THE MAHER CUP

THE MAHER CUP

THE MAHER CUP

COVER IMAGE CREDITS

Jimmy Dowell of Tumut with the Maher Cup 1957. Photo attributed to Teddy Shai-Hee; courtesy Chris Shai-Hee; posted on Lost Tumut Facebook page by Jim Dowell.

Steam Train on Gundagai Trestle Bridge. Source: Visit Gundagai Web Site.

Ron Crowe Leads West Wyalong Out (late 1960s). Courtesy: National Rugby League Museum; photo from Ian McLennan.

Temora Badges, 1930s. Courtesy: Maher Cup player Bruce Barrett. These were the property of his father Keith 'Cobber' Barrett who played Maher Cup for Temora 1940-1954.

Cootamundra Rosette, 1940s. Ribbons made by Maude Powell (O'Grady). Photo courtesy of her nephew Peter Simpfendorfer.

Barmedman's Col Quinlan and Russell Gorham, 1966. Aged 38 and 41 respectively and still playing Maher Cup foo tball. Courtesy: Maureen Gorham.

Young v Harden Maher Cup Advertisement. Source: South West News Pictorial (Young), 5 June 1964.

Harden-Murrumburrah Players, 1949. Jack Phemister, Bruce Tozer, Ryan McCarthy, John Dowd and Don White. Source: Wal Galvin collection.

School Children and Buses Young, 1953. Courtesy: Young Historical Society Inc. (Lambing Flat Folk Museum). Young was the first town outside Sydney to introduce a bus service for school children. ISBNs

978-0-6450633-0-1 (soft) 978-0-6450633-1-8 (hard) 978-0-6450633-2-5 (e-book) This draft version of Part 1: Early Times to 1923 has no ISBN . THE MAHER CUP

THE MAHER CUP

A Social History of Football in the Group 9 Towns

1920-1971

DRAFT VERSION OF PART 1 EARLY TIMES TO 1923

Neil James Pollock

THE MAHER CUP

PREFACE TO THE DRAFT VERSION OF PART 1

This draft, part of a larger book, has been prepared to support the activities surrounding the Maher Cup revival match at Tumut on Saturday 3rd April 2021. This event will mark the centenary of rugby league in the Tumut district. Gundagai District Rugby League Club, who will be competing in the two scheduled Cup matches will also be celebrating its 100th year. Part 1 covers the first four seasons of the Cup from 1920 to 1924 and the origins of rugby league and Group 9 in the NSW South West Slopes and northern Riverina. It also seeks to reflect on what the communities of the main protagonists: Tumut, Gundagai and Cootamundra, were like in the years of recovery and hope after the Great War. A list of known Maher Cup players from 1920 to 1971 is also available at http://mahercup.com.au/players The full book which describes all Maher Cup matches from 1920 to 1971 will be published in the second half of the year. Unlike this version the text will be accompanied by copious photographs. Please feel free to download this version, print it out, and distribute it to those who may be interested. All feedback, comments, criticism, complaints, corrections, additional information and questions will be welcomed by the author.

Regards

Neil Pollock 6/51 Piper Street, Lilyfield NSW 2040 0448-440-110 [email protected] www.facebook.com/groups/mahercup/ mahercup.com.au

Version Control: This is draft 1.2 created on 27 Jan 2021.

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THE MAHER CUP

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author acknowledges that the land upon which his family farmed, the places where he played football, discovered the bush and learnt about life were, are and will always be Wiradjuri places. It is also acknowledged that the talent of young Aboriginal sportsmen was rarely fostered by the clubs in the Maher Cup years. It is sad to reflect on the mutual loss of opportunity that resulted from being blind and deaf to those living on the fringe of our communities’ consciences. People past and present have contributed significantly to enabling this book to be prepared: Susan Chambers and her father Wal Galvin, three generations of Sullivans at the Gundagai Independent, staff at the West Wyalong Advocate and Temora Independent newspapers, local government librarians at Young, West Wyalong, Tumut and Gundagai, museum volunteers in Murrumburrah, Gundagai, West Wyalong, Cootamundra, Junee and Temora, George Ballard, Lawrence Bamblett, Bruce Barrett, Arthur Briggs, Rod Brooke, Graham English, Maureen Gorham, Michael Giuliano, Jeff Hanson, Brian Hughes, John ‘Bronc’ Jones, Lyndie Kearney, Ian Kirk, Dennis Kirkwood, Eric Kuhn, Tony Lewis, Allan Lynch, Bruce McCarthy, Paul McCarthy, Geoff McClelland, Barry Madigan, Pamela Maitland, Ron Norton, Peter Reardon, Bede Ryan, Marie Scott, Michael Sheedy, Maurice Sheehan, Peter Simpendorfer, Matt Stadtmiller, Keith Turner, Jack Weeks and Jim Woods,

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THE MAHER CUP

ABBREVIATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS

£.s.d - The unit of currency used here is pounds, shillings and pence for events up to 1966, from which time - when one £ became two $ - dollars and cents are used. AGM – Annual General Meeting AIF – Australian Imperial Force. The main force of the Australian army during the First World War Challenge cup – a competition in which teams request to play the team holding a cup. If a challenging team wins that teams becomes the holder, and is open to receive challenges from other clubs. CRL – the New South Wales Country Rugby League Gate – the revenue raised at the entrance to the football ground. It usually, but not always, excludes funds raised by selling match day programs. International – a player who has represented his country. Kangaroos; Kangaroo – The Australian national rugby league team; a member of that team Lemons – half time Miles – measurements are here rendered in miles; the standard of measurement until the 1970s. 10 miles is about 16 kilometres. MIA – Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area MRL – Murrumbidgee Rugby League PMG – Postmaster-General’s Department; responsible for postal and telephone services NSWRL – the New South Wales Rugby League Ref – referee Round robin - a tournament in which each competitor plays in turn against every other RSL – Returned Soldiers League SCG – Sydney Cricket Ground Stiff arm tackle – a combination punch and tackle VFL – Victorian Football League Zambuck – ambulance officer

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THE MAHER CUP

CONTENTS

Preface to the Draft Version of Part 1 ...... 1 Acknowledgements ...... 2 Abbreviations and Explanations ...... 3 Contents ...... 4 Introduction ...... 5 The Maher Cup Towns ...... 12 The Origin of Rugby League in the Maher Cup Towns ...... 15 1920 - The Beginning ...... 20 1921 - Rugby League Takes Over ...... 30 1922 - Cootamundra Goes Professional ...... 38 The Magnificent Weissels ...... 46 Phil Regan ...... 65 What Made the Maher Cup Famous? ...... 67 Appendix 1: The Australian Rules / League Line ...... 70 Appendix 2: The Maher Cup Originals ...... 71

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THE MAHER CUP

INTRODUCTION

THE CUP The Maher Cup was a rugby league (originally rugby union) challenge cup contested between teams from the New South Wales (NSW) South West Slopes and northern Riverina between 1920 and 1971. Eleven years after commencing it was described as… A battered, lidless trophy! If you saw it in a second-hand goods shop you wouldn't give 5/- for it. Yet it represents the ambition and the dreams of every football club in Group 9, where Rugby League is a religion, and the Maher Cup its idol. Weekly tens of thousands follow the grim battles that are waged for its possession. Interest in the matches is State-wide, but in the South, even the kindergarten kids are gripped with its mysterious fascination.1 The true believers were the people of towns, villages and locations in an area that the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) in 1922 designated as Group 9; and particularly the nine communities in an around Tumut, Gundagai, Cootamundra, Young, West Wyalong, Temora, Harden-Murrumburrah, Barmedman and Junee. Cowra, Grenfell, and Boorowa shared the passion for some of the period. Nine other places made a challenge or two including teams drawn from Gibsonvale tin miners and Wyangala Dam construction workers. Wagga which flirted early and late, mostly sat, sometimes menacingly, on the fringe, and developed a separate footballing tradition.2 The aim of this book is to both record the details of five decades of football in the Group 9 towns through a focus on the Maher Cup, and to reflect on how this preoccupation with rugby league intersected with our lives. As the football world changed so did our way of life and vice-versa. It is hoped it will be of interest to the general reader as well as people interested in either family, local or rugby league history.3 Gundagai Independent publisher Pat ‘Scoop’ Sullivan delivered a speech at the 2001 Maher Cup reunion at Tumut, to which the 400 strong crowd responded with a rousing ovation. It was published in the Tumut & Adelong Times on 6

1 Tumut and Adelong Times, 28 July 1931, p.5., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139289986 2 Matches played: Cootamundra 224, Young 163, Gundagai 155, West Wyalong 152, Temora 148, Tumut 141, Harden-Murrumburrah 123, Barmedman 106, Junee 79, Cowra 63, Grenfell 42, Boorowa 29, Wagga 11, Wagga Kangaroos, Wyangala Dam and Wamoon - 3 each, Canowindra, Gibsonvale, Turvey Park, Wagga Magpies - 2 each, Mallee Plains, Ungarie, Bendick Murrell, Binalong & Tullibigeal – a single challenge 1 3 This book is also an insurance against the expected demise of the author’s Maher Cup web site (mahercup.com.au) which in time will likely cease to be maintained.

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November 2001 as ‘Fanaticism, Folly & Fights Surround Famous Trophy’. It is reproduced below as a way of introduction. ‘My earliest Maher Cup memory is still one of my most vivid. I was only a wee fellow. The year was 1951. Gundagai challenged Cowra for the Cup, and beat the Lachlansiders by the one point. Max Ibbotson refereed the game and Rouse Boyton was one of the touch judges. There was one of those controversial goal decisions. Jack Cudmore, Cowra’s skipper, took a pot at goal. One flag was up, and one down, and Ibbotson ruled in favour of Gundagai. At game’s end a female fan attacked Rouse Boyton with an umbrella and the biggest brawl I have ever seen was on. It seemed to my eleven year old eyes that some 832 people were involved, but perhaps it was only 823. Max Ibbotson, the much reviled referee, was travelling in our car, the car of my late boisterous uncle Jim. We had to pick Max up from the rear of a pub and we received a police escort out of town as the good citizens of Cowra hurled insults and missiles at us. Such was the fanaticism which the Maher Cup inspired. Normally sane and respectable citizens became foaming at the mouth ratbags, for Maher Cup madness was indeed an identifiable disease. And the Maher Cup could make strong men weep. Many of you will recall Bruce Maitland, president of Barmedman club and a Group administrator of long standing. Barmedman once challenged Gundagai for the Cup and seemed to have the trophy in their keeping until Bronc Jones landed one of those prodigious long range goals for which he had such genius and made it 4-all, enabling Gundagai to keep the cup. I was astounded to see great big salty tears coursing down Storky Maitland’s handsome visage. But that’s the effect Maher Cup mania produced. Football not only inspired fanaticism, tears and violence, it also led some people to prayer. I remember when one of our hosts tonight, John Madigan had his rosary beads out, spitting out Hail Marys at machine gun like speed, as Harden took an after-the-bell penalty for a win. The power of prayer did not prevail on that occasion. The Maher Cup story is packed with fascinating football facts, but it is also packed with legend and myths which have grown over the years. When Tumut hotelier Ted Maher donated the cup way back in 1920, he could have had little idea that this was to become the most coveted and famous of all football trophies in country NSW. Maher Cup football was the toughest. It was a grand final every week, for each week the Cup was either won or lost. Even a draw meant a loss for the challenging team. Club officials looked on the Cup as the horn of plenty of rugby league, cash cascading from it. And for players, it was honour and glory, and a chance for a special place in a club’s history. For fans, there was the vicarious pleasure of seeing your town’s sporting idols belt the socks off some other town’s hopefuls. The Cup itself cost just 15 guineas – but it became the centre of rows and ructions which cost thousands, in one case at least even leading to an action in the NSW Supreme Court, when Harden and Cootamundra became desperately serious about who owned the Cup.

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THE MAHER CUP

At first it was a rugby union trophy, but as rugby league took over the territory it became a challenge trophy first played for between Gundagai and Tumut and later spreading to the old Group 9 area. Even in those earliest days it had crowd pulling power, with reports saying over 1000 spectators were present at a match between Gundagai and Tumut in 1922. Cootamundra entered the lists and became possessor of the cup, winning it outright, and then altering the rules to suit itself and make sure Coota had first and last challenge every season. Then Wyalong, inspired by bad Bill Brogan, took the cup in 1925. Temora and the invincible Eric Weissel then came into Cup history and then Young and Junee, and the mania began to spread like wildfire. A dispute between Gundagai and Coota in 1925 led to a new Maher Cup rule — no club holding the cup was allowed to receive or entertain a challenge from Gundagai! And Temora did not trust Coota. In 1925 Temora offered a £1000 bet – a whopping large amount in those days – to say Temora could beat Cootamundra, providing a neutral ref. – nominated by Temora of course – was in charge. They were a little madder in those days. At one stage they even introduced a rule that coaches couldn’t play, and Temora refused to play Young because Young wanted their coach on the field. Crowds were spoken of as being 4,000, travelling by special trains, sitting on benches on the back of trucks, getting there any way they could. Protest became a word naturally associated with the Maher Cup. In 1929 when the cup went to Junee after Coota had played unqualified players, Chips Phillips and Sid Harris, the cup was sent to Junee in a box labelled ‘Maher Cup on loan to Junee, home of the squealers’. Since then it has been locked in jails, chained to anvils and once tossed down a storm water drain. The Maher Cup was ever a venue for big betting, so it was no surprise in 1938 when a referee, one Mr Murphy of Sydney, declared an attempt had been made, by Cowra supporters, to bribe him so they might beat Young. The ref. walked off before the game was over and it led to another almighty blue with the ref. saying he refused to referee a fight. The poor old press got the blame. The judiciary committee sat on the bribery case and found that the trouble had been caused by the press reporting the incident, saying the press was ‘to be deplored’. Betting was always associated with the Maher Cup with huge wagers being placed by colourful figures like Phil Michael of Temora and Lou Moses of Harden. Many a player found his bonus boosted by donations from grateful punters. ‘How much start is Moses offering? What price is Michael betting?’ They were common questions on Maher Cup morning and small fortunes were regularly won and lost. Referees like Max Ibbotson, Charlie Gardiner, John Livermore, Leo Boyton and Blue Curran had their special place in Maher Cup history, often as the centre of controversy or

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THE MAHER CUP the target for abuse. Refs continually received the blame for defeats. When the Maher Cup era was coming to its end, Wagga Magpies challenged Gundagai for the cup. Pies were led by form Australian captain Arthur Summons and they were odds on favourites. I met Arthur at Gundagai races one day and said it was rare indeed to see him in my lovely home town. ‘I haven’t come back here since we challenged for the Maher Cup. I vowed never to return’ said Arthur. ‘If ever we knew where we were at the kickoff it was that day. Nevyl Hand was refereeing and David Hand was playing prop for Gundagai. We kicked off, David Hand moved inside the ten yard mark and took the ball. I was waiting for the whistle to blow, but Nevyl yelled out ‘Go son!’’ Nevyl Hand’s Gundagai Tigers had established a record of 23 Maher Cup wins in a row in 1951 and 52, with a team which many declared was the best ever. Those years of the 50s were a gold era for Group 9 with many clubs, notably Young, Wyalong, Cootamundra and Temora, also fielding teams which produced a brand of football not seen before or since. It was almost compulsory to be an International to get a coaching job in Group 9. But the same era threw up many grand local players as well. Could you ever forget that majestic lock forward Peter O’Connor, or Len Henman, John Ryan, Allan Glover, Noel Bruce, Ron Crowe, or Bruce Powderly? Towards the end of that golden era, in 1959, Harden Murrumburrah began a record breaking run which will ever remain. The team held the cup for the whole of the 1959 season and for 11 matches in the 1960 season until beaten by Tumut 8-4, Bernie Nevin…scored 136 points in Maher Cup games that season, breaking the 25 year old record of 115 points established by the mighty Tom Kirk. And Nick Cullen…played in every one of those Maher Cup games. The nuttiness peculiar to Maher Cup football continued however, Harden led 14-5 against West Wyalong when the game was called off by referee John Livermore. He had sent off Col Ratcliff, following an altercation with Bernie Nevin. Wyalong officials were calling upon Col to bring the rest of the team off with him, but he refused. Moments later Ron Cooper of Wyalong was sent off. Some Wyalong players went off in sympathy and only eight Wyalong players were on the field as Harden’s Frank Todd kicked a penalty goal. Only two Wyalong players lined up for the kick-off and the match was abandoned. That record breaking Harden team had many great players, fellows like Eric Kuhn, Kevin Negus, Matt Grenfell, and a real speedster in Gerry Robinson. But I confess that my favourite players in the side were Tom Apps and Lindsay Ellison always did like my footballers big, fat and ugly. Ah yes, the Maher Cup tale is a long an involved one, impossible to cover it all in a single night. Madness certainly abounded. In 1952 to crowd at the Gundagai-Young game at Anzac Park refused to leave even though the floodwaters of the swollen Murrumbidgee were cutting off access to the ground. Eventually, a pontoon bridge had to be hastily thrown up to get the estimated 4,000 fans over the murky waters. Would it happen anywhere else but at a Maher Cup game? Many great players played for the Cup and many great characters were among them. I think of Fred De Belin, ‘Gubby’ Allan, Ray Beavan, Ted Curran, Johnny Kelly, Baden Broad, Bede Madigan, Father John Morrison, Doug Cameron, Sid Hobson, Mick Jones,

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THE MAHER CUP

Ray Green, Bobby Downing, Toby Barton, Frank Farrington, Jack Gibson, Father Peter Quirk, Bill Longhurst, the Lawrence family of Barmedman, Darrell Fazio, Bill Kinnane, Ian Sheather, the incomparable Eric Weissel, Peter Diversi, Ike Fowler, Clem Kennedy, John Ryan – the list seems to be endless. But not only players became Maher Cup legends. In Gundagai, one of the greatest of Maher Cup legends was the late Dudley Casnave, who never played a Maher Cup game in his life. But Dudley was one of those fanatical supporters. One day, [in 1952], Gundagai were defending the cup against Wyalong. Wyalong’s long striding winger, Clive Lemon, broke clear and was scooting in for a try, not a defender in sight. Out of the crowd came Dudley, his army greatcoat billowing about him, to execute a flawless tackle on the Wyalong speedster to the delight of the large crowd. Sadly, the Cup did not last forever. In the 1960s disgruntled administrators forced boundary changes – the Murrumbidgee Rugby League rebellion took out the old cup teams and others were scattered into makeshift competitions. When rugby league peace was restored a new Group 9 was created in which many of the clubs, the Wagga sides, Batlow and Tumbarumba had no real Maher Cup tradition. Interest waned, challenges became few, until in 1971 Tumut played that last game to lift the cup from Young. And the famed prize now rests here…. It’s fitting that its final home should be in Tumut, where it all began. It was a Harden coach, Harry Melville, who had played with the mighty St George, who declared after one Group 9 season: ‘I don’t want to come back here, this is the toughest football ever.’ When I think of those glorious and tumultuous years my mind keeps turning to two players who for me epitomised Maher Cup football, those old Barmedman stalwarts Col Quinlan and Rusty Gorham. They were men who gave no quarter on the field, who played it uncompromisingly and ruggedly. But off the field they had that marvellous gift of mateship. I don’t think they had an enemy off the field. On the field they certainly had no friends in opposition jerseys. Where are they now? Do old Maher Cup players go to heaven? Of course they do! But they don’t go to the harping or singing section. They go to a place where the music comes from the rattle of sprigs on concrete as teams take the field, where the scent of heavenly gardens is replaced by the sharp smell of liniment wafted on a winter breeze, and where the adoring multitudes burst into waves of cheering as the whistle sounds, a boot hits the ball, and the greats of the misty past enjoy their own heavenly delight’.

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THE MAHER CUP

A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY In May 1920 Edward John (Ted) Maher arrived in Tumut from Young to take up the licence of the Wynyard Hotel. Within days he had gifted the Tumut District Rugby Union a cup. It was relatively large, but looked both fairly cheap and like a pot. It eventually became known as the ‘Old Tin Pot’. For the next 50 years men in pubs would argue whether the pot ever had a lid, and if it did, who threw it in what river, who destroyed it with their truck or tractor. Only Tumut and Gundagai competed in the first two years. After just three challenges under rugby union rules, it was decided in 1921 to move with the times change to league; considered to be a faster and more entertaining code. League, which had gradually replaced union in southwest from 1911 to 1921, was formally organised at Group 9’s initial meeting at the Grand Hotel, Harden in April 1923. The Group 9 and the Maher Cup would soon become synonymous. Cootamundra was the first club to realise the Cup’s economic value. Phil Regan from Sydney first grade club Glebe as captain-coach developed a disciplined, fit and co-ordinated team that was blessed with talented locals, including Eric Weissel, Bill Lesberg, and Jack Kingston. Cup crowds began to surpass the population of the towns it was played in by the late 1920s. During the Great Depression attendance fell away, but the shortage of cash and rise of SP betting enabled by the synergy or the telephone and radio, meant that passions didn’t. Protests increased in frequency and mendacity. Cootamundra and Grenfell in particular gambled and lost on the mass importation of paid players, while Tumut bucked the trend and produced a magnificent team of young local amateurs. The rise of reasonable roads and reliable and affordable vehicles led to the end of almost all the challenge cups in rural NSW by the late 1930s; replaced by regular weekly competitions, with points tables and an end-of-season series of finals. But not in Group 9. The area’s excellent rail system, the long distances between towns, poor roads and particularly the established popularity of what became by the end of the 1920s the ‘Famous Maher Cup’, led football to develop differently than in other places. After some tentative starts, a permanent Group 9 Competition was established in 1938, it remained of marginal interest until the 1960s. Play went into recess at the end of the 1941 season, not so much because of a patriotic duty to park the Cup, but rather, petrol rationing, players enlisting, declining crowds and restricted newspaper coverage, meant that you couldn’t make any money from it. Play restarted in June 1945, following by a new surge in popularity that peaked in the early 1950s. Gundagai developed a formidable team, winning 24 matches

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THE MAHER CUP straight from August 1951 to September 1952. This record was bettered by Harden-Murrumburrah with 29 games from September 1958 to June 1960. During the decade beginning in 1947, most Group 9 clubs contracted Australian International representatives, sometimes to the detriment of developing local talent. Rugby union clubs, which had been completely absent since the arrival of league, began to be re-established, partially as a reassertion of social rather than professional form of football. Maher Cup passion started to subside in the early 1960s, as winning the Group 9 Competition finally became the bigger prize. It was a decade of decline for both the Cup and the quality of, and interest in, local rugby league. Triggers included: the establishment of the Wagga-based rebel Murrumbidgee Rugby League in 1966; Group 9’s being split into three zones; the population drift of young men from farms, villages and small towns to cities, the NSWRL’s imposition of a transfer fee system, and the expansion of Australian rules football in the Riverina. Further, technological changes such as the same-day delivery of Sydney newspapers and the frantic adoption of television, expanded knowledge of what was happening outside previously small worlds. Many people started to develop more passion for a Sydney club than the team down the road.

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THE MAHER CUP TOWNS

At the 1921 census the small existing and future Maher Cup towns were mainly concerned with servicing their surrounding farms and villages. Most people lived ‘on the land’ rather than ‘in town’.

MUNICIPAL POPULATION SHIRE POPULATION TOTAL Boorowa 1,227 Murrungal 2,417 3,644 Cootamundra 3,531 Jindalee 1,922 5,453 Cowra 3,716 Waugoola 5,401 9,117 Grenfell 1,192 Weddin 4,259 5,451 Gundagai 950 Adjungbilly 3,669 4,619 Junee 3,560 Illabo 2,915 6,475 Murrumburrah4 2,958 Demondrille 3,137 6,095 Temora 3,048 Narraburra 4,048 7,096 Tumut 1,638 Gadara5 6,191 7,829 Wyalong6 811 Bland 6,230 7,041 Young 3,283 Burrangong 5,162 8,445 Wallendbeen7 801 801 26,715 45,351 72,066 The town of Wagga, fifty years later to become the capital of Group 9, had a municipal population of just 7,679; the Capital Territory that became Canberra only 2,572. 8 Maher Cup country spread from verdant pastures soaked by the ample waters from the Snowy Mountains to the hot dry wheat growing red soil plains. Tumut was (and is) considered a place of particular beauty. Somewhat isolated and snuggled into the Snowy’s foothills, it was known for its towering golden poplars and streams teaming with trout. Tourists tripped up to the cool fresh air at the Yarrangobilly Caves or to snowfields at Kiandra and Adaminaby. Dairy cows, thoroughbreds and workhorses trod the rich Tumut Plains’ paddocks. Fields yielded tobacco and maize. Fourteen miles to the west, at Adelong and further up the creek at Grahamstown and Shepherdstown the rusting machinery of decades of gold dredging and crushing scared the valley. Most of the diggers had gone, although the huge Gibraltar Mine at Grahamstown re-opened in 1920.

4 Murrumburrah Muncipality included the town of Harden 5 Gadara Shire included the small towns of Adelong and Batlow 6 West Wyalong, which was larger than Wyalong, was included in the Bland Shire’s population; Barmedman was also located in the Bland Shire, close to the border of the Narraburra Shire 7 Wallendbeen, almost equidistant from Cootamundra, Murrumburrah and Young had its onw municipality. 8 The table and other figures above were compiled from April 1921 census data available at https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/

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Far away on the grain growing plains at West Wyalong, Barmedman and Temora visitors were welcomed by poppet heads towering over mostly dormant mine shafts. Streets still displayed the rough, temporary constructions that gold rushes threw up. But a permanent community was busy moving in. The rail network reaching Wyalong in 1903 signalled that these were places were ripe for thrifty grain-growing ‘cockies’ to hack out their closer settlement blocks in the mallee scrub. Many had come from Victorian and South Australian farms too small to make a quid. The red soil was perfect for wheat and sheep could handle the dry. But rain was often absent when needed, making farming a big gamble. Through the heart of Maher Cup country ran the Main South line connecting Sydney and Melbourne. Cootamundra, Harden and Junee were all significant railway towns; the latter two each having workshops employing many hundreds. Located at the junctions of branch lines that snaked out to all the Maher Cup towns and beyond, these were places of fitters, boilermakers, engine drivers, firemen, guards and inspectors; of industries that required rail, like abattoirs and mills, of merchants (including many of Syrian heritage) who distributed wares along the still expanding network to agrarian places north, south and west. Young, Boorowa and Murrumburrah were set amongst gentle hills. Much of the land had long been settled by Irish-Catholics, whose institutions dominated the townscapes. Rainfall was more plentiful and reliable than in the west. Winters were colder. Wheat silos were supplemented by a richer farming mix, with stone fruits significant around Young and fine-wool merinos from Boorowa and nearby villages Galong and Binalong. Grenfell and Cowra, were on the border of the Central West region; Grenfell in the wheat belt and Cowra blessed by a rich valley irrigated from the Lachlan River. These towns would drift in and out of the Maher Cup story as they often operationalised their links to places to their north and east, such as Forbes, Bathurst and Orange. Fiercely independent Gundagai overlooking the flood-prone Murrumbidgee River flats had been a stopping point, meeting place and watering hole for workers, travellers and stock since the Sydney-Melbourne route was merely a track ‘winding back’. The landed gentry on their large sheep and cattle stations, were outnumbered by a mostly unionised workforce of station hands, shearers, rabbiters, roads workers and the like. Soldier settlement blocks at Tarrabandra and elsewhere were adding farmers to what had been predominately grazing country.

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THE ORIGIN OF RUGBY LEAGUE IN THE MAHER CUP TOWNS

Below is a brief history of football in the Maher Cup towns. From the 1840s various English public schools (we would call them private) developed a wide range of rules for organised football. Two codes became dominant: rugby and association football (soccer). By the 1880s football was a mass spectator sport in Britain’s industralised towns and cities. Australia’s own football code commenced competition in Melbourne in 1858, as did rugby in Sydney in 1863.9 In in the South West Slopes and northern Riverina football came together in fits and starts. The Burrangong Argus of 15 July 1865 reported football at gold rush Young. On Saturday last Main-street was rather enlivened for a while by an impromptu game of football. The ball was rather given to unauthorised intrusions upon private premises. At one time it bounced into the Commercial and unceremoniously dispersed a battallion of old tom; at another, it flew into the Bee-Hive Store, and sent to the right-about a detachment of salad oil. The street is not much of a place to play in, and we hear there is some intention of forming a club, and playing the regular game upon the cricket ground.10 Football then was largely a game for kids. In the 1870s efforts began to be made to interest young men. At Tumut’s Commercial Hotel in September 1874 a meeting of cricketers convened to form a football club requested colleagues at Adelong and Gundagai to do likewise.11 There was some interest in Gundagai, but no evidence that anything eventuated. 12 Grenfell recorded a scratch match between two local teams on 10 July 1875 and called for ‘our Burrangong friends to form a club and meet our local players’.13 At Young in August at a celebration of Irish hero Daniel O’Connell the amusing spectacle of upwards of 400 people engaged in football was reported.14 Grenfell formed a football club with a committee and 25 members at Rich’s Thistle Hotel on 31 July 1877 and opted for the rugby code.15 Having no other team to compete with, their first match was between the married men and the bachelors.16

9 Collins, T. (2019). How Football Began: a global history of how the World’s football codes were born. 10 Burrangong Argus, 15 July, p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247263572 11 Gundagai Times, 5 September 1874, p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122754623 12 Gundagai Times, 10 October, p.2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122755988 13 Mining Record and Grenfell General Advertiser 17 July 1875, p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article130909539 14 Burrangong Argus, 11 August 1875, p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247271732 15 Grenfell Record, 4 August 1877, p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130883718 16 Grenfell Record, 11 August 1877, p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130882509

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A Cootamundra meeting in 1878 proposed forming a club. Something had been established at Murrumburrah by 1879 as the newspaper reported the closing of the football season.17 The Burrangong Football Club was established at Young’s Great Eastern Hotel on 2 June 1881 with colours blue and gold and a black Maltese cross.18 Matches included one against Burrowa, won by four tries and nine forces against one force.19 Clubs were formed at Gundagai and Cootamundra in the 1880s, while Australian rules commenced at Wagga in 1881. By 1895 there were reasonably stable rugby teams in the region, including: Bellevue and Young in that town; Old Boys and Pirates in Cootamundra; Murrumburrah, Harden Pioneers, Garangula and Wallendbeen; Gundagai, South Gundagai, Coolac and Jugiong; Tumut, Gilmore and Adelong; Temora, Junee and West Wyalong. Earlier Junee and Temora had formed Australian rules teams, while Tumut when forming a football club in 1895 debated which code to adopt. In 1899 a Riverina Football Union of rugby clubs was formed in Junee, with representatives from Wagga, Temora, and Tarcutta. Illabo and Cootamundra were also active.20 But to the west and south, Australian rules was dominant. In 1908 the Wagga Football Association, Riverina Football Association and the Southern Riverina Football League were consisted of at least 23 teams with Narrandera, Wagga and Coolamon being key centres.West Wyalong was in 1911 the first town outside the Hunter-Sydney-Illawarra strip to adopt league; hosting a Sydney Combined Tramways team on 3 May – and beating them.21 Australian International Arthur Hennessy was appointed to coach. He reported that most of the men were miners required to work a hard six days underground. They could only play on Sundays.22 In the spring the pick of the teams formed in the Goldfields League railed down to Sydney and played three matches. The last, at the Sydney Showground, was against a combined Sydney 2nd grade. The day’s events, which attracted 25,000 people, included two other football matches, a 100 yard race for the women’s Australian championship and the men’s quarter-mile world championship.23 Six West Wyalong men were killed in the Barrier Mine disaster of 13 January 1912, including John Mulhall the captain of the Goldfields team, brothers Bert and John

17 Wagga Wagga Express, 16 August 1879, p. 5. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145215218 18 Burrangong Argus, 4 June 1881, p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247739336 19 Burrowa News, 5 August 1881, p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107929581 20 Wagga Wagga Advertiser, 4 July 1899, p. 3. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article101840442 21 Sun (Sydney), 9 May 1911, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221584510 22 Wyalong Advocate, 1 July 1899, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108820940 23 Wyalong Advocate, 26 August 1911, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108821440; Sydney Morning Herald, 22 August 911, p. 10. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15267767

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Navin – league referee and representative respectively and Rupert (Rue) Nicholson, also a league player and unionist.24 From West Wyalong league spread to Barmedman and Ariah Park in 1912, to Ardlethan and Beckom in 1913 and Temora in 1914.25 When sport was reorganised after the Great War there was some expectation that other towns would follow the wheat belt towns’ lead. Bit conservative club officials and clerical opposition to Sunday sport slowed change. The Protestant churches imposed their wowserism with vehemence in Temora, Cootamundra and Young. In 1917 three Harden-Murrumburrah Protestant churches combined to seek a ban on Sabbath football after the accidental death of a spectator on the sideline at a Sunday rugby union match. When Father Hartigan mocked them in poetry published in the Harden Express, they took him to court for defamation.26 At Junee, where the organised railways workforce dominated, league was readily adopted. The 1919 local competition consisted of five teams: Illabo, Old Junee, Junee Reefs, Waratahs and Rovers.27 The town’s Catholics were enthusiasts. Monsignor Buckley donated a cup to encourage the game and develop ‘healthy, clean spirit’.28 Buckley had no problem with Sunday afternoon football. He made sure his boys attended mass in the morning. There was a distinct correlation between how new the community was and its willingness to change codes.

24 Wyalong Advocate, 17 January 1912, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108517293 25 Wyalong Advocate, 29 June 1912, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108518670; Sydney Sportsman, 8 October 1913, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168591011 26 Grenfell Record, 19 October 1917, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111959372 27 In 1920 Wagga formed its first league team which joined the Junee based competition, as did Bethungra. 1922 another team the Junee Royals joined. 28 Daily Advertiser (Wagga), 18 September 1919, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142252974

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TOWN FIRST GOVERNMENT ORGANISED RUGBY SCHOOL ESTABLISHED.29 LEAGUE ESTABLISHED West Wyalong 1894 1911 Barmedman 1883 1912 Temora 1880 1914 Junee 1880 1919 Cootamundra 1874 1920-1921 Boorowa 1870 1920 Grenfell 1867 1921 Murrumburrah 1862 1920 Young 1861 1920-1921 Tumut 1860 1921 Cowra 1858 1920-1921 Gundagai 1851 1921 Cootamundra’s five local teams stuck with the old code in 1919, but the young lads loved league and by 1920 they had mostly got their way. The local council banned Sunday football at Albert Park, so matches were played out on Quinlan’s paddock at the town’s edge. On 24 July 1920 at least 1,000 people saw the popular Bing Boys defeat Yass playing league. By 1921 the change was complete. Young, like Cootamundra restarted with union in 1919, but it struggled to attract interest. A rugby league club was formed on 25 May 1920, by it too seemed to struggle. The Young Witness reported 5 weeks later that ‘unlike Young, football is booming in Harden where the league game is being played’.30 In August a Yass team visited and played the local Kia-Ora side under league rules.31 Sunday football still needed to be played out of town at Tipperary until 1921 when the local government granted permission for use of the cricket ground. At Monteagle on a Sunday in August 1920 the preacher travelling out from Young was pleased to see a great gathering of horses and vehicles surrounding the church ready for the service. However upon closer inspection it was revealed that the chapel was full of footballers changing for the match in the paddock next door.32

29 NSW Department of Education and Training (1998). Government Schools of New South Wales 1848- 1998: 150 Years. 30 Young Witness, 28 May 1920, p.2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122441834; Young Witness, 9 July 1920, p.5., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113618740 31 Young Witness, 13 August 1920, p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113619582 32 Cootamundra Herald, 20 August 1920, p. 6. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139015020

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The Grenfell Record in May 1920 reported that 300 Sydney teams where playing league and only 40 union and suggested it was a pity that the ‘boys here don’t play the league code’.33 By the 1921 season they were.34 On Sunday 23 May 1920 a ‘Town thirteen’ and a Railway scratch team played the first league game in Cowra.35 There was a mix of codes until April 1921 when the three Cowra clubs – Federals, Pioneers, and Mulyan Rovers – all committed to league. Harden, Murrumburrah, Boorowa, Marengo (Murringo), Binalong, Bowning and Galong teams were playing league in 1920, although at least one challenge cup was still being played under the old rules. Gundagai and Tumut were the slowest to move. Gundagai stayed with union in 1920, even though in September 1919 former Gundagai player Bob Aldridge, who had become an enthusiastic Temora football administrator, had brought a team over to demonstrate league’s advantages. In May 1921, just after Ted Maher led Tumut to the new code the Gundagai based ‘South-western Rugby Union‘, voted 5-3 to be the last to go with the flow. In Sydney the battle of the codes reflected class tensions - between strict amateurism and the need for the working sportsman to be permitted to make a quid out of his skills, or at least not be out of pocket. This was not the case in the NSW southwest. All rugby clubs in the Maher Cup towns simply decided to apply the league rules. Rugby union became dormant until a modest revival in the mid- 1950s.36

33 Grenfell Record, 6 May 1920, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120601656 34 The claim that Rugby league commenced in the Grenfell area in 1910 in the book Hewen, G. (2010) Grenfell Rugby League Football Club: 100 Years of League in Grenfell cannot be verified. 35 Cowra Free Press, 26 May 1920, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article99705517 36 Rugby union in Wagga was largely confined to educational and armed forces institutions.

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1920 - THE BEGINNING

TUMUT IN 1920 In January 1920 the Tumut & Adelong Times published an anonymous poem: ‘Coming of Day’ After the storm of grief and pain, Striving of nations, turmoil, rush, Upon the earth descends again A calm, a blessed hush. After the clouds that veiled the sky, After the blackness of the night, Whispering that Hope can never die, Day comes to bring up light After the hours that seemed so long, Anxieties and terrors cease, For as we sing the victory song, Our hearts and filled with peace A collective mourning was war’s legacy. Everyone had friends and/or family who had been killed. The maimed remained as reminders in the street. The brain- damaged could be less visible, with the reality only known to grieving or frightened wives and family. But war also leads to hope of a brighter future, and the determination to get it. The welcomes home for the survivors were keenly celebrated in halls and in street parades throughout 1919. On 29 October 1919 Tumut gave a tumultuous welcome to its Victoria Cross winner, Private John Ryan, one of only 19 recipients in the State. But the troops brought back the ‘Spanish Influenza’ pandemic that cruelly targeted fit young men. Thousands of deaths forced NSW local governments, including Tumut’s, to police restrictions on public gatherings, particularly those indoors.37 In April 1920 one of the last welcomes home was for Sergeant Gus Keown who had received gunshot to his penis, feet, abdomen and hands on the fields of France and then had both legs amputated. He was presented with a house as a gift from his community.38 Organised sport - considered unpatriotic for all but children during the war – become a key tool for rebuilding society and reintegrating the soldiers.

37 Gundagai Times, 2 May 1919, page 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130757527 38 Adelong and Tumut Express, 16 April 1920, p. 3. Retrieved October 1, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112680758

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There were good grounds for optimism in 1920: the deadly flu had gone; politicians were promising to look after the returning diggers; soldier settlers were taking up closer settlement blocks; the strengthening union movement was busy fighting for a decent income for working men; the rail network was still expanding, and the construction of Burrinjuck Dam promised reliable drinking water supplies and electricity to homes.39 People could look towards a time when they could afford to own a motor car and even could dream of airplane flight. In February Premier Holman arrived, to wild enthusiasm, in a biplane at the Tumut Racecourse.40 While only one in 70 people in New South Wales owned a motor car in 1921 by the end the decade it was about one in 15, and most everyone else hitched a ride.41

TED MAHER COMES TO TUMUT On Tuesday 4 May 1920 Ted Maher motored into Tumut from Young with his wife Veronica (Ronnie) and three young children to take over the Wynyard Hotel. It was a quality establishment. Staff welcomed tourists at the station and arranged their likely onward travel up into the Snowy Mountains for fishing and sight-seeing. Ted, aged 32, was busy. Within a year he had ticked off the following: donated the Cup; captained a football team; appointed chairman of the Tumut Ramblers Football Club; refereed and ran the line; led the change from union to league; joined the committees of the agricultural society, the turf club and tennis clubs; focused at the Tumut Rifle Club, purchased the local Tattersalls licence, and played cricket. Cricket at which he was ‘able to knock up a century or two’ and had taken ‘ten wickets in an innings’, was probably his first love.42 He became patron of the local club and donated a bat to his Lizards team, which represented the sunny side of Wynyard Street. The opposition were the Polar Bears. Best as a half or centre he would also play in two Maher Cup matches. Born at Grant’s Corner outside Woodstock, Maher had established a farm at Crowther. In 1918 he swapped his ‘Cloverdene’ for the local Calare Hotel at nearby Bendick Murrell. Within a year he had moved to the big Royal Hotel in Young. Maher purchased his Cup in Sydney in 1919. It served the same purpose as so many others that businessman had long put up in Tumut and elsewhere for

39 The construction of the Gilmore to Batlow branch line was a substantial employer from 1920-1922; The Burrinjuck Dam construction project commenced in 1907 and was completed in 1928. 40 Adelong and Tumut Express, 27 February 1920, p.2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112683730. 41 Official Yearbook of New South Wales 1938-39, p.122 42 The Lizards were drawn from the northern (sunny) side of Wynyard Street; Burrowa News, 1 April 1949, p.8., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102815059

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THE MAHER CUP mutual promotion. Some other football cups also in play in the first year of Ted’s were (with the occupation of their sponsor): West Wyalong’s Chigwidden Cup (publican); Shields’ Cup, Barmedman (publican), the Monty Mellor Cup, Temora (publican); Junee’s Monsignor Buckley Cup (priest); Murrumburrah Bond Memorial Cup (barber); Cootamundra’s E.C. Mangan (bookmaker) and Prentice Cups (publican), Lawson Cup (Tumut publican) and the Albion Cup, Grenfell (hotel). That the Maher Challenge Cup eventually became famous was a matter of timing and good fortune. Its rules were published in June 1920.

THE ORIGINAL RULES (1) The Cup shall be called "The Maher Challenge Cup." (2) The Cup shall be for competition for all Unions within a radius of 150 miles of Tumut. (3) All player competing must have a residential qualification of one month, and must reside within the jurisdiction of his Union. (4) All Challenge Cup matches must be played on' a Wednesday. (5) The Union-challenging the holders of the Cup must give at least seven days' clear notice in writing of such match. (6) The Cup shall be for competition on any Wednesday, from 1st June to 30th September in each year. (7) The Union being the holders of the Cup on 30th September shall remain the holders of same till the following season. (8) The Union holding the Cup for two years in succession, or three years in all, shall become the absolute possessors of it. (9) All Referees for Cup matches must be mutually agreed to by the opposing teams, and all matches must be played under Rugby Union Rules. (10) The holders of the Cup receiving more than one challenge for the one date, must decide, by draw, as to which they will accept. The remaining challenges must be played in their order drawn. (11) The holders of the Cup must be prepared to play a match from a challenging Union, providing the challenge is lodged within the time specified; otherwise they shall forfeit their right as holders of the Cup. (12) The initial holders of the Cup are the Tumut and District Rugby Football Union, and, whilst remaining such holders, all marches shall be played at Tumut. (13) That in the event of a protest being lodged, the Tumut and District Rugby Union Committee have full power to decide, providing that such protest be lodged

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with the Secretary of the Tumut and District Rugby Football Union not later than two days after the match. (14) The Tumut and District Rugby Union reserves the right to play the last match of the season against the holders of the Cup.43 The rules followed boilerplate for such cups, except for Rule 2, in that it was for a ‘Union’ team, not meaning the code, but a combined team from a district. Further the radius for challengers was set very large at 150 miles, probably reflecting Tumut’s isolated position at the end of the rail line.

MATCH 1: 14 JULY 1920 - TUMUT DISTRICT UNION V SOUTH-WESTERN UNION (GUNDAGAI) As usual for a Wednesday the shops closed at 1pm for the ‘half-holiday’. There was a good mood about. Soaking rain had just broken a long drought. After lunch 500 people made their way through the crisp winter air to a spongy poplar fringed racecourse beyond the town’s edge. Beside the rippling Tumut River the afternoon’s schedule of sport attracted the biggest crowd to date out there for anything other than a race meeting. They walked, rode bicycles and horses and drove sulkies. Some came on motor cycles and in trucks. A very few of the well- healed, including publican Ted Maher, drove newfangled motor cars. The punters’ main interest was a scratch race over 120 yards, scheduled for 2pm, between the Otto ‘Boydie’ Beegling and Jack Lawson. Connections had placed £10 on each, providing the winner with a £20 purse - about a month’s wages. Numerous side bets would have been placed. Everyone knew Boydie. The butcher’s son was a familiar figure pushing the meat cart through summer dust, winter ice, and muddy streets. His grandfather was a German immigrant who found gold at Adelong, 14 miles across creeks to the west.44 There he established a butchery which his son Charles later took into Tumut. The family attended the All Saints Church of England. Boydie enlisted when aged 18 in 1917 but remained in town where he was a lieutenant in the cadet militia.45 Boydie started both crowd and bookie’s favourite. Adelong’s Jack Lawson had pedigree; having competed in handicapped ‘gift’ races around the Riverina, while his father and uncle were former sprinters of local renown.

43 Tumut Advocate, 29 June 1920, p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112270353

44 Tumut and Adelong Times, 22 April 1867, p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144775347 45 National Archives of Australia National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=6513446

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Lawson won. Talk of finding a new Tumut contender followed. Next was a rugby match between Adelong and Tumut Wanderers for the Lawson Cup.46 Finally, at 3:30 the Tumut District Union entertained the South-Western Union team from the Gundagai area for the Maher Challenge Cup. The Tumut local rugby (union) Campbell Cup competition consisted of: Tumut Wanderers, Tumut Plains, Adelong, Grahamstown, Gilmore and Batlow.47 The Maher Cup side was selected from area’s best. The result was more representatives from Adelong than Tumut. Similarly the South-Western Union selected from the best of (North) Gundagai, Wanderers (South Gundagai and Tumblong), Coolac and Nangus. Gundagai were only competitive for 15 minutes. Tumut thumped them 27 to 6.

46 Donated by James L. Lawson of Tumut’s Woolpack Hotel. 47 The Tumut Wanderers only existed for the year 1920. The top grade Tumut team was known as the Ramblers and had been in existence since 1905. However there is no evidence The Ramblers played in 1920 but they reconstituted in 1921.

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TUMUT DISTRICT UNION 27 SOUTH-WESTERN UNION [GUNDAGAI] 6 Ernie ‘Curly’ Dunn (Adelong) Albert ‘Pip’ Field (Gundagai) Jim ‘Buck’ Elphick (Tumut) Bert Graham (Coolac) Tom O’Brien (Tumut) (capt.) (try, 6 goals48) Tom Hunt (Gundagai) Les Malone (Tumut Plains) Jim Elworthy (Gundagai) Vern Harris (Tumut Plains) Phil Freestone (Gundagai) Norman ‘Bob’ Wilkinson (Gilmore) Bill Brownrigg (Wanderers) (capt.) Con Crain (Adelong) Viv ‘Dad’ Joyce (Gundagai) Jack Crompton (Adelong) (try) George Wheatley (Gundagai) Jack Roche (Adelong) Fred Dominick (Coolac) Frank Roche (Adelong) Bill Whiticker (Wanderers) Roy Tonkin (Adelong) (2 tries) Ern Neiberding (Wanderers) Walter Malone (Tumut Plains) Herb Robertson (Wanderers) Gerry Quirk (Tumut Plains) Jack Smith (Nangus) Rube Masters (Tumut) Jim Slater (Gundagai) E.W. ‘Dick’ Bridle (Tumut) Al Smith (Wanderers) Reserves: Reserves: Matt Downing (Tumut) Fred Graham (Coolac) B. Crowe (Tumut) Bill Dutton (Wanderers) Alf Spicer (Adelong) George Dominick (Coolac) Clarrie Joyce (Tumut) Jack Elworthy (Gundagai) Paddy McKey (Gilmore) Played but not in the selected team: Harry Tonkin (Adelong) Bert Davis (try) Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan (Tumut) The selected teams were as above. However we may never know exactly who played. The South-West Union team ran on without hooker Jim Slater who had fractured his kneecap the previous Sunday (and never played again). Reserve Jack Elworthy played, while try-scorer Bert Davis was not even in the selected 15. Reports vary as to who scored Gundagai’s second try – Jack Elworthy49 or Jack Smith.50 After the match, as was custom, the local players enjoyed hot showers at the pub and in this case were shouted to dinner, not at Ted Maher’s Wynyard but at James L. Lawson’s Woolpack Hotel where Mrs. Lawson and her daughters had a reputation for providing sumptuous spreads.51 To end the midwinter day’s festivities 240 citizens swanned across the boards in pairs at the Oddfellows Ball until late.

48 3 conversions and 3 penalty goals 49 Gundagai Times, 16 July 1920, p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123487145 50 Tumut and Adelong Times, 15 July 1920, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139023699; Gundagai Times, 13 July 1920, p 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123490366 51 Tumut Advocate, 8 June, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112270303

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BACKGROUND OF THE MAHER CUP ORIGINALS Examining records of the lives of 40 men associated with the first match some common characteristics can be observed (see Appendix 2 for brief biographies of the men). 52 There were no rabbiters, shearers or miners and only one drover. Most of the players had the security of a farm or a trade. The family names were mainly of district pioneers – Elphick, Malone, Harris, Crain, Wilkinson, Crompton, Roche, Tonkin, Downing, Field, Graham, Elworthy, Dominick, Whiticker and Neiberding. Many of these families had already become interconnected through marriage. Only 10 of the 40 lived in Gundagai or Tumut townships. Six were from the Tarrabandra Soldiers’ Settlement and farms nearby at South Gundagai, four were Adelongians, three each from Tumut Plains, Bombowlee and Tumblong, two each from Gilmore, Wondalga and Coolac, and one from Mt. Adrah, Sandy Gully, Adjungbilly, Gobarralong and Back Creek. A majority (23) were farmers or graziers. The combination of secure workplaces and time flexibility to play the game were likely pre-requisites for regular football. Grahamstown, the home for most workers at the Gibraltar Mine, would forfeit the final of the Lawson Cup in September because the men could not get the time off. 53 Most lived in a world of many single men. While in the towns the sexes were evenly distributed, men outnumbered women by 1,000 in the two shires.54 While the religion of some players is not apparent, marriage and funeral records identify that the majority, at least 22, were Catholics, although they constituted only about 30% of the local population. Thirteen of the 40 had enlisted in the war. Many fine local footballers and athletes had died in the war including Bob Sullivan, Bill Maile, Harry Marshall and Bob Isaac of Gundagai; Frank Elphick, Assal O’Brien, Orlando O’Brien and Alan Scott of Tumut; Bert ‘Woof’ Crain, Harry Whiting, Robert Wise, Will Tonkin and Jack Melrose of Adelong; and Jack Treweek of Grahamstown. Presumably there were many others who, if not suffering the effects from the ongoing legacy of war, would also have been athletes.

52 Of the 42 originals, the identity of two: B. Crowe and Al Smith, have not been verified. 53 Adelong and Tumut Express, 17 September 1920, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112677692 54 5,444 males to 4,412 females in Gadara and Adjungbilly Shires combined.

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MATCH 2: 8 SEPTEMBER 1920 - TUMUT DISTRICT UNION V SOUTH-WESTERN UNION (GUNDAGAI) If the first match had been a blazing success, the second, eight weeks later at the Tumut Recreation Ground, was not. Of the 20 men selected for the home team only nine turned up. Those absent (listed below in italics) were from Adelong and Gilmore, with half-back Con Crain the only player from the other side of the Gilmore Creek to appear. The adventures of a Tumut convent school team motoring back from Gundagai the previous day hints at the problem. The Tumut River had risen in flood during their match and their two cars were diverted to return through Gilmore. However the Gilmore Creek there was also in flood. When crossing, the front of one the cars became submerged. ‘Father Denehan and the boys, with boots off, pushed the car ashore’.55 Neither Gundagai newspaper expressed interest in reporting the event, perhaps due to the drubbing received in the first match, or the inability of the reporter to attend. It was an exceedingly hard-fought contest, and no less than four accidents happened, three of the visitors being temporarily knocked out, one getting his nose injured, another a kick on the head and the third a kick in the chest. J. (Buck), Elphick, a Tumut player, was carried off the field with an injured leg, which he is still nursing. 56 The drawn match meant that the holders retained the Cup.

55 Tumut and Adelong Times, 9 September, p.2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139023544 56 Adelong and Tumut Express, 10 September 1920, p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112678887

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TUMUT (SELECTED) TUMUT (ACTUAL) 12 GUNDAGAI 12 Bill Dowling Bill Dowling Bert Davis (2 tries) Jim ‘Buck Elphick Arthur Elphick (try) Bert Graham Tom O’Brien (capt.) Tom O’Brien (capt.) (try, goal) George Wheatley (try) J. Arragon Jim ‘Buck’ Elphick William Craig (goal) Vern Harris Vern Harris Bob Wilkinson Con Crain Others players are unknown Con Crain Ted Maher Jack Roche Les Purcell M. Benson G. O’Keefe Frank Roche C. Byrne Les Purcell T. Harris Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan Ab. Elphick Gerry Quirk Edgar Baker (try) Jack Crompton Gerry Quirk Pat McKey Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan Alf Spicer (backs reserve) J. Duff (backs reserve) Referee: Charles Guy P. Roche (forwards reserve) (Tumut) Roy Tonkin (forwards reserve) C. Byrne (forwards reserve)

MATCH 3: 22 SEPTEMBER 1920 - TUMUT DISTRICT UNION V SOUTH- WESTERN UNION (GUNDAGAI) The third and final challenge under rugby union rules was played two weeks later, but too late. With attention now on preparing for the start of the cricket season, it was barely reported. Gundagai’s preoccupation was with its ‘Big Day’ the following Friday for which a local holiday had been called.57 Centred on a military gymkhana to pay homage to 300 soldiers and described as ‘the greatest gathering in the history of Gundagai’, over 2000 attended the sporting events and 600 went to the ‘spectacular’ ball. 58 The Tumut District Union was again without their Adelong colleagues, which seemed to diminish their performance. Gundagai again went close, scoring the only try.59 Seemingly of greater interest was the reportedly hilarious curtain-raiser refereed by Ted Maher between his sunnyside Lizards business-house team and their arch foes the Polar Bears.60

57 Communities were still insular enough to still make such decisions. 58 Gundagai Independent, 27 September, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123642017 59 Perhaps because Adelong were involved on the finals of the Lawson Cup competition. 60 Adelong and Tumut Express 24 September 1920, p. 3. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112679415

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TUMUT 6 GUNDAGAI 5 Bill Dowling Phil Freestone (try) Referee: Charles Guy Arthur Elphick Fred Dominick (goal) (Tumut) Tom O’Brien (capt.)(2 penalty goals) Jim ‘Buck’ Elphick Other players unknown Vern Harris Ted Maher Con Crain Walter Malone Ab. Elphick C. Byrne Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan Gerry Quirk Edgar Baker Les Purcell G. O’Keefe As the season closed the Maher Cup was on a familiar trajectory for challenge cups; of interest for a little while and then likely to be abandoned when another businessman comes along with another promotional trophy.

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THE MAHER CUP

1921 - RUGBY LEAGUE TAKES OVER

Ted Maher’s family was struck with tragedy in February when his daughter Mercy died aged just eight years from what was described as common colic or gastric trouble.61 Ted Maher chaired, the April Tumut Ramblers Football Club meeting when they decided to play league. The Maher Cup was now to be a rugby league cup.62 Adelong chose to stick with tradition but said that they were willing to try league if their neighbours preferred it.63 They did, and they did. With that, up to the Australian rules border, it was all about league in the southwest.64 Adelong storekeepers Alley & Prowse donated a handsome challenge cup for teams less than 60 miles away.65 It would prove a bigger Wednesday afternoon attraction in 1921 than Ted Maher’s trophy. Eight challenges came: from Grahamstown, Junee Waratahs, Tumut, Adelong (after they had lost it to Tumut), Tumut Plains, Cootamundra Railway, Junee Rovers, and Adelong again (when Junee Rovers held it). This cup would remain in Junee for years, before returning to the area and being of local interest until 1933. The Tumut area was also busy with the round robin Diamond Cup competition involving Tumut, Tumut Plains, Grahamstown, Gilmore and Adelong. There were also matches against Tumbarumba and a much anticipated visit from a Sydney team from Mascot - who also visited Gundagai.66 Gundagai’s district competition comprised four teams Nangus, Jugiong, Coolac and a combined club of (North) Gundagai and the South Gundagai Wanderers. Jugiong, reinforced by nearby Murrumburrah’s champion footballers Rowley Davison and Nick Rawlin, won the final against the Gundagai combination before more than 1,000 people at Anzac Park.67

MATCH 4: 3 AUGUST 1921- TUMUT V GUNDAGAI It was only towards season’s end, in August, that the Cup got underway. Ted’s old mates at Young had requested a challenge in June, but with Tumut and Adelong

61 Young Witness, 19 February 1921, p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113605593 62 Tumut Advocate, 26 April 1921, p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112271109 63 Adelong and Tumut Express, 15 April 1921, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115933274 64 Union was first revived in Wagga: ‘Wagga Rugby Union Plan', (Wagga) Daily Advertiser, 7 March 1951, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145566997 65 Adelong and Tumut Express, 20 May 1921, p. 4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115930633 66 The Mascot visit led young George Treweeke (who never played Maher Cup football) to seek his fortune in Sydney. 67 Gundagai Independent , 25 July 1921, p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121498113

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THE MAHER CUP players committed to the Alley & Prowse Cup it was rejected on the grounds of notice being too short.68 On a cold afternoon on a very muddy Tumut Showground the first match under league rules had its inauspicious start.69 Again players were delayed crossing floodwaters. This time it was Gundagai at the Gilmore Creek. After considerable delay the game needed to commence with ‘pickups’ and be shortened to the remaining 60 minutes before darkness.70 The newspapers failed to print player lists with their match reports. The Tumut players in italics where in the selected team but the match reports identifies three other players who played.71 Similarly the first three Gundagai players below are mentioned in match reports, with the remainder in the selection squad.72

68 Tumut Advocate, 14 June 1921, p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112271261 69 Adelong and Tumut Express, 5 August, p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115931595 70 Tumut and Adelong Times, 5 August, p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139028017; Gundagai Independent, 4 August, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121498098 71 Tumut and Adelong Times, 5 August, p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139028017 72 Gundagai Times, 2 August 1921, p.2.,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123492975

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TUMUT 5 GUNDAGAI 0 W. Bridle73 Phil Freestone Referee: Jack Young Jim ‘Buck’ Elphick Clarrie Joyce (Adelong) Milton ‘King’ Allatt Jack Ryan Matt Downing (Tumut) Fred Graham Hector McDonald (Tumut) Fred Dominick Tom O’Brien (Tumut) (capt.) (try & goal) Bob Quarmby Rev. C.T. Debenham (Tumut Plains) C. Johnston C. Cheffins (Tumut) Jack Smith Norman ‘Bob’ Wilkinson (Gilmore) P. Slater Con Crain (Adelong) Bill Brownrigg Les Purcell (Tumut) George Wheatley Les Tonkin (Adelong) Bert Davis Walter Malone (Tumut Plains) Viv ‘Dad’ Joyce Frank Roche (Adelong) Jack ‘Terrific’ Jones Bert Tonkin (Adelong) George Elliott74 Allan Downing (Tumut)75 Wally Franklin J. Elworthy76 Bob Condron Roy Marshall Harry Gomm W. McGregor R. Smith Gundagai immediately lodged a further challenge for a rematch.

MATCH 5: 17 AUGUST 1921 - TUMUT V GUNDAGAI At their fifth attempt Gundagai finally defeated Tumut.77 The match didn’t impress one reporter: Tumut ... were a sorely distressed team, and could not keep going...if one of them did manage to catch the ball they nearly always miskicked...With the exception of a dash by Baker, Tumut's play was now very bad. After [Gundagai's final try] this play was very uninteresting, even more so than at any time during the match, which is saying a lot...As a game of League football it was a very poor display and both sides were at fault... 78

73 Probably Wally Bridle of Adelong 74 For biographical details see George Elliott in Elphick, L. (2015). Our Brothers in Arms : Gundagai and Tumut, pp. 72-78 75 Some newspaper reports list D. Downing but it almost certain that Allan Downing was selected. 76 Could be Jack or Jim. 77 Gundagai Times, 19 August 1921, p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123493626 78 Adelong and Tumut Express, 19 August 1921, p. 2. ; http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115932450

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The boys brought the Cup home to Gundagai, and host Hogan of the Royal Hotel filled it with champagne, and they made speeches, and (interestingly) talked of challenging the Springboks and going on an English tour. It was a great night!79

TUMUT 4 GUNDAGAI 11 Art Elphick Fred Graham80 Referee: Ted Quirk Hector McDonald (2 goals) Bert Davis (Tumut) Jim ‘Buck’ Elphick Bill Brownrigg (capt.) W. Bridle Roy Marshall Norman ‘Bob’ Wilkinson Jack Ryan (try) Milton ‘King’ Allatt Jim Elworthy Gerry Quirk Clarrie Joyce (goal) Les Purcell Fred Dominick (try) Edgar Baker George Dominick Allan Downing B. Draper A. Smith Bob Condron Fred McInerney George Wheatley (try) Tom Tonkin Bob Quarmby

MATCH 6: 21 SEPTEMBER 1921 - GUNDAGAI V TUMUT Five weeks later Gundagai succeeded in its first defence.81 The gate of £15 was reported as a large crowd. Admittance was 1/- for males over 14 years. Women and children attended free. Tumut had brought Reverend footballer Christopher Debenham along to referee. However under the rules the ref. must by appointed by mutual agreement. It is unclear whether Gundagai believed that fair treatment would be impossible from a Tumut referee, even though he was also a man of god, or whether they were just asserting that, as the holders, they, like Tumut before them, had the right to appoint a local to officiate. When it was mutually agreed not to have mutual agreement, Gundagai’s Jack Isaac, a very experienced player and referee, and a Tarrabandra soldier settler, took the whistle. Tumut protested after losing the match, and on the way home, supporters hatched plans for a £100 winner-take-all grudge match.

79 Gundagai Independent, 18 August 1921, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121501417 80 Gundagai Independent, 22 April 1963, p.8 recollected that Fred Graham captained the team and that Jack Luff played. 81 Gundagai Independent, 22 September 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121500247; Gundagai Times, 23 September 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123491450

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THE MAHER CUP

GUNDAGAI 12 TUMUT 0 Phil Freestone (goal) Matt Downing Referee: Jack Ryan Hector McDonald Jack Isaac (Gundagai) Bill Brownrigg (try) Jack Nuttall Gate: £15 Roy Marshall Norman ‘Bob’ Wilkinson Rowley Davison (try, 2 goals) Tom O’Brien Clarrie Joyce Milton ‘King’ Allatt Jim Elworthy Ted Maher Fred Dominick R. McLennan George Dominick Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan George Elliott Allan Downing Harry Gomm E. McGowan Jack ‘Terrific’ Jones Edgar Baker George Wheatley Les Purcell With the season set to conclude by 30 September, Tumut lodged a request for a final challenge the following Wednesday, the 28th, Gundagai rejected it as being at too short notice.82 After two quiet years, the first during the death throws of rugby union and the second overshadowed by Adelong’s Alley & Prowse Cup, the Maher Cup had not set the world on fire but it had at least gathered some of the fuel that would later ignite its passions; ill-feeling between towns, a sense of injustice, and plans for revenge - all heartily amplified by local newspapers.

GUNDAGAI 1921 There was of course much more on the minds of Gundagai people than football. The Gundagai Times greeted the year by declaring that ‘the spirit of revolt has grown to extraordinary heights’, witnessed by trade union strikes, disruption of interstate shipping, general neglect of religious observances, and men now being more loyal to their union than their community.83 The road from the horrors of the war to recovery was rocky. Soldier settlers were heralded at Tarrabandra, Bongolong and elsewhere in the Shire, but many struggled to repay their loans.84 Some were new to farming. Other continued to suffer from wounds and trauma. The big graziers feared the spectre of Bolshevism and in May met at the Royal Hotel to prepare for the probable shearers’ strike.85 The Irish civil war weighed on the minds of local Hibernians.86

82 Gundagai Times, 7 October 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123492247 83 Gundagai Times, 4 January 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123488783 84 Gundagai Independent, 9 December 1920, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123640636 85 Gundagai Independent, 12 May, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121500093 86 Gundagai Independent, 14 July 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121500769

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THE MAHER CUP

The working man had been promised a brighter future, but it was not being delivered to the satisfaction of most. Unemployment was rising. Men wandered through the country looking for work. The 44 hour week was a key demand. The strongly organised shearers sought a new deal that others could only dream of.87 Tensions arose in Gundagai, as everywhere, around the question of whether repatriated soldiers should be given preference in employment.88 When leftists burned the Union Jack in the Sydney Domain on May Day 1921 many were outraged, no more than former soldiers. Around the Murrumbidgee a poor man could always eek out a living rabbiting – in April the freezing works received 1,800 carcasses a day. But for many work was seasonal and precarious, and the safety-net minimal. Advertisements for motor cars, which only the wealthiest could afford, started to flood newspapers. When a big Tumut crowd came up for the Maher Cup match on 21 September the sight of 20 cars in Sheridan Street was deemed worth reporting.89 Life for most people was still about horses, sulkies and trains. The mail train from Sydney arrived at 9.02am daily and then on down to Tumut 20 minutes later. The Sydney train departed at 3.55 pm. The second class fare was £1/18/4, the basic wage just over £4. If you took home £7 you were well off. Bread was 6d a loaf, butter 2/9 per lb. A three minute phone call cost 3/4 to Sydney and 6d to Tumut. Letters cost 2d, telegrams of less than 16 words 1/-. Rabbit skins could be sold for 6d. Wirth’s Circus charged 3/- to 6/-, boxing up to 5/-, the Maher Cup 1/- with women and children free. A house in town could be purchased for somewhere between £500 and £900. There were six hotels north of the river: the Royal, Club House, Criterion, Family, Railway and Great Southern; and two in South Gundagai: the Bridge and Star. Movies, meetings, boxing, and concerts were held at Bounader’s Gundabidgee Theatre. The government medical officer Doctor Gabriel photographed the town; Nurse Murray had her private hospital; D.P. Turner the dentist was also president of the football club; Stribley the hardware and manchester merchant was the mayor, and newspaper proprietors Sullivan and Elworthy were both magistrates and opinion- makers. Public bodies included the Hospital Board, the Literary Institute, the Red Cross Society, the Race Club, the Citizens’ Sports Club, the Football Club, the P & A Society, Parents & Citizens, Repatriation Committee, the Town Band, the Tennis Club, the Rifle Club, the Pastures Protection Board, the Local Land Board,

87 Gundagai Independent, 7 April 1921, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121500927 88 Gundagai Times, 1 November 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123488468 89 Gundagai Times, 23 September 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123491450

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THE MAHER CUP the Stockowner’s Defence Association, National League, Labour League and Empire League. There was land hunger, demands for more soldier settlements, complaints about loans and land valuation, worry about debts, uncertainty in wildly fluctuating markets whether to plant maize or wheat, run sheep, cattle, or pigs, dairy or beef. Many farmers had Labour sympathies, but those that didn’t mostly supported the new County Party. Labour was running the state and Billy Hughes the nation, but neither seemed to be doing the job required. Mining was in decline although new leads at the Long Tunnel Mine and at Sandy Falls were encouraging. Long Tunnel even had their own cricket team. Upstream the Burrinjuck Dam construction was well underway. In January discord followed the new law requiring all firearms to be licensed and restricted to those who had attained the age of 16. In February the big race day made £256. In March the agricultural show, renamed the ‘Repatriation Show’, took £114. The best Maher Cup gate for the year come in at about £15. The circus animals came to town by special train, as did Cootamundra folk coming down on Show Day. The occasional Avro airplane would land in a paddock, and excite young and old. On Empire Day and into cracker night the kids played up and took over the town.90 Later in the year a mob of 900 bullocks caught the public eye as they paraded down Sheridan Street and over the bridge on their way from Goulburn to Finley.91 Just before Christmas locals were outnumbered by visitors, when railway workers and their families arrived on special trains from as far away as Lake Cargelligo and Griffith for their picnic day by the Murrumbidgee.92 However there was nothing that captured the imagination of Gundagai people as much as the dead body of Hannah Jane Peden found on the floor of her bedroom at Tumblong, with her head almost severed.93 While she had a history of mental illness and had declared an intention to kill herself, it didn’t seem possible to most folk that such a violent and gruesome act could be self-administered. Her husband Arthur, who had fallen out with his in-laws, with whom they shared a roof, was tried and sentenced to be hanged. His many acquaintances were convinced of his innocence. Paddy Sullivan of The Gundagai Independent exhorted his readers to raise funds for Peden’s appeal, achieving almost £100 from scores of local donors. It took until the following year through an inquest, two trials, an appeal, a public campaign,

90 Gundagai Independent, 26 May 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121501018 91 Gundagai Independent, 5 December 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121497391 92 Gundagai Independent, 8 December 1921, p.3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121501757 93 Gundagai Independent, 12 September 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121500742

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THE MAHER CUP and a Royal Commission before Peden was exonerated.94 This ‘who-done-it’ has never been resolved.95

94 Gundagai Independent, 26 September 1921, p.3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121497769 95 Medical Journal of Australia, Vol 153, 3 December 1990, linked at http://netk.net.au/Forensic/Forensic49.pdf

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THE MAHER CUP

1922 - COOTAMUNDRA GOES PROFESSIONAL

In January Ted Maher sold up the Wynyard Hotel and moved to Sydney, entering into business with Fred Cheesemen as agents for the sale and purchase of hotels. He would miss the year that transformed his cup.

COOTAMUNDRA IN 1922 Cootamundra with 3,500-4,000 people was a much larger town than either Tumut or Gundagai. 96 A junction town on the Sydney to Melbourne Main Southern Railway Line a place busy with people and goods coming and going. The Warren Sub on the eastern side of Cootamundra station was a colony of engine drivers, locomotive fireman and other rail workers.97 Unlike Tumut and Gundagai, Cootamundra’s league football was hampered by a wowser dominated Council that had banned Sunday football from the only suitable field, Albert Park. Exiled to Quinlan’s Paddock, an unenclosed field used for dog racing, tractor demonstrations, aeroplane landings and pigeon and sparrow shooting, the clubs relied on people’s honesty at the ‘gate’.98 In May 1922 Cootamundra formed a new combined club, wearing blue and white, to overcome what many saw as the town’s embarrassing failures on the football field. However without an organised local competition the team had limited opportunity to hone their skills. Friendlies were organised with Muttama and Leeton, while a short-lived competition was conducted against places up the line: Wallendbeen, Harden, Binalong and Murrumburrah. In contrast Gundagai’s local competition comprised eight teams who played each week and from which the best were selected for Maher Cup representation. A combined Cootamundra Juniors (under 21 team) was established, and with their own ‘Cootamundra Juniors’ Challenge Cup, were able to attract frequent competitors from neighbouring towns, as well as playing the Coota Seniors. Backed by the majority of the crowd they grew in confidence and skill with every match.

MATCH 7: 21 JUNE 1922 - GUNDAGAI V COOTAMUNDRA The season opened with 300 Cootamundra supporters packing the special train to Gundagai. The entertaining match provided Cootamundra with a promise of better things. The visitors complained about the refereeing of Gundagai’s Les

96 Caskie, P. (2000). Cootamundra 1901-1924: Past Imperfect, p. 289 97 Warren Sub was the shortened form applied to the Warren Subdivision. 98 Cootamundra Herald, 17 February 1928, p.6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/143568959; Cootamundra Herald, 22 April 1921, p. 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/138788878

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THE MAHER CUP

Craig, although it was unclear whether they considered him simply biased, especially for sending a Coota man off for ‘rough stuff’, or if there remained a more general confusion about the finer points in rules of the league code.99

GUNDAGAI 12 COOTAMUNDRA 5 Jack Ryan Bill Lesberg100 (goal) Referee: Phil Freestone (goal) Jim Watson Les Craig (Gundagai) A. Nicholls (try) Charlie Schwartzel Roy Marshall Bernie Kinnane P. McMahon Wal Franklin Jim Elworthy Charlie Schofield (try) Clarrie Joyce (2 goals) Thomas Thumpkins Fred Dominick Fred Hayward Jack Elworthy Ray Sheedy Jack Smith (try) L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Bob Condron Trevor Kelsey Gerry Crowe Ryan101 Jack Luff Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow

MATCH 8: 28 JUNE 1922 - GUNDAGAI V TUMUT One week later the old firm re-established hostilities. Tumut again put forward a team which included players from Adelong – even one from Batlow. Gundagai’s best included Jack Ryan, Fred Dominick from Coolac, Gerry Crowe from Gobarralong, and Jack Smith from Nangus. This was the first match where both the gate and crowd were published, as £18/5- which equated to ‘over 800’ in one newspaper and ‘more than 1000’ in another. Gents paid 1/-; others entered free. Rough play was surprisingly absent. Gundagai were ‘pleased with the sportsmanlike spirit displayed by Tumut’.102 Perhaps this was an example of a second sporting parson from Tumut: Reverend Charles Jessop, who at five-eighth was said to have ‘a restraining influence on the waywardness of the boisterous spirits’.103 The refereeing of Gundagai secretary Craig was even considered fair enough.104

99 Cootamundra Herald, 26 June, 1922, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143758302; Gundagai Independent, 22 June 1922, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121498661 100 Lesberg’s name was officially spelt Leseberg. The shortened form is used because newspapers reports almost universally used it. 101 Probably Tom Ryan 102 Adelong and Tumut Express, 30 June 1922, p.2.,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115926600 103 Tumut Advocate, 19 December 192, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112272853 104 Gundagai Independent, 29 June 1922, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121501629

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THE MAHER CUP

GUNDAGAI 18 TUMUT 10 Jack Ryan (3 goals) L. Prestridge105 Referee: Bill Brownrigg (capt.) Hector McDonald Les Craig (Gundagai) A. Nicholls Jack O’Neill Gate: £18/5/- Roy Marshall Tom O’Brien (capt.) Crowd: 800 to 1000+ Phil Freestone (2 tries) C. Cheffins (try) Jim Elworthy Reverend Charles Jessop Clarrie Joyce (try) Milton ‘King’ Allatt Fred Dominick Frank Roche Jack Smith Jim Treweek Jack Elworthy Harry Tonkin (try) Bob Condron F. Murphy Gerry Crowe Sid Young Jack Luff Edgar Baker

MATCH 9: 12 JULY 1922 - GUNDAGAI V COOTAMUNDRA The fancied Cootamundra were outclassed before a crowd of more than 1500, including more than 300 who boarded the train for a day out. The gate of £32 was almost twice that of the previous best.106 For the first time girls and boys aged over 14 years and women were charged an admittance fee (sixpence). Coota were weakened by some of its best players withdrawing.107 They also played most of the match one man down after Bill Lesberg was dismissed for a ‘biff’ to the face of Fred Dominick.108

105 From Batlow 106 Gundagai Independent, 13 July 1922, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121501515 107 The following players were selected but didn’t play: Charlie Schofield, W. Hartley and Tom Drennan. Cootamundra Herald, 10 July, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143751885 108 Gundagai Times, 14 July 1922, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121763580

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THE MAHER CUP

GUNDAGAI 30 COOTAMUNDRA 2 Jack Ryan (6 goals) Bill Lesberg (goal) Referee: Phil Freestone (3 tries) T. Meehan Jack Isaac (Gundagai) Roy Marshall Tom McDevitt Gate: £32 Jim Elworthy Tom Doran Crowd: 1,500 plus P. McMahon Wal Franklin Bill Brownrigg (capt.) (try) Thomas Thumpkins Clarrie Joyce Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Jack Elworthy L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Al Smith (try) Fred Hayward Fred Dominick (try) Ray Sheedy Jack Smith Les Abberton Jack Luff Con Gehrig Gerry Crowe August Resch The Cootamundra Herald blamed poor conditioning and bemoaned the ‘sorry spectacle of seeing [the team] being outclassed by the players of other towns’. 109 The town’s businessmen responded and it was reported that Howard Hallett, South Sydney’s Australian representative fullback had been appointed as coach.110 However the following week, less than two months before the end of the season, Phil Regan a seasoned nuggetty half-back from Glebe, nicknamed ‘Wombo’, arrived to captain and to coach. He may have been the first paid-coach in country New South Wales.111

MATCH 10: 16 AUGUST 1922 - GUNDAGAI V TUMUT Both these towns were often wet places; their rivers, prone to flooding by melting mountain snow. It would take many years before upstream dams would provide protection. The match set for 19 July was postponed on the day due to poor weather and the state of the ground, catching many visitors unawares.112 The rearranged fixture on 2 August was also called off due to flooding. 113 It was still boggy and rainy at the third attempt; the match being transferred from Anzac Park on the Murrumbidgee flats to the South Gundagai ground. The £25 gate was considered good, with spectators enduring pelting rain towards the end.114 To the surprise of many Tumut took their cup back.

109 Cootamundra Herald, 13 July 1922, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143760574; Cootamundra Herald, 19 July 1922, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143760601 110 Cootamundra Herald, 19 July 1922, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143760626 111 West Wyalong Advocate, 28 March 1949, p.5., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185967935 112 Gundagai Independent, 20 July 1992, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121498424 113 Gundagai Times, 21 July 1992, p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121763429 114 Gundagai Independent, 17 August 1922, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121501563

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THE MAHER CUP

GUNDAGAI 6 TUMUT 10 Jack Ryan Jack O’Neill Referee: Viv ‘Bluey’ Freestone (3 goals) Bill Cheffins Les Craig (Gundagai) Roy Marshall Tom O’Brien (capt.) (2 goals) Gate: £25 Jim Elworthy Norman ‘Bob’ Wilkinson Al Smith J. Prestridge Bill Brownrigg Reverend Charles Jessop Clarrie Joyce Milton ‘King’ Allatt Fred Dominick Gerry Quirk George Hawkins R. Byrne (try) Jack Elworthy Harry Tonkin Jack Smith Jim Treweek Gerry Crowe Roy Tonkin Jack Luff Jack Crompton (try) This was the first Maher Cup match to include a future international; Phil Freestone’s red haired younger brother 18-year-old Eric, known as Viv but nicknamed Bluey. Called up to replace Phil who had just left town, he scored all Gundagai’s points. The match also marked the first protest. Word was that Tumut’s try-scorer R. Byrne; a member of the Tempe Depot Rugby League Club who had just toured the area with the Newtown Tramway team was a ‘ring-in’, in that he did not meet the required one month residential qualification.115 Byrne signed a declaration that he had been living in Tumut for eight weeks and the protest was lost. However Gundagai officials subsequently made enquiries in Sydney which convinced them of their case’s veracity. But it was too late.116

MATCH 11: 23 AUGUST 1922 - TUMUT V COOTAMUNDRA An excited Cootamundra commissioned seven carriages that left the station at 9.55am conveying 125 passengers, picking up 12 others at Coolac, 93 at Gundagai and between 30 and 40 elsewhere. The 270 arrived at Tumut at 1.05 and made their way out to the racecourse where the crowd built to over 2,000.117 Coota made £60 profit on the train, likely more than Tumut received at the gate.118 Coota had the first Maher Cup team led by a professional footballer. Phil Regan’s new look team also included five juniors: Tom McDevitt, W. Kelly, Bryan O’Connor, Jack Sissian and an 18-year-old named Eric Weissel.

115 His name was variously recorded at Byrne, Byrnes, Burn and Burns. 116 Tumut and Adelong Times, 1 September 1922, p.2.,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139030296 117 Adelong and Tumut Express, 25 August 1922, p. 2. , viewed 22 Apr 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article115926906 118 Tumut and Adelong Times, 25 August 1922, p.2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139021267

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Regan’s boys ‘made a brilliant showing’. Weissel scored three tries and was dubbed Cootamundra’s Beauford, after the then famous race horse.119 It was a triumph of conditioning and coaching that had drawn upon the enthusiasm of naturally athletic youngsters. At 10pm the train hooted into the yard accompanied by a chorus of the other locomotives. Wild celebrations downtown followed.120.

TUMUT 11 COOTAMUNDRA 19 Jack O’Neill Bill Lesberg (2 goals) Referee; Ted Quirk Harry Tonkin Eric Weissel (3 tries) (Tumut)) Roy Tonkin Tom McDevitt Reverend Charles Jessop Charlie Schofield Crowd: 2,000+ Jack Nuttall Wal Franklin Gerry Quirk Herb Schofield (2 tries) Tom O’Brien (capt.) (4 goals) Phil Regan (capt.) Norman ‘Bob’ Wilkinson Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Milton ‘King’ Allatt Bryan O’Connor Bill Sturt121 (try) Jack Sissian Bridle122 Bill Kelly Bill Cheffins Ray Sheedy Jack Crompton L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan

MATCH 12: 30 AUGUST 1922 - COOTAMUNDRA V TUMUT For the first time the Cootamundra Rugby League Club hosted a Maher Cup challenge. The 125 passengers from Tumut had swelled to 250 after picking up at Gundagai and elsewhere. The visitors were met at the station at 3:20 and ‘motored out to the ground at Quinn and Renehan’s estate’.123 Nearby Quinlan’s Paddock, Coota’s former ground, had been pegged out to provide a landing strip.124

119 Cootamundra Herald, 13 July 1922, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143760574 120 Adelong and Tumut Express, 25 August 1922, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115926916; Cootamundra Herald, 24 August 1922, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143751834 121 For biographical information on Bill Sturt see Elphick, L. (2015). Brothers in Arms: Gundagai and Tumut, pp. 192-195. 122 It is uncertain whether this was ‘Dickie’ Bridle or Wally Bridle. 123 Located next to Cootamundra West railway station and quite close to Quinlan’s Paddock where league had also been played. John Quinn was the pre-eminent developer of the Kelpie sheep dog. He had a stock and station agency with J.T. Renehan. A proper football field at Fisher Park was still two years away. 124 Cootamundra Local History Society (2017). Cootamundra History: a photographic history, Volume VII., p.35

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The crowd was variously estimated at 1,500, over 2,000 and 3,000.125. On a field without a fence, the takings of voluntary contributions amounted to a record £58/18/. In addition people purchased programs, described as ‘three-penny cards’ with the names of the players.126’ Tumut had to admit that the professional coaching had created at Coota a team a tier above themselves.127

COOTAMUNDRA 20 TUMUT 5 Bill Lesberg (3 goals) Matt Downing Referee: Glen Evans Eric Weissel Hector McDonald (Cootamundra) Charlie Schofield Tom O’Brien (capt.) (goal) Gate: £58/18/- Tom McDevitt (try) Milton ‘King’ Allatt Crowd: 1,500-3,000 Wal Franklin (try) Bill Cheffins Herb Schofield (try & goal) Norman ‘Bob’ Wilkinson Phil Regan (capt.) Jack O’Neill Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow (try) Gerry Quirk (try) Bryan O’Connor Thompson Tom Doran Harry Tonkin Fred Hayward Sid Young Ray Sheedy Edgar Baker L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Vern Harris The visitors were invited to a dinner at Carberry’s Australian Hotel, and given a right royal send off back home to the hills. Cootamundra would thwart 17 more consecutive challenges until the Cup briefly went north to Temora in June 1924.

MATCH 13: 6 SEPTEMBER 1922 - COOTAMUNDRA V JUNEE ROVERS Ted Maher’s idea for the Cup to be contested between the best players from a particular district was ignored by Junee Rovers. The town had three teams: Rovers, Royals and Waratahs, while nearby villages Illabo, Old Junee and Junee Reefs competed also competed in the local competition. The black and white Rovers, premiers for 1920, 1921 and 1922 and holders of the Alley & Prowse Cup did not feel it necessary to include the others in their Maher Cup endeavour.128

125 Tumut and Adelong Times, 1 September 1992, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139030307; Cootamundra Herald, 31 August 1922, p.2.,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143757871; Adelong and Tumut Express, 1 September 1992, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115932842 126 Cootamundra Herald, 31 August 1922, p.2.,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143757871 127 Adelong and Tumut Express and Tumbarumba Post, 1 September, 1922 p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article115932842 128 Daily Advertiser (Wagga), 8 September, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142534834

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With Regan totally in control and Weissel brilliant, maybe they should have. Junee lost 7 tries to 1. The voluntary gate contributions amounted to £30.

COOTAMUNDRA 29 JUNEE ROVERS 3 Bill Lesberg (goal) Ernie Turner Referee: Eric Weissel (3 tries, 2 goals) Alf ‘Soldier’ Markham Glen Evans (Cootamundra) Tom McDevitt (try) Jack Lewis Gate: £30 Charlie Schofield (try) Paddy Heaton Wal Franklin Jack McLaughlin (capt.) Herb Schofield (2 tries, goal) Tom Ratcliffe Phil Regan (capt.) Clive Turner (try) Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow (try) L. Coble Bryan O’Connor Jack Gendle Tom Doran George Edwards Tom McGuigan Bill Edwards Ray Sheedy Cecil Porch L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Pearce

MATCH 14: 20 SEPTEMBER 1922 - COOTAMUNDRA V GUNDAGAI In inclement weather a crowd of more than 300 came up on the train. They must have been in their club colours of gold and black, as they made their way through the town ‘like a swarm of bees’. About 1,500 paid £45 to see a good team outclassed by the wily leadership of Phil Regan who fed his most talented line of backs.129

COOTAMUNDRA 21 GUNDAGAI 5 Bill Lesberg (2 goals) Bill Smith Referee: Eric Weissel (try) Roy Marshall Glen Evans (Cootamundra) Tom McDevitt Viv ‘Bluey’ Freestone Gate: £45 Charlie Schofield (try) Clarrie Joyce Crowd: 1,500 Wal Franklin Jack Ryan (goal) Phil Regan (capt.) (try) Jim Woodbridge (try) Herb Schofield (try & goal) Viv Joyce Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow (try) Jack Luff Bryan O’Connor C. Lewin Tom Doran Gerry Crowe Tom McGuigan George Hawkins Ray Sheedy Al Smith L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan (try) Fred Dominick

129 Cootamundra Herald, 21 September 1922, p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143757111

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MATCH 15: 27 SEPTEMBER 1922 - COOTAMUNDRA V TUMUT This was Cootamundra third easy win in a row. Tumut, as the Cup rule-makers were guaranteed the final challenge of each season. However they didn’t have the form or confidence. Morning rain at Tumut and pessimism caused the special train to run at a loss.130 Four of the selected team’s best failed to appear: O’Brien, O’Neill, McDonald and Cheffins. Having no plan for their replacement three pickups were found from (some very good) Gundagai players in the crowd: McGuire, Hawthorne and Wheatley. 131

COOTAMUNDRA 21 TUMUT 3 Bill Lesberg (goal) Vern Harris Referee: Eric Weissel (try & 2 goals) Art Elphick (try) Glen Evans (Cootamundra) Tom McDevitt (try) Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan Gate: £40+ Charlie Schofield Edgar Baker Wal Franklin (try) G. or C. Wellington Phil Regan (capt.) Milton ‘King’ Allatt Herb Schofield (3 goals) Reverend Charles Jessop Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Reg Ryan Bryan O’Connor Gerry Quirk Tom Doran Henry McGuire (Gundagai) Tom McGuigan Guy Hawthorne (Gundagai) Ray Sheedy George Wheatley (Gundagai) L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan (try) Sid Young Cootamundra hosted a Sydney University league team the following Saturday and Monday and beat them twice.132 They had given the region’s football clubs something to ponder over the summer.

THE MAGNIFICENT WEISSELS

In 1922 Eric Weissel came to notice. He became a try-scoring, goal-kicking genius. He helped develop the Maher Cup into a footballing phenomenon. Playing for small town clubs all his life, his early brilliance was unknown to Sydney commentators. In the bush many swore that he was the world’s best five-eighth.133 He came from an extraordinary sporting family.

130 Cootamundra Herald, 28 September, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143758042 131 Adelong and Tumut Express, 29 September 1922, p.3.,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115932478; Gundagai Independent, 28 September,p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121500017 132 At the time Sydney University had a team in the Sydney first grade competition 133 West Wyalong Advocate, p. 9. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185777301

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Eric’s father, Edward Balthazar (Ted) Weissel (1861-1934), was a railway fettler – but also a sportsman, horseman and acrobat; a sprinter of such dominance that he was banned from competing in the railway picnic races. He captained the Brawlin cricket team and possessed extraordinary horse skills. According to his obituary To see him performing on his pony was an interesting-treat. When it was cantering he could jump off and on from either side, and in jumping he would run along with the pony and jump the hurdle with it. He also was a champion scratch-puller, a forgotten test of strength, similar to arm wrestling.134 Ted’s wife Ellen (nee Wignell) (1861-1942), was also a noted runner before she married aged 20. From a family of 14 children (Ted was of 12), she raised 11, most of who developed into fine athletes. Ted and Ellen moved from Thurgoona near Albury, to the small village of Brawlin just south of Cootamundra, following the completion of the Cootamundra to Gundagai rail line in 1886, on which he was a permanent-way fettler. Later they managed the post office that operated at Brawlin siding, where Ted also built a wine saloon for his brother John.135 In 1906 the family moved into Cootamundra. The first-born, Catherine Weissel (1882-1971) was the only one seemingly not besotted by sport. Kate married John (Tiger) Fleming – an engine driver. In the 1920s he drove most of the special trains for the Maher Cup and did the engine tooting.136 The eldest son, Edward (E.P.) Weissel (1884-1973), managed Illawong Station from about 1920 and was president of the Jugiong Cricket Club. As a young man he played rugby union until breaking a cartilage. His son, another Ted, was a teacher and outstanding cricketer. John Jephson (Jack) Weissel (1886-1966), was a champion wicket-keeper who played for Muttama, Brawlin and Cootamundra. He bought a farm near Ungarie and also rode a successful jumping horse, ‘Rainbow’ at local shows, and drove trotters. William H. (Bill) Weissel (1889-1945), became a telephone line foreman for the PMG, living at Harden all his married life. Bill was a goal-kicker for Harden and played cricket. In 1921 he kicked the winning goal to beat a Cootamundra rugby league side which included young brother Eric. However his first love seemed to be music – being a very active bandsman.

134 Cootamundra Herald, 5 January 1934, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138965911 135 Cootamundra Herald, 28 April 1897, p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138289186 136 Cootamundra Herald, 12 August 1940, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144087444

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Alice Maud Weissel (1890-1976), was a nurse and tennis player. Mabel Linda Weissel (1892-1979), ran at picnic races and played tennis. Gladys Ruby Weissel (1894-1964) ran and high-jumped, played tennis, hockey and cricket, in which she played in Sydney and against an English team. But it was in riding jumping horses that she was most brilliant. Cecil Francis (Cec) Weissel (1896-1969), was considered by some to be the best runner of the family and possibly a ‘faster and stronger footballer than Eric, if only he had had the opportunity to follow up that game’.137 A railway telegraphist he captained the Cootamundra cricket team, played football, and won prestigious running races. Ester George Weissel (1897-1982), was also a railway telegraph he played good tennis and football. Eleanor Weissel (1900-1985), married Charles Gadd, another railway telegraphist. They both competed in footraces. Ella was a tennis player of note. And finally, more than 20 years after her first baby, Ellen Weissel gave birth to her final child, Eric Leslie Weissel (1903-1972). Aged 14 he won the boys’ sprint at the Railways Employees’ Picnic at Wagga, before 3,000 people.138 Two years later on 7 June 1919, under rugby union rules, the fast flying winger first came to attention for the Bing Boys club in a curtain raiser to Cootamundra verses Manly.139 The following year he was the star of the Cadets team who won the E.C. (Ted) Mangan Cup, defeating Harden 12-0. Weissel scored three tries and set up the fourth.140 By August 1921 he was playing centre and being lauded for his long goal kicks.141 But the love affair between Cootamundra and Eric Weissel could have been short- lived. Eric worked at the Berrima District (dairy) Company plant in Coota and they promoted him to a position in Sydney. On 13 February 1923 in the Anglican Parish Hall the Glee Club organised the civic farewell that Eric had warranted due to his impact as a tennis player, cricketer and footballer as well as his contributions in the choir. The speeches reference him becoming a Davis Cup tennis player, rather than a rugby league star.142 Lucky for Cootamundra, he must have got lonely. He was back home within weeks of leaving and on 5 May he took seven wickets for 28 runs.143

137 Cootamundra Herald, 5 January 1934, p. 2. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138965911 138 Wagga Wagga Express, 20 March 1917, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145319394 139 Cootamundra Herald, 5 June 1919, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144341559 140 Cootamundra Herald, 9 April 1920, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139016801 141 Cootamundra Herald, 3 August 1921, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138787964 142 Cootamundra Herald , 14 February 1923, p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144410441 143 Cootamundra Herald, 7 May 1923, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144416982

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A little later playing football against Young: Weissel was the outstanding player on the ground; his three tries were all brilliant and showed him at his best. It would be hard to find a player as fresh, resourceful, cool, and ‘clean’ as Ec, or one enjoying more popularity with local football enthusiasts. Yesterday he dummied, side-stepped, out paced, and generally out-manoeuvred the whole of the opposition. Of the 19 points scored, his contribution was 13 - three tries and two goals.144 From 1923 to 1934 the Maher Cup’s advance to become much more than football owed much to ‘Ec’. 1923 – Coota Takes Ownership

FORMING GROUP 9 As rugby league had emerged as a major sport across the State the NSWRL started to get things organised. They divided the regions into groups. Group 9 was created to include the southwest beyond Yass. All clubs in the area were invited to Harden’s Grand Hotel for the foundation meeting on 26 April; the main business being the organisation of selection trials for a Southern Districts side for Country Week in Sydney.145 It was agreed to divide the Group into three sections for these trials: 1. Harden, Murrumburrah, Binalong, Young, Wambanumba, Monteagle, and Bendick Murrell 2. Cootamundra, Junee, Wagga, Gundagai, Tumut and Adelong 3. West Wyalong, Barmedman, Griffith, Temora, Leeton, Ariah Park and Mildil The meeting ran later than anticipated, forcing three delegates to catch their train home before the conclusion of business. After midnight those remaining narrowly passed a resolution to move the Group headquarters from Harden to Cootamundra. This made sense with Coota being the hub of the rail network and close to the Group’s geographical centre, but the motion would have been lost if the departed delegates, all from the Harden-Young area, were present. An inauspicious start. The first Group 9 team (to play Group 8 at Goulburn) was: Fullback: Bill Lesberg (Cootamundra); Three-quarters: Eric Weissel (Cootamundra), Bill Collier (Barmedman), Pickard and C. McVeigh (Young); Halves: Charlie Carthew (Junee), Tom Peck (Binalong), Jim Cornett (Leeton); Forwards: L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan (Cootamundra), Leo ‘Curly’ Joyce (Young), Bill Brogan (West Wyalong), Glen King (Barmedman), A. Miller (Harden), Ollie Armour (Junee) After County Week Weissel and Brogan were chosen to represent NSW Country.

144 Cootamundra Herald, 27 August 1923, p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144411800 145 Southern Districts was composed of Groups 8, centred on Goulburn and Group 9.

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HIRING CAPTAIN-COACHES Twelve challenges were made by six teams in 1923. Almost all the clubs followed Cootamundra’s lead by hiring a Sydney captain- coach. Gundagai and Tumut engaged South Sydney stars George Moore and Clarrie Horder respectively. At West Wyalong another Souths player ‘Dutchy’ Anderson had taken over the Post Office Hotel the previous year and while not officially the coach was acclaimed the ‘brains’ of the team. When Dutchy departed the committee hired Barmedman-born International Dick Vest from Western Suburbs for the ’23 season.146 Temora snared Easts’ John ‘Dinny’ Campbell, and Harden-Murrumburrah and Young, Newtown players Charlie ‘Boxer’ Russell and Ern ‘Cobber’ French. It was even reported (erroneously), that Dally Messenger was to take up an assignment with tiny Barmedman.147 The village did however gain the coaching services of St. George’s George Carstairs, of 1921-22 Kangaroo tour fame, for a few weeks.148 At the end of the season ‘Son’ Burge, a former member of the Australian national rugby union team and brother of Kangaroo Frank Burge, took over the Barmedman Hotel and became honorary coach.

MATCH 16: 6 JUNE 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V TUMUT Cootamundra’s coach had Phil Regan returned from Glebe. Tumut wanted its Maher Cup back. Neighbours Adelong sought to retrieve its Alley & Prowse Cup from Junee. In March Tumut Mayor James Elphick presided over a public meeting called concerning a letter of offer received from Clarrie Horder a former South Sydney and NSW representative. Younger brother, winger Harold Horder, was at that time about the most exciting player around. The letter mentioned that Horder was also negotiating with Junee, but ‘for £7 per week, in addition to board and lodging’, he would serve Tumut by ‘coaching the players, taking part in the play, and giving blackboard lectures at intervals’. Tumut publicans were asked to each contribute £1 a week and the Mallos brothers at the Olympic Café pitched in a quid a week.149. On 1 May Horder commenced duties, which also included penning the newspaper’s football column. The Regan v Horder battle started late and ended in fading light. The problem was the referee. Tumut declared the week before that Jack Young would officiate.

146 Anderson returned to the hotel and the team in 1924 147 Gundagai Times, 8 May 1923, p.2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121765468. This article also indicates that Frank Burge was appointed to coach at Junee, but this appears to be also erroneous. 148 Wyalong Advocate, 15 June 1923, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108629168 149 Tumut Advocate, 13 March, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112273085

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Following Tumut’s practice when they were holders, Cootamundra appointed their now usual ref. (and club secretary) Glen Evans. Maher Cup Rule No.9 stipulated that the man in the centre was to be selected by ‘mutual agreement’, but with no instruction as to what to do in its absence. Tumut’s claim that Jack Young would be neutral as he was from Adelong, seemed dubious to Cootamundra, given that the Tumut 13 included Adelong players. The argument continued for an hour in front of an increasingly restless crowd and with two candidates kitted out and ready to referee. Only ‘when the clouds looked black, the silver lining came’. 150 A disgruntled Tumut caved in rather than reboard their train to choof off home. Tumut were in front for most of the match, but Regan’s guile eventually won out. Horder was recorded as ‘too fightable’.151 Not everyone was impressed with the hometown referee: Regan was allowed to put the ball into Coota’s second row…Lesberg with a punch knocked Horder spinning…Regan kicked high, and the forwards got under the ball, but for some unaccountable reason the referee penalised Tumut under the post…Coota were playing their 14 men against 13 of Tumut… Horder tackled Schoefield [sic] who resented it, kicking him in the face, and two more Coota men reigned punches on Horder while he lay on the ground. When he got up to defend himself the police hopped on to the field and warned Horder…152

COOTAMUNDRA 17 TUMUT 8 Bill Lesberg (4 goals) Matt Downing Referee: Glen Evans Eric Weissel Jim ‘Buck’ Elphick (Mick McNamara) (Cootamundra) Bernie Kinnane (Tom Doran) Jack O’Neill (goal) Gate: £41/7/4 Wal Franklin (try) Clarrie Horder (capt.) Phil Freestone (try) Art Elphick Charlie Schofield Fred Halloran Phil Regan (capt.) Milton ‘King’ Allatt (try) Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Wally Bridle (try) Bryan O’Connor Gerry Quirk Trevor Kelsey M. Benson Fred Hayward (try) Len ‘Scotty’ McLennan Ray Sheedy Jim Treweek L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Sid Young Tumut felt dudded. Rule 9 was incompatible with the emerging Maher Cup realpolitik. The officials immediately rewrote it to read: All referees shall be neutral and qualified, such referee to be mutually agreed upon between the opposing teams on the day of acceptance of challenge, failing such agreement a referee be obtained from the NSWRL.

150 Gundagai Independent, 7 June 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130351041 151 Cootamundra Herald, 7 June, p.3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144416205 152 Adelong and Tumut Express, 29 June 1923, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115930090

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As the committee laboured over the wording, the punters promised to stage a grudge match. It was to be a £50 pounds a team ‘or as much more as wanted’, to be wagered by Cootamundra and Tumut players and supporters on a match at neutral Gundagai under a neutral referee on Wednesday 4 July. The Sullivans at the Gundagai Independent were indignant: This paper is opposed to the commercial element creeping into sport. Although it is now stated that neither Tumut, nor Cootamundra club was responsible for making the match for £50 aside, still the primary object in view of the stake money put up by the supporters of each side, and – the gate money. When the good old game of football requires, side wagers by club supporters in order to make it boom, the man who likes the sport for sports sake will quickly drop his interest in the game. Big betting on matches leads to queer practices, and tactics that do not appeal to people who always like to see the better team win. We hope this is the last time we will have Gundagai dragged into a position that is unenviable, and that football matches in which the betting element is the main factor will be jumped on by all true lovers of the game. 153 Wishful thinking. The match aroused enormous interest. Trains carried over 1,000 passengers to the Murrumbidgee flats – 650 from Cootamundra and 430 from Tumut. Others motored from Harden, Yass, Junee, Jugiong, Coolac and even Bongongo. The Tumut Brass Band played selections. Mr Karl Bounader, proprietor of the ‘World’s Best Pictures’ and lessee of the Gundabidgee Theatre, captured it on film. The guestimated 3,000 plus crowd, more than double the town’s population, and contributed a massive gate of £121/9/2. This is clearly was people wanted: grudge and gambling. The game was ‘a hard and interesting exhibition, played in [perhaps surprisingly] a good sportsmanlike spirit’. The umpire was not an issue. However the Wyalong Advocate reported ‘the match rather than ending the dispute, is said to have increased the bitterness’. 154 Gambling would fuel the Maher Cup for another four decades. It was a key component of is culture and contributed to its success. A year later some newspapers were happy to quote the starting price.155 In 1925 Temora would challenge Cootamundra for ‘£500 aside or £1000 if desired, to play on a neutral ground’ under a neutral referee etc.’156 Following protests the idea was dropped.

153 Gundagai Independent, 2 July 1923, p 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130350351 154 Wyalong Advocate, 10 July 1923, p.1., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108629787 155 Gundagai Times, 1 August 1924, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121769574 156 Tumut Advocate , 7 July 1925 p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112276517

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From June 1923 the hometown referee was no longer an issue. Of greater concern was whether the referee and/or some players may be on the take.

MATCH 17: 20 JUNE 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V GUNDAGAI Charlie Black came down from Sydney on the train to become the Maher Cup’s first neutral referee. Four hundred came up from Gundagai. According to the Gundagai Independent, Cootamundra’s unenclosed ground, with its raucous crowd ringing the touch lines, presented an intimidating atmosphere.157 While the visiting ‘Bidgee Boys had the superior forwards, Phil Regan’s backline was simply brilliant. In a ‘willing’ encounter, George Moore, Gundagai’s new coach had a bad afternoon; accidently injuring team-mate Cec Cheffins; failing miserably at kicking goals; and finally being removed suffering a broken collar bone.158 ‘Bluey’ Freestone, who was on the losing side, and whose frequent and quite vigorous grassing of older brother Phil produced mirth in the crowd, was man of the match.159

COOTAMUNDRA 10 GUNDAGAI 4 FBillVEEDGRSA Lesberg (2 goals) Joe Healy Referee: Charlie Black Phil Freestone G. Smith (Sydney) Tom McDevitt George Moore (capt.) Gate: £49/1/4 Charlie Schofield Viv ‘Bluey’ Freestone (2 goals) Wal Franklin (2 tries) Cecil Cheffins (George Wheatley) Eric Weissel Bill Brownrigg Phil Regan (capt.) George Hawkins Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Gerry Crowe Bryan O’Connor Al Smith Perce Mills Jack Smith Fred Hayward Jack ‘Terrific’ Jones Ray Sheedy Harold ‘Bullocky’ Jones L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Guy Hawthorne

MATCH 18: 27 JUNE 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V TEMORA Temora had defeated Cootamundra for the Tulk Cup 10 days before, and with international Dinny Campbell as captain coach hopes were high. A healthy crowd caught the train down. However they didn’t even hint at halting the Cootamundra juggernaut. Bill Lesberg put in one of his most deft performances with the boot.

157 Gundagai Independent, 21 June 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130352545 158 Gundagai Independent, 21 June 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130352545 159 Cootamundra Herald, 21 June 1923, p.3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144418260

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COOTAMUNDRA 19 TEMORA 3 Bill Lesberg (5 goals) B. Newhall Referee: ‘Bunny’ Poplin Phil Freestone ? (Young) Charlie Schofield Robert McKinnon Gate: £53/13/3 Eric Weissel (try) John ‘Dinny’ Campbell (capt.) Wal Franklin Bill ‘Slender’ O’Leary Tom McDevitt (try) Lloyd Smith Phil Regan (capt.) Lester Robinson Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Charlie Cowan Bryan O’Connor Tom McAlister Reg Large W. Maher Fred Hayward Ernie Green Ray Sheedy Hector Curran L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Ted Curran

TUMUTIANS’ LONG TRIP HOME On Wednesday 4 July bound for the Coota-Tumut grudge match at Gundagai, a special train carried the largest passenger-list to have departed from Tumut station: 450 men, women and children. About eight miles out, near Reka Siding, the train puffed and puffed to make the incline. To no avail. It had to stop, back up, and take a new run in order to top the hill. You may have thought it would have occurred to the driver or the fireman that the much steeper incline on the Mt. Horeb side of Reka, which they would need to contend with on the return journey, may present a problem. It didn't. Late into the night on the Mt. Horeb side, 10 miles from home, the wheels simply slipped and spun around on the icy wet rails. Leaving his passengers in darkness, the driver detached the carriages and steamed into Tumut to organise a second engine. Thirty minutes after midnight he arrived to inform the station-master, and the throng that who had been waiting for hours to convey friends and family home, of the situation. Pulling another driver and fireman out of bed took some time. When the two locos arrived back on the scene a couple of hours later the train had become a village. Thankfully hyperthermia wasn’t a threat, as they were packed in like sardines. Some inhabitants were keeping warm by setting fire to anything in the neighbourhood that would burn. Many had already imbibed sufficient of the 'spirit that warms' while waiting at Gundagai and were singing 'in all keys' and using language that would 'wake the dead'. 'One or two amused their townsfolks by indulging in fisticuffs and shedding a little blood. A few who perhaps thought the engine would never return, had left to walk the 10 miles home.

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When at 3:15am the two engines discharged their exhausted cargo there were some, but not enough, conveniences to take them to their homes. Some still had a long walk.160

MATCH 19: 18 JULY 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V GUNDAGAI Cootamundra has this fever! The whole town seems to have born infected. The football germ is in our blood.161 With Tumut and Gundagai submitting ‘simultaneous’ challenges the first Maher Cup draw was required.162 Gundagai’s captain-coach George Moore’s resigned just days before, citing lack of willingness from players to train.163 The ‘Bidgee Boys’ still came in with the stronger pack. In a ‘veritable swamp’, where it was ‘easier to dive about than walk’, the previously unstoppable Cootamundra backs got bogged down. But Coota was saved, not for the first or last time, by the boot of Bill Lesberg.164 His winner was kicked from one of the islands between water following a mark claimed by Weissel from a ‘fair catch’. The goal from mark rule was eliminated from the code the following season.165 The Cootamundra team was not published in match reports.166 Five of the eight selected players in italics played.

160 Adelong and Tumut Express, 6 July 1923, p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115927368; Tumut and Adelong Times, 6 July 1923, p. 3. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139022440 161 Cootamundra Herald 17 July 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144414102 162 Tumut Advocate, 17 July 1923, p. 2. , viewed 26 Jan 2021, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112273485 163 Gundagai Times, 20 July 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121763005. Moore withdraw his resignation a week later. 164 Cootamundra Herald, 19 July 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144416510 165 Young Chronicle, 2 May 1924, p.3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article234315525 166 The Cootamundra Herald confusingly reports on the play of ‘Burge’ in its reports. Given that Temora made a bid for the famous Frank Burge that week the reference is confusing, and in all likelihood he meant ‘Berg’, Bill Lesberg’s nickname.

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COOTAMUNDRA 2 GUNDAGAI 0 Bill Lesberg (goal) Bill Smith Referee: Eric Weissel Fred Leseberg Albert. Naylor Tom Ryan Bill Brownrigg (Barmedman) Phil Regan (capt.) George Hawkins Gate: £29/14/7 L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Viv ‘Bluey’ Freestone Charlie Schwartzel (Bob Condron) Jack Smith Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow G. Smith Ray Sheedy Harold ‘Bullocky’ Jones Jim Watson Guy Hawthorne Bernie Kinnane Bert Lenon Tom McDevitt Albert ‘Bert’ Davis Charlie Schofield Gerry Crowe Reg Large George Wheatley Fred Hayward Bryan O’Connor Bill Kelly

MATCH 20: 25 JULY 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V TUMUT Two hundred patrons each paying 11/9d boarded the 11:40 train at Tumut which also picked up at Gilmore, Mount Horeb, and Gundagai where two more carriages were linked. In a match of great quality and excitement Tumut’s Clarrie Horder reported that late on with the score 8-7 with the crowd shouting and closing in along sidelines in the unfenced field the atmosphere was so ‘uproarious’ that the players could hardly hear the whistle.167 The record crowd of 4,000 or so saw Cootamundra prevail with a late intercept.168

167 Adelong and Tumut Express, 27 July 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115933374 168 Tumut and Adelong Times, 27 July 1923, p.3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139031202

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COOTAMUNDRA 11 TUMUT 7 Bill Lesberg (goal) Matt Downing Referee: Gus Thornton Jim Watson (2 tries) Jim ‘Buck Elphick (Sydney) Tom McDevitt (try) Tom O’Brien (goal) Gate: £52/1/6 Bernie Kinnane Clarrie Horder (capt.) Crowd: 4,000 Charlie Schofield Art Elphick Eric Weissel Jack O’Neill (goal) Phil Regan (capt.) Milton ‘King’ Allatt Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Mick McNamara Bryan O’Connor Wally Bridle Fred Hayward Jim Treweek169 (try) Reg Large M. Benson Ray Sheedy Gerry Quirk L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan

The Cup was now becoming a big deal. The Sydney newspapers published the results and a draw needed to be made from five challengers: Temora, Murrumburrah, West Wyalong, Gundagai and Tumut. 170

MATCH 21: 8 AUG 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V WEST WYALONG This was not just West Wyalong’s first Maher Cup challenge but their first encounter with Cootamundra football.171 All but two of the town’s businesses closed on Wednesday morning so their employees could board the 9:15 am train which picked up at Temora and reaching Coota at 1:20.172 The men from the mallee country were optimistic. Led by Kangaroo Dick Vest it included 23 year old local ‘Big’ Bill Brogan, who would later also represent Australia. Hopes were soon dashed. Weissel didn’t give Vest any room to move and in a performance that ‘approached brilliancy’ Cootamundra ran to 10-0 at half time, a gap that never looked like being closed. The crowd was at least 1,500.173

169 Also recorded as Joe Treweek: Adelong and Tumut Express, 27 July 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115933374 170 Cootamundra Herald, 31 July 1923, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144415343 171 Wyalong Advocate, 7 August 1923, p.1., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108621099 172 Wyalong Advocate, 3 August 1923, p.16., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108621037; Cootamundra Herald, 7 August 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144418728 173 The crowd reported in the West Wyalong Advocate is inconsistent with the Cootamundra Herald’s report: ‘one of the best attendances of the season’.

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COOTAMUNDRA 15 WEST WYALONG 8 Bill Lesberg (3 goals) Charlie Davis Referee: John ‘Dinny’ Jim Watson George Kearns Murray (Sydney) Tom McDevitt (2 tries) John Franklin (2 tries) Gate: £53/5/3 Bernie Kinnane (Mick Tunchon) Joe Stumpf Crowd: 1,500174 Charlie Schwartzel Jim Keen Eric Weissel (try) Dick Vest (capt.) (goal) Phil Regan (capt.) Clarrie Joyce Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Nap Gardiner Bob Condron Fred Broad Bryan O’Connor Bill Brogan Fred Hayward Joe Young Ray Sheedy George Broad L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Cyril Miller

MATCH 22: 15 AUGUST 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V TEMORA Being the only team to defeat both West Wyalong and Cootamundra in the season Temora were full of promise. The special train brought 260 people down. The Red and Whites went ahead 3-0 but Temora’s coach ‘Dinny’ Campbell was nursing an injury and Bill Lesberg’s flurry of exceptional goals from place and drop-kicks set a somewhat lacklustre Cootamundra up for an easy win – the score identical to that in Temora’s earlier challenge.175

174 Wyalong Advocate, 10 August 1923, p.1., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108621168 175 Cootamundra Herald 16 August 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144414488

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COOTAMUNDRA 19 TEMORA 3 Bill Lesberg (4 goals) Bill ‘Slender’ O’Leary Referee: Mick Tunchon (try) Glasheen Gus Thornton Charlie Schwartzel (try) John ‘Dinny’ Campbell (capt.) (capt.) (Sydney) Tom McDevitt Cyril ‘Whisky’ Meehan Gate: £43/12/4 Jim Watson (try & goal) Harold Thomas (try) Eric Weissel Robert McKinnon Phil Regan (capt.) Peter McSullea Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Ted Curran Bryan O’Connor Tom McAlister Bob Condron Norm Dundas Fred Hayward Artie McShane Ray Sheedy Hector Curran L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Charlie Cowan

MATCH 23: 22 AUGUST 1923 – COOTAMUNDRA V MURRUMBURRAH176 The biggest event in a Maher Cup town was the annual agricultural show. A spring race meeting ran a close second. Murrumburrah’s race day was on 22 August. Most of the selected players didn’t turn up. Even captain-coach ex-Newtown star Charlie ‘Boxer’ Russell was a scratching. The team included five men from Yass and still added up to only 10. Three ‘pickups’ were found from Springdale, Young and an ‘old player’ from Cootamundra.177 The result was what you’d expect from an unchanged Cootamundra which put its absolute best onto the field. Perhaps the most interesting aspect was that fullback Bill Lesberg scored what would be his only Maher Cup try.

176 The draw was for Harden-Murrumburrah, however the main report of this match described the team simply as Murrumburrah, while the Murrumburrah Signal newspaper identified it as a combined team of the Harden-Murrumburrah League 177 Cootamundra Herald, 23 August 1923, p.3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144416235

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COOTAMUNDRA 40 MURRUMBURRAH 2 Bill Lesberg (4 goals & try) Les Edgeworth (goal) Referee: Tom Ryan (try) Alf Garner (Yass) C. Tuckwell (Young) Charlie Schwartzel Tom O’Connor Gate: £31/9/5 Tom McDevitt (try) C. Sainsbury (Yass) Jim Watson (2 tries) J.J. Dalton (capt.) Eric Weissel (2 tries) John ‘Jack’ Nash (Yass) Phil Regan (capt.)(2 tries & goal) R. Fields Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow R. Rayner (Yass) Bryan O’Connor (try) W.D.J. McDowell Bob Condron Frank Beasy (Yass) Fred Hayward Bob? Boyd (Springdale pickup) Ray Sheedy Metcalf (Young pickup) L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Carl ‘Logun’ Gehrig (Cootamundra pickup)

MATCH 24: 29 AUGUST 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V GUNDAGAI The seeming inevitability of yet another Cootamundra victory was beginning to dampen expectations. Only 200 arrived from Gundagai. The magnificence of the Cootamundra team that revolved around halves Regan and Weissel was becoming routine. Fewer than usual locals turned out. Spring was breaking, and for many the Wagga Show and the Stockinbingal races were more attractive propositions.178 Gundagai’s forwards dominated but the Cootamundra’s backs made the difference. The Gundagai Independent bemoaned that: …our forwards played a brilliant game, but the back division — oh, heaven help us! Leave out brilliant V. Freestone, and the nippy Bert Davis and get all the rest to apply for the old age pension.179 The match was followed by a war of words about allegedly ‘rough stuff’ from Gundagai to which the Independent scribe responded: It was a real drawing room game, and must have amused at least one onlooker — that old-time Monaro sport, Police Sergeant McDonald who used to play real hard football, in the old days, when no man was allowed to leave the field with a jersey intact, and the player without scars was considered a namby pamby.180

178 Cootamundra Herald, 30 August 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144412025 179 Gundagai Independent, 30 August 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130348800 180 Gundagai Independent, 3 September 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130351134

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COOTAMUNDRA 10 GUNDAGAI 0 Bill Lesberg (2 goals) Joe Healy Referee: Jim Watson Viv ‘Bluey’ Freestone Webby Neill Tom McDevitt (try) Bill Brownrigg (Sydney) Charlie Schwartzel Jack Smith Gate: £34/13/- Mick Tunchon (try) Bert Davis Eric Weissel George Moore (capt.) Phil Regan (capt.) G. Smith Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Jack ‘Terrific’ Jones Bryan O’Connor Harold ‘Bullocky’ Jones Bob Condron Henry McGuire Fred Hayward Charlie Lewin Ray Sheedy Gerry Crowe L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan George Wheatley

MATCH 25: 5 SEPTEMBER 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V TUMUT This was Tumut’s fifth attempt to regain their beloved cup from Cootamundra. With four of their best players unfit: coach Clarrie Horder, Jack O’Neill, Buck Elphick and Wally Bridle, expectations were low.181 It had been raining solidly for two days and Tumut, anticipating a loss, cancelled the special train. Cootamundra was unsure whether the ground would be playable and didn’t advertise the fixture.182 Matters were unsettled up until the last car carrying the visitors spluttered into town at 4pm. The match was transferred from an inundated football ground to Albert Park where the men tussled in the mud and through drizzle. The result was the inevitable, in a clean game in mud.183

181 Tumut and Adelong Times, 7 September 1923, p.3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139025451 182 Cootamundra Herald, 5 September 1923, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144413166 183 Cootamundra Herald, 6 September 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144415606

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COOTAMUNDRA 10 TUMUT 3 Bill Lesberg (2 goals) Matt Downing Referee: Albert Naylor Jim Watson (try) Otto ‘Boydie’ Beegling (Barmedman) Tom McDevitt Tom O’Brien (try) Gate: £24/9/7 Charlie Schwartzel Assal Stitt Mick Tunchon Art Elphick Eric Weissel Bill Dowling Phil Regan (capt.)(try) Mick McNamara Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Milton ‘King’ Allatt Bryan O’Connor Jack Corbett Bob Condron Gerry Quirk Fred Hayward W. Murphy Ray Sheedy Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Jim Treweek Early motorists faced difficulties beyond their machines’ limited reliability, such as unsealed roads that quickly turned into bogs, and creeks and water courses yet to be bridged. Tumut’s players were stalled trying to cross the Muttama Creek on the way home. Few were awake to welcome them home at 2:30am.184

MATCH 26: 19 SEPTEMBER 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V WAGGA Although Australian rules had been and would continue to be Wagga’s dominant code, in 1923 there were four teams in its ‘A Grade’ competition: Borambola, Aloysians, Wagga and Farm.185 Forming a district team was a novelty. Unused to playing together the team appeared disjointed and coordinated. They were steamrolled by the Cootamundra juggernaut. A feature of the day was, once again, the masterful booting of Australian rules convert Bill Lesberg.

184 Adelong and Tumut Express, 7 September 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115929963 185 There were also four ‘B Grade’ teams – Borambola B, Aloysian B, Newtown and Oldtown.

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COOTAMUNDRA 32 WAGGA 0 Bill Lesberg (7 goals) Milton Angel Referee: ‘Bunny’ Poplin Jim Watson (2 tries) Tom English (Young) Tom McDevitt (2 tries) Les Jackson (capt.) Gate: £22/15/11 Charlie Schwartzel Ray Buckley Mick Tunchon (try) Jack McCarthy Eric Weissel (try) Gus Gray Phil Regan (capt.) Jack Stoppelbein Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow H. Saunders Bryan O’Connor R. Gray Bob Condron A. Miles Fred Hayward Spencer Angel Ray Sheedy Harry Tonkin L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan Roy Plummer

MATCH 27: 26 SEPTEMBER 1923 - COOTAMUNDRA V TUMUT The Maher Cup was on the line. Under Ted’s rules if Cootamundra were to win this match the Cup was theirs to keep in perpetuity.186 You may have expected a desperate effort from the Sky Blues. The previous Thursday witnessed a destructive storm across the area, so minds may have been elsewhere. Tumut seemed resigned to its loss. Only 24 people boarded the special train. The newspaper reported that: The people no longer took football seriously here, and this is not to be wondered at, seeing that the players themselves did not take it seriously enough to train sufficiently to make up a few points by which Cootamundra always managed to beat them.187 But Tumut played a fine match, trailing by just two points with minutes left.

186 Rule 8: The Union holding the Cup for two years in succession, or three years in all, shall become the absolute possessors of it. 187 Tumut and Adelong Times, 28 September 1923, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139028660

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COOTAMUNDRA 13 TUMUT 8 Bill Lesberg (2 goals) Clarrie Horder (capt.) Referee: Frank Delaney Jim Watson (try) Matt Downing (goal) (Sydney) Tom McDevitt Assal Stitt Gate: £48/17/4 Charlie Schwartzel Otto ‘Boydie’ Beegling (try) Mick Tunchon (2 tries) Jim Treweek Eric Weissel Milton ‘King’ Allatt (try) Phil Regan (capt.) Jack Corbett Curtis ‘Dick’ Pellow Gerry Quirk Bryan O’Connor R. Bridle Bob Condron Bill Dowling Fred Hayward Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan W. Murphy Ray Sheedy Reg Ryan L.T. ‘Daidie’ Quinlan V. Naughton The Cootamundra players were unpaid except for receiving £2 each for the £50 grudge match at Gundagai on 4 July. The club’s income for the year was £605/8/11. Key expenditure (below) shows how the costs of coaches and outside referees impacted the club – absorbing more than 40% of income.188

Phil Regan’s salary £143/10/- His rail fares £4/7/6 His farewell banquet £12/4/- His insurance £7/2/7 Referees £96/6/- Motor Hire £25/19/- Amusement Tax £23/8/8 Guernseys and Stockings £12/19/8 Meals (mainly hosting visiting players) £20/15/- Group photograph (one given to each player) £31/10/- Injured players payments £46/17/- Chemist's Fees £1/13/6 Training Oil £2/15/- Loss on Special Train £29/15/3 Maher Cup advertising £8/18/4 Cleaning and: Fencing Ground £3/19/- Weissel & Quinlan rail fares to/from Sydney) £5/10/-

188 Cootamundra Herald, 7 April 1924, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143745175

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…plus sleeping births for them £1/5/1 Donations to hospitals £60/6/2

PHIL REGAN

He may or may not have been the first paid player-coach to leave a top city club and take a country team to a higher level, but he was the first to transform a team into champions.189 For each of the next five seasons he caught the train back to Coota in the autumn, took board at a hotel and inspired and developed the local lads. Leading the team in 54 Maher Cup matches, his team prevailed in all but seven. No other imported coach in Maher Cup history bettered Regan’s longevity or success. He was born Phillip O’Regan in 1892 to a poor family which was to reside for generations within a stone’s throw of Wentworth Park, the home ground for both Glebe’s rugby union and league clubs. When Phil was five his father, an immigrant from Cork, died, leaving mother Mary with four children and another Phil fronted the court, aged 11, charged with ‘habitual wandering’. Mother Mary didn’t want to lose her little lad but Phillip’s contrite tears did not sway the magistrate. He was sentenced to the Nautical School Ship Sobraon, moored in the Sydney Harbour, which housed up to 200 lads declared neglected or in need of behavioural modification.190 Although highly regimented, the school did at least provide Phil with the carpentry skills that enabled him to earn a steady income outside football. According to his nephew the school system left him with a deep disrespect for governmental authority, which only increased with age. Older brother Peter Regan (1882-1917) had played half-back for Glebe’s powerful rugby union side until 1910, when Phil, aged 18, replaced him at scrum half. The following year he joined most of the promising young players in moving over to league. However with Glebe’s halves being Chris McKivat and Les Cubitt, retaining a regular place in the firsts was difficult. In 1912 the 20-year-old, widely known as ‘Wombo’ (presumably short for Wombat), commenced his trade at Cockatoo Island and became captain of the Glebe seconds, leading them undefeated through the season to win the first premiership for a Glebe Rugby League Club team.191 Once McKivat retired in 1914 Phil became a fixture with firsts. The 1915 season commenced in fine form and with great hope; 22,000 packed into Wentworth Park as tight as sardines.192

189 Cootamundra Herald, 31 August 1927, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139946000 190 Evening News (Sydney), 17 October 1903, p. 6. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113793365 191 Solling, M. (2014). An Act of Bastardry: Rugby League axes its first club: Glebe District Rugby League Football Club 1908-1929. Sydney: Walla Walla Press, p.69. 192 Referee (Sydney), 2 June 1915, p. 12. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129349725

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In August 1915 he enlisted with a bunch of his football mates, including fellow Sobraon boy Billy Stirton, but while in training camp he was allowed to play out the season. The team was just pipped for the premiership by Balmain. Footballing friend Fred ‘Wag’ Saunders was killed less than four weeks into service on the Western Front.193 Phil, in the 56th Battalion at Fromelles, was very much in the thick of it. He was severely wounded in the left thigh and buttocks in August 1916. Attached to a training battalion when recovering from his injuries he was promoted before returning to France, only to be gassed and shot again in the shoulder and back on 24 April 1918 at the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. He arrived home in February 1919 classified as medically unfit.194 According to Max Solling’s interview with Jack Flitcroft, Phil: …returned badly scarred…and took to the field for Glebe with shrapnel embedded in his thigh, so that when he was heavily tackled on hard ground his white pants became saturated with blood, something that never deterred him.195 His nephew reports that he never knew him to mention the war. Continuing to represent Glebe firsts into the 1922 season, in July, with the team at the top of the Sydney table, he accepted an offer to head out to Cootamundra. The standard of football on Maher Cup football rose rapidly as professional coaches crafted the talents of country athletes. None did it better. The careers of Eric Weissel and Jack Kingston are testimony to his skill. Weissel in his 1938 retirement speech attributed his success to Phil Regan.196 According to Phil Grohala, he never married and was a popular local, known and loved by many, including the local constabulary, who would regularly return him home after a day at the races. His love for rugby league remained and was his favourite pastime along with the gallops. Known to the family as Uncle Phillie he was a kind and gentle man.197 Jack Flitcroft recalled that ‘everything to do with Wombo was funny’, and his antics ‘greatly amused his team-mates’. These include ‘a novel ploy to bewilder

193 Solling, M. (2014). An Act of Bastardry: Rugby League axes its first club: Glebe District Rugby League Football Club 1908-1929. Sydney: Walla Walla Press, p.138. 194 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7998588 195 Solling, M. (2014). An Act of Bastardry: Rugby League axes its first club: Glebe District Rugby League Football Club 1908-1929. Sydney: Walla Walla Press, p.116. 196 Daily Advertiser (Wagga), 18 May 1938, p. 8. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145611311 197 Emails between Phil Grohala and the author

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THE MAHER CUP opponents as the ball emerged from the scrum, he yelled ‘Upsheback’ and shoved the ball up the back of a forward who has charging forward’.198 In 1967 aged 75 Philip Regan died peacefully at the O’Regan family’s Glebe home that he had shared most of his life with younger brother Jack, sister-in-law Leoda and their family of 10 children.

WHAT MADE THE MAHER CUP FAMOUS?

By 1923 local newspapers had started to call it the ‘now famous Maher Cup’; the Sydney press a little later.199

COOTAMUNDRA AND THE RAILWAYS Two factors that enabled it to become rural rugby league’s most obsessive quest are Cootamundra and the railways. In 1921 you could ride a horse or take the sulky to cover the few miles to town, but if you wanted to cover some territory the steam train was the only option for most. Few had motor vehicles and most roads were precarious tracks. The South West Slopes and the Riverina enjoyed an excellent and still expanding rail network. All the teams that challenged for the Cup in the 1920s were connected to that network. The dates in green on the map illustrate how the more distant teams were quite rapidly drawn into the Maher Cup competition from 1923 to 1927. If the Cup had remained at isolated Tumut, or even Gundagai, interest may not have widened. That it moved to Cootamundra in 1922 and that Cootamundra was THE powerhouse team for the next five years, made all the difference. All the lines ran through to Coota. Coota remained the centre of Maher Cup country for another 43 years. But by the 1960s passenger rail was a mere shadow. The car was king, the roads reliable. Cootamundra became just a shadow of Wagga, which like Canberra and Orange grew to become a ‘sponge city’ soaking up people and services from our small towns and villages.

TIMING – THE WAR AND RUGBY LEAGUE In 1920 Australians were exhausted by the Great War. Few people had expected its longevity and ferocity, the sacrifices and suffering. Once the troops were

198 Solling, M. (2014). An Act of Bastardry: Rugby League axes its first club: Glebe District Rugby League Football Club 1908-1929. Sydney: Walla Walla Press, p.114. 199 Cootamundra Herald, 25 September 1923, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144414254; Sydney Sportsman, 6 September 1927, p. 12. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166760389

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THE MAHER CUP repatriated and the pandemic gone there was a craving for a return to normality, and beyond that a better life in repaired communities. At Tumut Ted Maher was busy helping people achieve that with his support for cricket, tennis, racing and football. People were flocking to the rugby league code. Young players love the speed; spectators found it entertaining.

PAROCHIALISM AND POSSIBILITY The first Maher Cup match at Tumut Racecourse against Gundagai drew a record crowd for a non-racing event. So it was a hit from the start. However it spluttered along in 1921 until Gundagai took it home and Tumut protested the result of the next match. From then on it was fuelled by local rivalry and Maher Cup football in turn fuelled local rivalry. It assisted that the towns that would join the Maher Cup bandwagon were similarly small in size. Every place thought they had the potential to be the top dog. Perhaps the Cup was simply lucky to have lots of drama and conflict – floods, disputes, protests, scandals, violence, and political intrigue. As John Madigan points out in book The Maher Cup and Tumut, all the seven deadly sins were on display. The parochial newspapers thrived on the conflict, took sides, and often sought to inflame the situation. The Maher Cup sold newspapers, and the newspapers sold the Maher Cup.

IRISH-CATHOLICS The Maher Cup towns, with the single exception of Temora200, had a higher proportion of Catholics than NSW as a whole. In the Boorowa, Harden- Murrumburrah and Young areas the proportion was close to double the State average. Where in Sydney Irish-Catholics were mainly working class, in the south west, they were also farmers or graziers, some well established, and if not wealthy, many were at least well off. Catholics seemed to embrace rugby league more than other groups. It was common for priests, often from Ireland, to invest the time to work with youngsters to develop their sporting skills, in a way that Protestant clergy rarely did. Perhaps the Irish had also developed a greater tolerance of the human condition and its fondness for the occasional punt and odd drink; while Sunday sport after Mass was just fine.

200 Temora had a large German Lutheran population

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ERIC WEISSEL Perhaps the Cup owes much to the incredible talent of Eric Weissel, who became the number one drawcard for the Maher Cup for more than a decade. Weissel was the best of a lot of very good footballers, who had been guided by (mostly) talented player-coaches. The result was a standard of football that other parts of county NSW couldn’t match, and this became a source of pride in the small towns, irrespective of whether they won the Maher Cup or not.

IT HELD THE LINE What has been dubbed the Barassi Line is the fuzzy border between Australian rules and rugby league territory. It ran (and largely continues to run) from the southwest of Tumut through Wagga (largely an Australian rules city) and just to the west of Junee, Temora and West Wyalong. On the other side of the line the settlers had mainly migrated from Victoria. Maher Cup country was thus contained – it could not readily expand west or south. Being seen as an essential part of the bulwark against encroaching Australian rules the city rugby league bosses tended to leave Group 9’s unusual development around the Maher Cup alone.201

RADIO Later, from 1938. 2LF at Young called all the games. Listening to the live broadcast became part of the weekly winter routine, families at home and men in hotels or a work. It helped that the station had great sports broadcasters, particularly the genius of John O’Reilly throughout the 1950s

201 Truth (Sydney), 29 August 1954, p. 26. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168410495

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APPENDIX 1: THE AUSTRALIAN RULES / LEAGUE LINE

This is an attempt at a football code border based on activity in the 1930s and 1940s. Rugby league areas are coloured mauve. Some features include: the Northern Riverina Football League exclave northwest of West Wyalong; a South Australian German pocket north of Temora; and predominately Australian rules urban settlements (with titles shaded mauve) that had a reasonably strong rugby league presence: Griffith, Yenda, Yanco, Wagga, Lockhart, Henty and Holbrook.

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APPENDIX 2: THE MAHER CUP ORIGINALS

Below are biographical for 40 of the men who played or were selected in the first Maher Cup match. Tumut District Union Ernie ‘Curly’ Dunn (1896-1926) A talented artist from Adelong, Dunn died (along with 18-year-old Eddie Crompton) in the Adelong footballer’s motor accident on the Tumbarumba Road 16 May 1926, aged 29. 202 Single with a dependent mother, a benefit match was staged for her. 203 Jim ‘Buck’ Elphick (1898-1965) Elphick was a labourer was from a prominent Tumut pioneering family. Uncle James Elphick, was a councillor for more than 30 years and frequently the mayor of Tumut. 204. Another uncle, Harry was a prominent Australian Workers’ Union organiser.205 A brother, Harry, had died in the War.206 Another brother, Jack, later became deputy mayor of Botany.207 Never marrying, Buck moved from Tumut to Sydney in the 1950s, working as a storeman in Pyrmont. Tom O’Brien (1889-1963), Captain Tumut’s captain was the son of William Daniel Patrick O’Brien lawyer and prospector who developed the rich Gibraltar mine near Grahamstown. WDP O’Brien became enormously wealthy but was a committed Labourite and ‘Fenian’. A councillor and benefactor, he provided his town with O’Brien’s Hall, the butter and bacon curing factory, a freezing works, the nun’s chapel, and was the main driver of Tumut’s municipal tree plantings. 208 Tom went to private school in Melbourne where he emerged as a natural leader and athlete; excelling in football, cricket and rowing. Returning to run the ‘Rosebank’ property at Gilmore with brother Assal, he soon went to the Great War. Assal was killed was positioned alongside Tom in the Middle East.209 Their other brother Orlando died on the Western Front. After the war Tom managed the Commercial Hotel in Tumut, developed a jersey stud, trained and owned race horses and was active in

202 Gundagai Independent, 17 May 1920 p. 2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121741749 203 Cootamundra Herald, 18 May 1926, p. 4. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143935393 204 Daily Advertiser (Wagga), 9 May 1942, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144173485 205 Gundagai Independent, 17 September 1928, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130882011 206 Tumut and Adelong Times, 24 May 1917, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139041014 207 Sydney Morning Herald, 7 January 1953, p.3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18352675 208 Adelong and Tumut Express, 14 August, p.1., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115932646; Adelong and Tumut Express, 7 August 1925, p.1., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115928627 209 Tom’s war record is wrongly stamped deceased: National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7991579

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THE MAHER CUP community activities, being a councillor, patron of Group 9 and the Tumut Rugby League club. From 1939 until his death he ran the Hotel Tumut. Les Malone (1897-1968) Leslie George Malone, was one of 11 children of Tim and Bridget Malone, from a Tumut Plains pioneering family.210 He joined the police force and later became a police detective in Sydney. Walter Malone (1895-1977) Older brother Walter broke a leg as a boy; getting it caught in a dray. This didn’t prevent him enlisting in the AIF in 1916 He was promoted to Lieutenant and wounded. 211 After the war he was a member of an AIF rugby team which toured Europe, and like Les became a city police detective. Vern Harris (1895-1953) From a prominent grazing family he was educated at King’s College Goulburn. Enlisting with the 1st Light Horse, he fought at Gallipoli. In Egypt and the Sinai he developed malaria which would trouble him later. 212 He became a leading Tumut citizen, involved in cricket, the agricultural society, the graziers’ association, the RSL, the Anglican Church and the Country Party. He was honoured by a huge funeral. Bob Wilkinson (1896-1985) Norman Wilkinson, known as Bob, hailed from Gilmore and served as a driver and later a machine gunner in the War. 213 He drove for the boss of the Gilmore to Batlow rail construction project in the early 1920s and later moved to Sydney. Con Crain (1898-1978) William Consort Crain was a half back for Adelong and from a grazing family that had first come to Adelong Creek back in 1865. He lived on the extensive Mt. Adrah Station all his life and was also a talented cricketer and tennis player. Jack Crompton (1895-1966)

210 Tumut and Adelong Times, 19 July 1949, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139311865 211 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7366440 212 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4764667 213 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8388747

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From Adelong, he was one of the first to enlist in the Great War (in the 1st Light Horse in August 1914) and served at Gallipoli and in Palestine.214 After farming at Sandy Gully near Grahamstown he moved to Ariah Park and then Leeton, where became a rice inspector at Leeton. Jack Roche (1894-1974) Jack’s grandfather had come to run a hotel at Adelong Crossing (now Tumblong) in the 1850s and later hotels in Adelong. He lived all his adult life on the appropriately named family farm, ‘Rochedale’. Frank Roche (1893-1959) The eldest of the famous grazing family from Adelong, he served in the 7th Light Horse in Egypt and France and established a stock and station agent and auctioneering business in 1922 with his brother Michael.215 Frank was the consummate leading citizen: a shire councillor for 14 years; Adelong RSL president, Jockey Club secretary, and enormously active in the Catholic community. Roy Tonkin (1900-1993) The first scorer in a Maher Cup match was an orchardist at ‘Sunnyside’, Wondalga (also known to as Middle Adelong). He lost a brother, William Henry in the War, and his wife Ellen Arragon, a relative of the Roches, during in childbirth.216. Gerry Quirk (1896-1957) The Quirks came from Victoria and established a dairy family at Bombowlee. Gerry represented Group 9 against New Zealand in 1925. His brother Ted was a well- known Tumut bookmaker (as well as a Maher Cup referee), while his son Peter Quirk, also a talented footballer, entered the priesthood. Rube Masters (1887-1967) Masters lived at Tumut all his life, where he developed the building company his father started. In 1938 he was seriously injured after falling 16 feet off a hotel balcony while sleepwalking at Adaminaby. Edwin William ‘Dick’ Bridle (1896-1988)

214 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3467128 215 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8036167 216 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8393136; Tumut and Adelong Times, 28 July 1936, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139303640

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The Bridles of Bombowlee had first come to the Tumut area in 1848. Dick fought in the Middle East in the 2nd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron, and later moved to Junee and worked for the railways.217 Matt Downing (1903-1969) His grandfather Robert Downing married on the Murrumbidgee banks back in 1843. Matt, like his father was a Tumut butcher. He was later president of the Tumut Turf Club. Alf Spicer (1897-1984) Spicer taught school at Adelong from 1920 to 1924. A fine singer, he performed with the dramatic and musical societies, as being a teacher, well positioned to be secretary of the local cricket and football clubs.218 Clarrie Joyce (1895-1940) Clarrie was repatriated with trachoma during the War, but re-enlisted and returned to France for a second go.219 A carpenter/builder, Joyce, was rare in that he played for four different Maher Cup teams: Tumut (1920), Gundagai (1921-22), West Wyalong (1923-25), and Cootamundra (1926-27). He died aged 44 in Cootamundra. Paddy McKey (about 1888-1974) From Blowering, after marrying in 1920 he took up dairying at Gilmore. He later farmed in Queensland.220 Harry Tonkin (1897-1981) Like younger brother Roy he was an orchardist. He later played Maher Cup for Wagga, and was president of the Adelong Show Society in which he won many prizes for his produce.221 Ken ‘Scotty’ McLennan (1886-1967) Along with Rube Masters, Ken played rugby for Tumut well before the War and featured in running races. In 1920 ‘Scotty’ was slightly injured when donor Ted Maher crashed his motor car into his sulky when returning from the football.222

217 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3121390 218 Tumut and Adelong Times, 2 May 1924, p.5., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139384726 219 National Archives of Australia. National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7366342 220 Tumut and Adelong Times, 3 July 1934, p.6., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135137098 221 The Land, 12 March 1937, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104146398 222 Tumut Advocate, 17 August 1920, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112270462

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He moved to Sydney he was prominent in the Tumut Ex-Residents Association with other footballers such as Ted Maher, Jack Elphick and Jim Treweek. South Western Union (Gundagai) Team Albert ‘Pip” Field (1900-1955) Field was footballer, boxer and bandleader. He moved to Temora in 1922 to work in John Meagher’s grocery department and became the leader of a very popular dance band. Fred Graham (1893-1950) Graham was prominent grazier, being the owner of Bongongo Station and considered one of the foremost sheep and cattle men in the State. He was a Sydney Royal Agricultural Show judge and member of many farming and grazing organisations, as well as a Shire councillor, an excellent cricketer and later patron of the Gundagai Rugby League Club. 223 Bert Graham (1890-1979) Fred’s older brother was a grazier at ‘Riverview’, Adjungbilly, before moving to Sydney in 1926. Another brother, Jim Graham (1885-1960), became a key benefactor to the Cootamundra Rugby Club. Tom Hunt (1890-1934) Tom’s widowed mother was the hostess of Gundagai’s Railway Hotel, which closed in 1925. Wounded in the War he was the last Gundagai soldier to be repatriated.224 Tom received a farm on the Tarrabandra Soldiers’ Settlement, where many of his stock were drowned in the 1922 flood. He became an expert sheepdog trainer.225 Jim Elworthy (1894-1965) The grandson of the J.B. Elworthy who founded the Gundagai Times in 1868, and before that papers at Adelong and Tumut. Jim’s father Arthur Elworthy was also the paper’s proprietor in 1920 but Jim and younger brother Jack preferred farming. Jim joined the Light Horse in 1916 with footballing mates Tom Hunt and Jim Slater as part of ‘Carmichael’s Thousand’.226 They spent three years in the Middle East, staying on in Egypt through 1919.227 In 1920 he took up a Tarrabandra Soldiers’ Settler block with Jack and, although he suffered from war

223 Tumut and Adelong Times, 5 September, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139308502 224 Gundagai Independent, 12 January, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123641391 225 Gundagai Times, 1 June, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122748070 226 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3542032 227 Gundagai Times, 23 May, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130751726

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THE MAHER CUP injuries, managed to expand it over time. Never marrying he was deeply involved in community activities, particularly around horse-racing and the RSL. Jack Elworthy (1898-1942) John Douglas Elworthy, younger brother of Jim, was educated at Kings Schools, Parramatta, and was working as a bank clerk when enlisting with the Light Horse in 1917.228 After the War he wanted a ‘freer life’ and took up a 600 acre Tarrabandra Soldiers’ Settlement block. Jack enjoyed breeding trotters and being involved as an official and exhibitor in the Gundagai Show. He died suddenly following an appendix operation aged 43, leaving a widow and four young daughters229. Phil Freestone (1901-1970) Freestone was considered one of the more talented Maher Cup players, though he didn’t make the Australian team like younger brother. Viv ‘Bluey’ Freestone (1904- 1957). Phil left town for Cootamundra in 1923 and was a key figure in Phil Regan’s undefeated team that year. He re-joined Gundagai team until 1926. After retiring he refereed. A railway porter, Phil was transferred to Narrandera in 1935 and then to Sydney - living at Umina in his later years. Bill Brownrigg (1891-1964), Captain Brownrigg was born in the Kempsey district and graduated from Hawkesbury Agricultural College. He farmed at Molong before purchasing a property near South Gundagai. An excellent five-eighth and well-respected leader he became a referee and selector after his 1924 retirement. He worked as an inspector for the hydro-electric scheme230, before moving in 1928 to Streaky Bay, South Australia to become an agricultural inspector 231. He lived in South Australia for the rest of his life. Viv Joyce (1891-1940) Varney Vivian Joyce was the brother of his Tumut opponent Clarrie Joyce. The two followed their father into carpentry and building. Viv also played cricket as well as performing in the Black Cats minstrel group.232 Although unmarried he was known as ‘Dad’ Joyce. In the 1930s he moved back home to Tumut, leaving a legacy of construction in Gundagai, Cootamundra and Canowindra.233

228 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3542035 229 Cootamundra Herald, 4 March 1942, p.2., viewed 26 Apr 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article144138648 230 Gundagai Times, 23 December 1927, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123464686 231 Bunyip (Gawler), 27 January 1928, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96672315 232 Gundagai Times, 23 October 1925, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121772828 233 Tumut and Adelong Times, 9 April 1940, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138986543

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George Wheatley (1894-1941) A single man he lived with his cousin James Pollack, and was a share farmer and drove. He was called ‘Offside Wheatley’ by players for his skill in moving up quickly. He imparted his football knowledge to youngsters and in 1927 he coached the South Gundagai women for a novelty event.234 George lived at Gundagai all his life and followed horse racing closely until his death after bouts of rheumatic fever. Fred Dominick (1894-1981) From a Coolac farming family, with a grandfather born in Croatia, Fred served with the 55th Battalion during the First World War.235 He worked on the family’s Mt Pleasant property, but in the 1930s was frequently hospitalised for an old war complaint.236 His brother Sid married Margaret, the sister of Maher Cup donor Ted Maher. Fred later moved to Sydney and the Central Coast.237 George ‘Dom’ Dominick (1885-1961) A brother of Fred Dominick, as a lad George was a key witness in the Mooney Mooney Station poisoning case.238 In 1906 he married into the Sheehan family of Adjungbilly. During a prolonged illness in 1922 the Gundagai Maher Cup team played a benefit match for him and Coolac threw a ball. He was a Gundagai Council road worker in the Gobarralong area for 37 years from 1914 to1951.239 Dom was a champion wicket-keeper, a staunch unionist and an ALP stalwart. He died a few days after his wife, from injuries sustained in a road accident.

Bill Whiticker (1902-1976) The son of William Whiticker of Jellingroe Station west of Tumblong, he married Philomina McCormick of Tumut in 1926 and lived at ‘Monabri’, Tarcutta.240 They moved to Tumut where he had a dairy, and briefly the Wynyard Hotel. In the 1940s he took over the Exchange Hotel at Harden where he was a prominent official with the rugby league club. Later that decade he settled in the Penrith area. He was the grandfather of prominent rugby league writer Alan Whiticker.

234 Gundagai Independent, 4 July, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130998470 235 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3512680 236 Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 26 June 1936, p.42., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112697828 237 Daily Advertiser (Wagga), 24 July 1946, p.6., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145140487 238 A farm labourer was accused of poisoning the station owner and his family; killing the daughter. Gundagai Independent, 3 June 1903, p.4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121732447 239 Cootamundra Herald, 14 December 1951, p.2.,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138559225 240 Gundagai Times, 29 October 1926, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123465350

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Ern Neiberding (1894-1967) George Ernest Neiberding was from Tumblong, his grandfather voyaging to Sydney from Germany in 1853. He married Victoria Crain, the sister of Tumut Maher Cup original Con Crain of Mt Adrah. They had twelve children. Ern was a rural labourer at Tumblong and developed a small farm later at Mt Adrah. Herb Robertson (about 1883-1971) The oldest player in the first Maher Cup match Robinson hailed from Braidwood, moving to the Tumblong area about 1911 to work with a gold dredging company. He enlisted in 1915 and was with the 5th field ambulance at Gallipoli. He later served at The Somme.241 He obtained a Tarrabandra Soldiers’ Settlement block.242 Married in 1927, he settled into the Gundagai community for life. He was a leader in the Masonic Lodge. Jack Smith (1890-1967) John Smith, always known as Jack, spent most of his working life on Back Creek Station at Kimovale where he took a job for the Pastures Protection Board as rabbit inspector. He married Kitty Delaney from Kimo way in 1915. Jack was a brilliant athlete before the War, excelling at cricket, tennis and playing rugby with the Our Boys team, and later league with Nangus. In 1924 he won the ballot for a 2900 acre block of rough country at Burra (near Muttama) but had to give it up. In 1931 he clean-bowled Don Bradman in a match at Cootamundra.243 Kitty had seven children and Jack coached three of them –sons Cecil, Jim and Jack– who became champion cricketers. Jim Slater (1897-1992) Cootamundra-born James Patrick Slater fought for almost two years on the Western Front including the two Battles of Bullecourt in which more than 10,000 Australians were killed or wounded.244 While selected for the first Cup match his playing days finished with a fractured knee in the Wanderers v Gundagai match the Sunday before. A benefit game was held. He set up business with George Bowditch in the Coronation Butchery in Sheridan Street, and married Helle Holborn from Coolac. When he died aged 95 he was Gundagai’s last Digger245. Al Smith

241 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8037024 242 Gundagai Independent, 9 December 1920, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123640636 243 Gundagai Times, 25 September 1931, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123454932 244 National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8087077 245 For further biographical information see Elphick, L. (2015). Our Brothers in Arms: Gundagai and Tumut, pp. 174-178.

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There were at least three Albert Smiths at Gundagai or Tumblong of appropriate age. It is uncertain which one was in the original match. Bert Davis (1894-1925) Albert Victor Davis was a very talented footballer and sprinter who moved to West Wyalong to take up a job in 1924. Charlie Davis, his Maher Cup playing brother, had moved there earlier. Bert was struck with ‘acute kidney trouble’ and died in 1925 aged 30. He is buried at South Gundagai.246 Bill Dutton (1902-1986) William Allan Dillon from an Adelong family was in 1920 at Tumblong just starting out as a teacher. His career took him to various in parts of the State, before settling down in Sydney.

246 Gundagai Times, 13 January 1925, p.2., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121773624

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