1908 Eastern Suburbs season Information & 1908 Eastern Suburbs season Links at HealthHaven.com

Eastern Suburbs (now known as the Sydney Roosters) competed in their first New South Wales Rugby League season in 1908. They won 9 of their 11 matches and finished runners up, being defeated by the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the first premiership decider.

[edit] Players

No.	Position	Player
1	PR	Harry 'Jersey' Flegg (c)
2	PR	Herb Brackenreg
3	CE	Dave Brown
4	HB	Lou D'Alpuget
5	WG	Dan Frawley
6	FB	Fred Fry
7	SR	Lou 'Baby' Jones
8	LK	Bob Mable
9	SR	Larry 'Jersey' O'Malley
10	HK	Sid 'Sandy' Pearce
11	FE	Albert Rosenfeld
12	WG	W. Smith
13	WG	Johnno Stuntz

No.	Position	Player
14	WG	Horrie Miller
15	FB	Percy McNamara
16	SR	H. Thompson
17	FE	Harold Kelley
18	CE	Herbert Henry 'Dally' Messenger
19	FB	H Woodhill
20	HK	George Green
21	SR	A Playfair
22	SR	Joe Shakespeare
23	PR	Percy White
24	SR	William Leslie
25	PR	Mick Frawley
26	FB	Bill King
27	PR	Ted Briscoe

[edit] Draw & results

Round	Opponent	Result	Easts Score	Opponent Score	Date	Venue	Crowd
1	Newtown	Win	32	16	20 April	Wentworth	3000
2	BYE	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	South Sydney	Win	13	12	16 May	Agricultural	3000
4	Balmain	Win	21	8	23 May	Agricultural	1500
5	Western Suburbs	Win	9	8	30 May	Agricultural	800
6	North Sydney	Win	19	11	20 June	Agricultural	1500
7	Cumberland	Win	26	5	27 June	Agricultural	4000
8	Glebe	Lost	5	11	4 July	Wentworth	1200
9	Newcastle	Win	34	17	25 July	Agricultural	400
10	Western Suburbs	Win	24	2	8 August	Agricultural	-
Minor Semi	North Sydney	Win	23	10	15 August	Agricultural	400
Grand Final	South Sydney	Lost	12	14	29 August	Agricultural	4000

[edit] NSWRFL ladder

Rank	Team	P	W	D	L	B	For	Against	Diff	Points
1	South Sydney	9	8	0	1	1	194	53	+141	18
2	Eastern Suburbs	9	8	0	1	1	183	90	+93	18
3	Glebe	9	7	0	2	1	106	63	+43	16
4	North Sydney	9	6	0	3	1	155	66	+89	14
5	Newcastle	9	4	0	5	1	151	116	+35	10
6	Balmain	9	3	1	5	1	86	113	-27	9
7	Newtown	9	1	1	7	1	70	148	-78	5
8	Western Suburbs	9	1	0	8	1	47	190	-143	4
9	Cumberland	8	1	0	7	1	38	191	-153	4

[edit] Pointscorers

player	tries	goals	field goals	pts total
Horrie Miller	15	-	1	47
Herb Brackenreg	2	17	-	40
Dan Frawley	8	-	-	24
Dally Messenger	2	8	-	22
Lou Jones	2	6	-	18
Johnno Stuntz	4	-	-	12
Albert Rosenfeld	3	-	-	9
Lou D'Alpuget	2	1	-	8
Dave Brown	2	-	-	6
Sid Pearce	2	-	-	6
Larry O'Malley	2	-	-	6
Jersey Flegg	2	-	-	6
W Smith	1	-	-	3
H Thompson	1	-	-	3
Harold Kelley	1	-	-	3
Mick Frawley	1	-	-	3
Percy McNamara	-	-	1	2
	50	32	2	218

[edit] Inaugural Match

The opening round of the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership consisted of two double headers. The match involving Eastern Suburbs was played on 20 April 1908 (the Easter weekend) at Sydney's Wentworth Park ground.

Eastern Suburbs 32 (Stuntz 4, Smith, D'Alpuget, Brown, Miller tries; Jones 2 goals, D'Alpuget goal, Miller field goal) defeated Newtown 16. The referee for the match was E. Hooper.

The team was: Fred Fry; W. Smith; Dave Brown; Dan Frawley; Johnno Stuntz; Albert Rosenfeld; Lou D'Alpuget; Bob Mable; Lou Jones; Larry O'Malley; Herb Brackenreg; Sid Pearce; Jersey Flegg (c). Smith hurt his shoulder during the match and was replaced by Horrie Miller on the wing.

Newspaper reports of the match were enthusiastic with one journalist describing the match as, "A capital display considering that the contestants have as yet only a fair acquaintance with the rules."

Another, 'The Sydney Mail' described it as "The best game of the day".

W. Smith had the honour of scoring the first ever try in first grade for Eastern Suburbs. It was the only try he ever scored for the club. The try was converted by Lou D'Alpuget and ironically this was also the only goal he ever kicked for Easts while Johnno Stuntz's 4 tries remains the most tries scored on debut in 1st grade.

Eastern Suburbs 32 (4 J. Stuntz, W. Smith, L. D'Alpuget, H. Miller Tries ; 2 L. Jones, L. D'Alpuget Goals; H. Miller Field Goal) defeated Newtown 16 (J. Scott, H. Hamill, + 2 Tries ; 2 Goals) at the Wentworth Park Ground. The referee for the match was E. Hooper, the crowd figure was 3000 and the admittance was sixpence.

[edit] Season summary

Eastern Suburbs finished runners up to South Sydney in rugby league's first premiership decider. Both sides were without their leading players who had left a few weeks earlier on the first Kangaroo Tour.
Eastern Suburbs won the reserve grade competition.
Horrie Miller was the top try scorer in the NSWRL in its first season scoring 15 tries.
Horrie Miller was the top poimt scorer in the NSWRL first season scoring 47 points.
The first Aboriginal to play rugby league, George Green, made his debut for Eastern Suburbs in the Semi-Final.
Representatives to come from the Eastern Suburbs club during 1908 were:-

(Metropolitan): Dan Frawley, Herb Brackenreg, Horrie Miller, Dally Messenger, Lou D'Alpuget, Jersey Flegg. (NSW): Dally Messenger, Larry O'Malley, Lou Jones, Herb Brackenreg, Johnno Stuntz, Albert Rosenfeld, Sandy Pearce, Bob Mable. (QLD): Dally Messenger (Australia): Dally Messenger, Albert Rosenfeld, Lou Jones, Sandy Pearce, Dan Frawley, Larry O'Malley.

Dally Messenger, Albert Rosenfeld and Lou Jones (res) played in Australia's first test match.
Dally Messenger was the first Australian captain to come from the Eastern Suburbs club.
While on tour with the first Kangaroos Dally Messenger was officially recognised with kicking a world record length goal. This kick, measuring 73.2 metres, was recorded in earlier versions of the Guinness World Book of Records but has faded out over the years.
On the first Kangaroo Tour Eastern Suburbs forward Larry O’Malley played in 35 matches, which remains as the most matches ever played on a Kangaroo tour.

[edit] References

The story Of Australian Rugby League; Gary Lester
Rugby League Tables and Statistics

Preceded by N/A	Season 1908	Succeeded by 1909

Contents