1909 NSWRFL season Information & 1909 NSWRFL season Links at HealthHaven.com

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

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

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

[edit] Teams

The teams that made up the 1909 premiership season were the same as the 1908 season with the exception of Cumberland who were dissolved being unable to field a competitive team. Their last premiership match turned out to be a 45-0 loss at the hands of North Sydney on July 25, 1908, a game where the team had to "borrow" two of North Sydney's officials in order to make up a 13-man side. Seven of Cumberland's players ended up going to Western Suburbs the following year, but only three of these players were able to play another premiership match.

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

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

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


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

[edit] Ladder

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

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

[edit] Finals

In 1909 semi-finals were played amongst the four highest placed teams. Top two finishers South Sydney and Balmain were able to win their respective semi-finals. However, after the New South Wales Rugby League had planned a match between the Australian rugby union and rugby league teams that would upstage the premiership final, both South Sydney and Balmain unofficially agreed to not play out a final. But unknown to Balmain, South Sydney turned up ready to play. Another version states that Balmain refused to play in protest against the match being held at Souths' home ground.^[1] The final was deemed to be a forfeit as a result, with South Sydney claiming their second premiership in as many years. Requests from Balmain for the match to be played at a later date were refused by the League.^[2] Conflict over whether there was an agreement between the two clubs not to play a final^[3] caused a deep seated resentment towards Souths by Balmain which lasted many years.

Semi-finals		Final

14 August 1909 - Wentworth
Balmain	15
Eastern Suburbs	8

		14 September 1909 - Showground
		South Sydney
		Balmain	(forfeit)



14 August 1909 - Agricultural
South Sydney	20
Newcastle	0