Charles 'Chicka' Cahill

Interviewed by Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

Charles 'Chicka' Cahill was awarded life membership of the NSWRL in 1966 for his contributions to rugby league.

Born in the northern NSW city of Newcastle, his first memories of the game go back to the visit there of the 1924 Lions lead by Jonty Parkin and Jim Sullivan.

Cahill played with and against famous local Newcastle players in the late 1930s, before moving to Newtown in the Sydney competition where he soon won a premiership.

Denied opportunities at NSW and Australian representative football because of WW2, he continued to play for the Bluebags until the
late 1940s.

Cahill then became a coach with the Bluebags and a permanent part of the Newtown club administration until 1980.

Now living on the Gold Coast in Queensland, he still enjoys watching his rugby league - especially those Newcastle Knights!

RL1908 recently asked Charles Cahill to reflect upon his memories and life in rugby league.

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"I started my playing career with Newcastle Norths in 1936. I was born and bred in Wickham in Newcastle. I went to an old school, Wickham School, which provided some great footballers in the persons of Herb Narvo, Charlie Montgomery, Lennie Dawson.

Charlie Montgomery played in Newcastle, then for St George when they won their first competition and then come and played with Newtown and then went back to the country. Matter of fact he finished up his football career in North Queensland and passed away 4 or 5 years back.

I got a school medal, 1928, 12 years of age for winning what we called a B grade, under 6 or under 7 stone something or other. And we got a gold medal for winning the competition at school. I never played any junior football.

And there's a little bit of trivia for you. I never played a game of junior football until after I'd finished my career. I was about 35 years of age. I was coaching Addison Road Sports Club and they were short of players and I went on and played a game or 2 games of junior football.

When I left school I stopped playing rugby league, other than just kicking around the park, because I was a chocolate sales person in the Civic Theatre in Newcastle. Of course, working at the Theatre meant that I worked Saturdays and football was not played on Sundays in that era.

By the time I reached 20 I'd left the chocolate sales outlet and I decided I'd have a try out for the Norths club. I played as a winger and they picked me in a second grade team. I was very fortunate to play with some very good players and got through to the final in '36 where Cessnock beat us. Then in '37 we played Cessnock again in the final and we beat them.

In 1939 I played my first game in first grade. Believe it or not, it was in the centres against Ross McKinnon who at that time was a Kangaroo. He weighed about 15 stone and I was a bloody gangly kid about 20, never even weighed 12 stone. Do you think he didn't give me a bloody belting!

The bloke's place I was taking said to me: "Get up to him, don't leave him, get hold of his jumper, get hold of his shorts, grab him, bustle him". After the first two or three times I did just that and McKinnon seemed to put up with it. Then he decided no more. He give me such a back hander across the face I reckon I did three catherine wheel spins backwards. He give me a nice old working over!

I played against Frank Hyde in Newcastle in 1940 when he was playing with Waratah-Mayfield as their captain-coach. We were both selected in the Newcastle representative side that year that played the Coal Fields. They used to have a competition each year between Newcastle teams and the coal fields. There was about eight or ten teams. There were all the City clubs North, South, East and West, and there was Waratah Mayfield, Central Newcastle, Maitland, Kurri, Cessnock and Morpeth-East Maitland.

I never made a Country representative side. I was playing at Newcastle in 1940 and a selector came down and said you've only got to have a good game, and you're in the side. Five minutes after I was on the field I was off to hospital. I got my eye opened up and I had to go and get stitches in it and everything else at bloody hospital. So I didn't get selected. That was as close as I got because of next year I was in Sydney.

As I said earlier, Herb Narvo went to the same school as I did. We both worked on the water front in 1940 and he was the captain-coach of our Norths team. Narvo had previously played with Newtown in 1937 or '38 in Sydney. He asked me would I like to go to Newtown. And for the princely sum of £75 I was given the opportunity of playing with them.

With Newtown we won the State Cup in 1941 and even though we finished the premiership about 5th or 6th on the table and missed the semi-finals. In 1942 we again missed the semi-finals, but we won the City Cup. In the State cup we went and played country sides but in 1942 we played only the city sides. But that was when the War was on see and a lot of the atmosphere and workings of the game was restricted.

In 1943 we won the Sydney premiership competition. That was a great feeling! As a matter of fact, when we went onto the ground for the Grand Final there was in the vicinity of 62,000 people there. Because of the War all service people got in, if they were in uniform, for free. They closed the gates at 1.30pm and wouldn't let anymore in the ground. They were over the top of the bloody grandstand, up on the wall at the back of the Showground, everywhere.

A great thrill to walk onto that SCG ground and the cacophony of noise as you walked into it - bloody marvellous. We played North Sydney under Frank Hyde. We hadn't beaten Norths all year. I think it was in the semi-final match they beat us 19-17 or 19-16 something or other. Our centre Len Smith got tackled right near the end of the game a metre out from the bloody try line. If Len had got over the line and scored the try and kicked a goal, we'd have beaten them.

We employed some tactics to offset where they were getting advantages. Norths had a fella named Johnny McLachlin playing half-back. I can't think of the ginger headed fella playing five eighth now. But anyhow, in the previous matches they were short kicking over our heads and getting to the ball, regain possession and putting us under pressure.

Arthur Folwell, who was our coach in '43, told fullback Tom Kirk to stand up about 10 metres and Paddy Bugden and myself, Paddy was the half-back, to drop back when Norths had possession of the ball. We were running it back from having gained possession and putting them under pressure. I think we led 14-0 or 14-7 at half time and finished up winning 35-7.

In 1944 we finished minor premiers again. As a matter of fact I think out of the 14 rounds that season we played in the match of the day at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 10 or 11 games. They allocated the match of the day to the best game each week, or what they considered the best game.

In the 1944 semi-final we beat St George 55-7. Lenny Smith caught the overnight train from Bathurst where his army camp was to play in the match. It was a good game for Lenny, he scored a few tries and kicked a field goal from half way that day, we used to get 2 points for it then.

We had a super side, but strangely enough the two best players in our team were then taken by the services to New Guinea. Herb Narvo was in the air force as a physical instructor and Len Smith was a captain or lieutenant or something in the army. They were our two best players and we lost their association for the Grand Final. We got beaten by Balmain, we lost our half back Keith Froome who broke his hand and our hooker got hurt - we finished with about 11 men.

In '45 we were in the semi-finals and we got beaten. I didn't play because at work I'd put a 44 gallon drum of oil on my big toe - I still keep losing the nail off it. I couldn't play and so they put Charlie Montgomery in my place. ‘Chassa' we called him - ‘Chassa' Montgomery.

I played until 1947, all up about 110 or 112 games from 1941. I had the good fortune of playing with some of the best players around in those days in that Newtown side - Tom Kirk, Sid Goodwin and Norm Jacobson. Bruce Ryan and his brother Bill too. They both come from St Joseph's College in 1941 aged about, well I think Bruce was only about 19. Billy Ryan went to New Guinea in the War after the 1941 season and was killed in battle.

There was Bumper Farrell at Newtown too, of course. ‘Bumper' was an idol with all of us. The other front row forward that played was a fella named Gordon MacLennan. He also represented Australia. Keith Phillips represented the State. I was playing lock forward at the time. I didn't represent anything of any consequence. I played for the State in '42 against the Army and in '45 with a Metropolitan team against the Army.

I recall playing against Balmain's Pat Devery - he was good, very good. He went to England and stayed over there for quite a few years.

I've always maintained that Herb Narvo was the best second row forward I've ever seen play and I've seen a lot of them of play.

I played against Eastern Suburbs when I went down there to Newtown in 1941.

They had six Kangaroos in their side, Dave Brown, Joe Pearce and Harry Pierce, Andy Norval and all those bloody players. When Andy Norval hit me I think I felt like I got run over by the flying Scotchman. He was a big man Norval, he came out of South Newcastle. I don't think I played against him in Newcastle.

We've had some great footballers come out of Newcastle. Ron Bailey was another one. He spent quite a great deal of his career playing in England, mostly with Huddersfield. I went to school with Ron. Played against him at Waratah and again when he played for Canterbury in Sydney.

I also played against Laurie Doran when he played with Norths and he came over later and played with Newtown. While he was playing with Norths even though he lived in Newtown - nobody said anything about it. At that particular time the residential rule was, how would you say it... playing out of districts was very poorly policed.

Even John Raper when he went to play with St George in 1957 or ‘58 and left us at Newtown he's supposed to have moved into Frank Facer's home. He might've moved into it but he didn't live there.

I was in the Newtown side when the so called ear-bite incident occurred on Henson Park in 1945. Of course the press had a field day with it and to this day I don't think Bumper even did bite McRitchie's ear.

In those days when they packed in the front row it was, what would you call it, a brute strength battle. The props used to go in and hit one another with a hand across their ears or grab their hair or push them down and all that sort of thing.

Bumper had lost four of his teeth to a McRitchie stiff-arm tackle at Hurstville Oval in the first round. He knocked his bloody teeth out. Broke em off - he had to go to the dentist and get the stumps drawn. Bumper's plate was in the dressing room when he went on to play in the second round at Henson Park. He never had the teeth to bite with!

I was lock forward and last man down. I couldn't see what went on but I knew that Bill McRitchie was playing strike side. Each scrum that went down he played on the open side striking. Bumper must have been opposite him in that particular scrum because all the St George players were carrying on and saying he should be sent off and all that bloody business. But he didn't get sent off.

Bill McRitchie didn't take much notice of it. I honestly believe that he got his ear torn off with a finger nail, you know, if you hit somebody on the side of the head with your hand and you grapple over the ear with a finger nail if you had any sort of finger nail, you could tear the bloody skin. The piece of skin that came away was about ¼" wide and I'd say about ¾" to an 1" long and it was hanging from his ear.

One of the St George players said to him your ear is torn. He put his hand up and pulled it off himself. And they said Bumper spit it out and all this bullshit that went on in the papers. McRitchie pulled it off.

There was a hell of a hullabaloo. Because Bumper was in the Police force they picked it up and run it through whether he should remain in the Police force for what he'd done and all that. I can't remember who was the referee but it never come to any great thing on the ground the game went on. Of course all of the hullabaloo came later.

We were called to the Rugby League in town by the judiciary committee, investigated and everything else. I had to give my version of it and each one of the forwards. Herb Narvo and Keith Phillips were in the second row and Gordon MacLennan was the other front rower. I would reckon if anybody would have bitten McRitchie it would have been Gordon. He was mad enough to do anything!

I don't know whether they picked it up and tried to stitch it back on again but he had a... what do you call it... a skin graft for some time after the incident. Whether he ever got a decent ear lobe back out of it or not, I don't know.

The journos had a bloody ball from it, matter of fact, I think they still write it up on the odd occasion about the ear biting incident and Bumper Farrell. Bumper just copped a swing. He never said anything about it.

I finished my time at Newtown in 1947 and signed for Thirlmere, outside Picton, in Group 6. I played there in '48, '49 and '50 for the princely sum £5 a game. They paid my rail fare, gave me lunch, and free beer. I was still in Sydney. I used to go up on a Sunday morning. I was captain-coach but the only coaching I did was on the field.

Thirlmere never had a worthwhile team though. They had boys from outside Picton or out of Thirlmere, or out of Bargo and different places around there but they weren't very good. As a matter of fact I was coaching Addison Road Sports Club B grade at the same time. I had boys in it 18 and 19 and I used to take a few of them up with me and put them in the team.

Stan Archer played for Newton first grade later, he was one of them. I took up these boys because they could play football. Thirlmere never had anybody there that could play football. They were blokes that wanted to have a game but they couldn't play. They could run around and kick the ball or make a tackle and all that sort of thing but they weren't footballers.

I went back to Newtown and coached in 1955/56 second grade. Then in '59/'61 I coached first grade. I think the only reason I got the coach's job was they gave me £200 for the season to coach and they had no more money than that - that's why I think I got the job. I got paid the money but it was only £200. Could you imagine Bobby Fulton doing it for £200?

I was a Director right from the inception of the Newtown Leagues club. In 1958 we bought a property in Stanmore Road which we put into a Leagues club. We opened the club up for operation and activities from '59. Later on I was Chairman of Directors and I also was a Board Member of the Newtown rugby league football club. After a while I became Newtown's Chairman or President whatever they call it. So from those years I was in administration right through to 1980.

I had a little Downs Syndrome daughter and she passed away in November 1980. Because I'd given the previous years of my life to football and work and everything else, I decided it was time that I gave the attention to my dear wife and remaining family that I had. I retired from my job at the age of 65 in 1981 and now I'm sitting in a duplex cottage at Ashmore on the Gold Coast on my own. My dear wife passed away in 1995.

I still watch rugby league when I can on the television. I don't go to the games up here. I went to a couple early but my son had to take me and bring me home and all that sort of thing. I got to the stage where it wasn't interesting to me to watch the local sides up here when I never had any association with them.

The current playing rules have certainly opened it up fantastically with the playing of the ball and the standing back or the supposed standing back 10 metres. I don't think there's a game played where they go back 10 metres because they couldn't get to the stages of making the tackle where they make them.

Obviously scrums aren't what they were. For scrums in my day the hooker had to win the ball. Today the half back's allowed to put it behind it or in front of the lock's feet and get away with it. In earlier years it had to go in the middle supposedly. Even then, they still cheated. You were alright as a hooker until the referee caught what you were doing. There's many a game won and lost on the football field through the referee's whistle.

I still keep up with the Newtown club through Frank Farrington. When we sold up the club in Stanmore we went down to the Cooks River Bowls Club. The Newtown club has done a lot there. They've done quite a lot in the renewal or the restoration of the club itself and the Council is going to do the ground up there and put a sports oval there.

Hopefully Newtown will be in the first division to play there. There's been some bloody great people kept Newtown going. People like Larry Vining and Des O'Connor although they're not there now.

Rugby league has always been a big part of my life. Would you believe I remember watching the 1924 England team when they played Newcastle on the Newcastle Sports Ground? I was 8 years of age.

I remember one particular thing. A fella in the Newcastle team named Wilf Cody - probably shortened for Wilfred - walked up behind a scrum and the Lions had a fellow name Halfpenny feeding the scrum for England. Anyway, Wilf kicked him right in the backside! I'm not sure whether he got sent off or not, but I think he did.

Newcastle always gave the Lions a hard time. They beat them in 1936 - Ron Bailey was in that side, Herb Narvo, Chip Charlton, ‘Inky' Dempsey was the half back and a fella named Ward who played for Cessnock was the fullback. Also there was Cessnock's two wingers Len Dawson and the other fella... I can't think of his name. And Arthur Toovey from our Norths club was there too, a five eighth, he was an outstanding player

As a matter of fact, we played one day on the Wickham Sports Oval and we beat Morpeth-East Maitland, with Herb Narvo as our captain-coach, by 126-13. There was nothing clever about it because they only had about 10 or 11 players. Morpeth - East Maitland had a team in the competition but they couldn't provide the players. Our side was a top side in those days. It was easier than a training run, nobody made an attempt to tackle.

This fellow that I'm trying to think of, the Cessnock winger... Arty Fairhall was his name, scored 76 points in the game. He had so many tries and so many goals and some of the tries we would run up to the line and give him the ball and he'd just went over and put it down.

I played against Wally Prigg, he was playing for Central Newcastle. He spent his whole career in Newcastle.

In 1940, I think it was '40, Central Newcastle supplied 6 players in the State side. Robbie Firth was the half back, Davy Kerr I think was five eighth, Jack Bonnyman was the centre three quarter, Wally Prigg and another boy I went to school with, I can't think of his name now, but he was a second rower, and on the wing they had Merv Denton.

Wally Prigg was the Johnny Raper of that particular era. He had an ability to be able to be just where the ball was. He never seemed to ever get out of position.

They had a little fella at Central Newcastle, I don't know whether you've ever heard of him, they used to call him ‘Boki' Bell. He was no bigger than a halfback and he was playing fullback. He had a distinct style of his own of tackling. He would go down and grab the big 14 or 15 stone forward down round their ankles. Then, would you believe, he would toss them over his back. He had a most unique style. ‘Boki' Bell. It worked, but some of 'em were stretcher jobs after he done it.

You've heard of the Cumberland Throw and those stiff arm tackles and things that go on, but this was just the style that he adopted. As a matter of fact, Clive Churchill came from that club and so did Les Johns.

Now Central Newcastle are easy-beats. They haven't got a good side, haven't had one for a long while. The Lakes and Western Suburbs have been the two front runners for quite a few years now because their social clubs supply them with the money to buy the better players. Chook Raper almost finished his career with Western Suburbs in Newcastle I think, player/coach.

I have a soft spot for the Newcastle Knights, very much so. I watched them win the 2001 Grand Final with a great deal of pleasure. Andrew Johns was one of their best players, but there were other good players. That Ben Kennedy was outstanding, the second row forward - as good a game as I've seen.

You can see though when you lose your top players and you've got to fit somebody else in there, it's not just an automatic change of selection is it? It happened to Norths in ‘43 when Harry Taylor was called away by the services before the Grand Final. You see what happened in Newcastle when Johns didn't play. I don't think they win many matches while he is out of it, suspended or injured."

Charles Cahill Interview: Ashmore, Queensland - October 2001

Article © Sean Fagan / RL1908

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