the end of the 1920 season). Glebe folded at the end of the 1929 season. The Newtown Jets were removed from the NSWRL competition at the end of the 1983 season.

Balmain Tigers and Western Suburbs Magpies merged in 1999 to form Wests Tigers. North Sydney Bears and Manly Warringah Sea Eagles merged in 2000 to form the Northern Eagles. This joint venture lasted four seasons, through to the end of 2003, when North Sydney left the competition, leaving the Manly club with the sole rights to that franchise.

Answer: True

The premiership in each of those seasons was decided on a first-past-the-post basis. When first and second were tied for points at the end of the season, there was an end of season play-off to decide the premiership. This happened in 1916, 1923 and 1924 and, in each instance, the minor premiers won the play-off.

Answer: Eastern Suburbs

Eastern Suburbs were the first. Parramatta were the last side to achieve this feat prior to the formation of the NRL in 1998.

Eastern Suburbs : 1911-12-13.
Balmain : 1915-16-17
South Sydney :1925-26-27-28-29 (5)
Eastern Suburbs : 1935-36-37
South Sydney : 1953-54-55
St George : 1956 to 1966 (11)
Parramatta : 1981-82-83.

The NSWRL competition expanded in 1995 to form the ARL (Australian Rugby League) with the admission of a NZ team. The ARL merged with Super League in 1998 to form the NRL (National Rugby League).

Answer: Western Suburbs

St. George beat Western Suburbs in three consecutive grand finals, 1961-62-63. They were the first team to lose three consecutive grand finals. In fact, they were the only team to lose three straight from 1908 through to 1998, when the NRL was formed.

Answer: 19

NSW won the first 19 interstate matches, from 1908 to 1921 .. they won the first nine series (the series was not played in 1909, 1914 or 1916-17-18). Queensland then won the next 8 games (1922 to 1925)... they won the next 5 series 1922-23-24-25-26. These "lopsided results" continued, and were the catalyst for the change of format, to State of Origin, in 1982.

A total of 66 inter-state series were played, of which NSW won 50 and Queensland 10, with six drawn. NSW won the last 20 in a row, 1962-1981. [State of Origin = where you were born or played your junior rugby league, not state of residence when playing in the series]

Answer: Great Britain

Great Britain beat France 16-12 in what many regard was a spiteful match. France were hosts of the first RL World Cup. Four nations participated: Australia, France, Great Britain and New Zealand. The same four nations participated in the second World Cup, held in 1957 in Australia. Australia won all six of its group matches and were declared champions (no final was played).

Answer: Queensland won 20-10

After New South Wales had won the 1980 inter-state series 2-0 (best of three series), the scheduled third game was played using a State of Origin format. Queensland won 20-10. The concept, which was borrowed from the AFL, saw players selected for the state in which they were born or first played grade football, not their state of residence.

The first two games of the 1981 interstate series were not in State of Origin format either: when the 1981 series was again won by New South Wales in the second match, the experiment was repeated. This was the last inter-state series. In 1982 it was replaced by the State of Origin series.

Answer: Fortitude Valley

Fortitude Valley were the first QRL champions in 1909 (run by the Queensland Rugby League). There were four teams in the first competition: North Brisbane, South Brisbane, Toombul and Valley.

The BRL became the controlling body in 1922 (Brisbane Rugby League), and Wests were the first BRL champions. There were seven teams in the inaugural BRL competition: Eastern Suburbs, Fortitude Valley, Northern Suburbs, Christian Bothers Old Boys, Southern Suburbs, University of Queensland and Western Suburbs. The Brisbane competition folded at the end of the 1997 season, upon the formation of the NRL for the 1998 season. Valley won 17 premierships, followed by Northern Suburbs with 13 titles.

Answer: 22-22 draw

The First Ashes Test was played on 12th December, 1908. Great Britain won the next two games of the Test Series 15-5 and 6-5 to win the inaugural best-of-three Ashes series 2-0 (one drawn).

Answer: Dally Messenger

He began playing for Eastern Suburbs (rugby union team) in 1905 aged 22. He debuted for the Wallabies in 1907 (the national rugby union team). He joined the Eastern Suburbs rugby league team in 1908, the first season of the newly-formed break-away rugby league competition. The NSW Rugby Football Union was founded in 1874.

Herbert "Dally" Messenger is regarded by most historians as "the father of rugby league". Without him the game might not have taken off. In one match he kicked a penalty goal from the side line on his own 25 yard line (a distance of over 80 yards, 73m). The NSWRFU reacted to his monumental switching of codes by removing him and all his records from their books. They were restored in June 2007, thus honouring the dual international: "Dally was so big in 1907 that the crowd used to follow him rather than a particular code, and he even became the target of approaches from Aussie Rules."