First Indigenous Rugby League Footballers

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

George Green Acknowledged as Australian rugby league's first Aboriginal footballer (Easts & Norths 1908-1922)

The contribution to the history of rugby league in Australia from indigenous footballers stretches all they way back to the founding year of the code.

The extent and scale of the involvement and support of rugby league amongst indigenous Australians is far more significant than most of us realise.

While Australian rules is portrayed and perceived to be "the game" of indigenous Australians (history, fans and players), the reality is that both rugby league and Australian rules have a comparable story to tell of the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander footballers.

Many Aboriginals in public opted to disguise their heritage by claiming to be Maori, South Sea Islanders or from the Americas. For this reason, the complete early history of Aboriginal footballers may never be uncovered, and the full story of others still open to conjecture and rumour (for example, Newtown's Billy and Viv Farnsworth who toured with the 1911/12 Kangaroos).

The first (now recognised) indigenous rugby league player was George Green, who played for Eastern Suburbs (now Sydney Roosters) from 1908 to around 1914, before continuing across the harbour with North Sydney (1918-1922).

Born in 1883 in the Emmaville district, to the west of Grafton in northern NSW, Green's contribution to rugby league is far from than merely being the first Aboriginal to have played the game.

Green quickly came to grips with the new code, and coached Easts to success in the inaugural President's Cup competition (1910). A hooker, his place in first grade were limited by the presence of "Sandy" Pearce, but his back-up role no doubt aided Easts in their premiership winning sequence of 1911-13.

Across at Norths, Green captained the club in 1919, was vice-captain in 1920-22, and was an integral part in 1921 and 1922 premierships won by "the Shoremen". It was Green who conducted the Norths training sessions which began to lift Norths in the late 1910s, and it was said that many of "the theories expounded by Mr Green" laid the platform for the club's premiership success. In 1923 the NSWRL held a testimonial match in Green's honour (and to raise a few quid for him).

Photographs of North Sydney's Paul Tranquille, a fleet-footed winger of the 1920s, suggest that he too may have been of Aboriginal heritage.

In Queensland the first Aboriginal footballer to come to prominence was Glen "Paddy" Crouch, who played in the backs for Coorparoo in Brisbane (now Easts Tigers) from 1922 to 1927.

Crouch became the first Aboriginal to tour overseas in a representative team when he won selection in the 1925 Queensland team that played 11 games in New Zealand - regarded as one of the greatest teams of all-time, the Maroons included Jimmy Craig, Tom Gorman, Vic Armbruster, Herb Steinohrt, Norm Potter, Cec Aynsley, Jim Bennett, Jeff Moores and ES Brown. In 1927 Crouch captained a Brisbane selection that toured to Barcaldine and Longreach.

The involvement of Aboriginals in rugby league, and many other endeavours, was curtailed by the restrictions placed on their free movements by state governments.

Cherbourg footballer Frank Fisher (grandfather of Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman) was a particularly fine footballer of the 1930s. Playing at five-eighth, "King" Fisher starred in representative teams for Wide Bay in 1932 and 1936 against touring Great Britain teams.

After the 1936 match, in which Fisher scored a great try, the Lions' captain Gus Risman is reputed to have declared that Fisher was the best individual player his team had encountered on the whole of the tour. So impressed was Risman that he promised have his home club (Salford) send out a contract offer to Fisher as soon as he returned home to England.

The contract from Salford duly arrived, but Fisher was refused permission by the Queensland Government's "Protector of Aborigines" to leave - the famous Aboriginal cricketer Eddie Gilbert had already been given leave from Cherbourg, and the rumoured true reason for rejecting Fisher's request being a reluctance by the authorities to approve another.

Emerging in that same decade was Arthur "Stoker" Currie (his grandson is Australian Test player of the late 1980s Tony Currie). Playing for the Tweed Heads "All Blacks" team (an all-Aboriginal team that played in the local club competition) in 1937, Currie earned selection in the NSW Country team that defeated City in Sydney.

The following season saw Currabubula born (near Tamworth, NSW) Dick Johnson arrive in first grade at South Sydney. A talented goal kicking fullback, Johnson played for the Rabbitohs in 1938-39 (including the 1939 team that lost the Grand Final), and then later with Wests and Canterbury. He also played 13 games for the NSW Blues between 1938-45.

His brother Lindsay, known as "Lin", had an equally distinguished career, playing for Canterbury from 1940-46. "Lin" Johnson played twice for NSW in 1940, and kicked the winning goal for "the Berries" in the 1942 Grand Final against St George.

By the 1950s Aboriginal footballers had become a permanent part of Sydney club football, particularly with the Rabbitohs. Today, the NRL's Reconciliation Action Plan (Feb. 2008) states that 11% of NRL players are of Indigenous heritage (similar to the number of Indigenous players in the AFL - see below).

On the representative scene, the first Aboriginal to play for Australia was Tweed Heads and Wynnum-Manly star winger, Lionel Morgan - playing in the 2nd and 3rd Tests against France in 1960. Later in that same year Morgan played for the Kangaroos in the Rugby League World Cup in England.

Lionel Morgan was the first Aboriginal to be chosen in a major national sporting team (i.e. before soccer, rugby union, cricket, Olympics).

Arthur Beetson became the first Aboriginal to captain Australia in any major sport when he took the helm of the Kangaroos against France in 1973. He also led Australia in the 2nd Test of the 1974 Ashes series, and in six World Cup games (1975/1977).

On the club scene, Beetson achieved the distinction of becoming the first Aboriginal captain of a team to win a major Australian club football competition (Eastern Suburbs in 1974 and 1975).

Wally McArthur - the first Aboriginal to play for an English rugby league club.

Perhaps the most unique story of an Aboriginal rugby league player belongs to Wally McArthur.

Born in Borroloola in the Northern Territory in 1933, he became a first-class sprint champion in Adelaide in the early 1950s.

In between his athletic pursuits, McArthur wanted to took up football, but the local Australian rules club had a "colour bar".

McArthur, who in his teens had lived at Penrith and the lower Blue Mountains west of Sydney, had played rugby league at school. With Australian rules turning its back on him, McArthur joined the fledgling Adelaide rugby league club competition.

After winning the national Under-19s 100 yards championship, McArthur was in a prime position to represent Australia at the 1952 Olympics in Norway. With more than a strong suspicion of racial discrimination, McArthur missed selection in the Olympic team.

McArthur continued with rugby league, winning the SARL's best and fairest award in 1952, and a place in the South Australian team against Western Australia.

A former Rochdale Hornets player, Paul Quinn, had migrated to Adelaide and soon alerted his old club in England to the prospects of McArthur.

Away from the close-eye of the ARL and Sydney clubs, and thus alluding the international transfer ban in operation at that time, McArthur went to England, where he etched out a memorable 165 game career with Rochdale, Blackpool Borough, Salford and Workington Town.

References:
The Glory of Thier Times - edited by Phil Melling and Tony Collins.
League of a Nation - edited by David Headon and Lex Marinos.
The Mighty Bears! - by Andrew Moore.
NRL's Reconciliation Action Plan - www.reconciliation.org.au/downloads/3/NRL_RAP_2008-02-27.pdf
AFL media release 22 May 2007: "There are 71 indigenous players listed with AFL clubs representing nearly 10 per cent of players."
Thanks to John Patten for additional information on George Green.
Thanks to Tony Collins for additional information on Wally McArthur in Adelaide.