The 100 Year Wait Finally Over
The search for a Rugby League ground in Melbourne

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

This article was first published in the Test match programme for the opening of Melbourne's first rectangular stadium (7 May 2010).

Tonight you become a part of rugby league history. Rugby league is a game best enjoyed at close quarters – feel the hard tackling, hear the collisions, see the ball swing from man to man across the field. The front row of fans tonight will be as near as 7 metres to the game, maybe less if the action spills over the touchline. At full capacity of 30,500, the roar of the fans in this rectangular stadium will be nothing like Melbourne has experienced before. Running out from the dressing rooms into this cauldron-like atmosphere inspires the players.

For a century the code has taken major games to Melbourne, but been forced to offer up the game on cricket ovals, that keep the players and the action far away from the spectators. It is a history of bad luck, lost opportunities and the forlorn quest for a ground to showcase the code in all its glory.

SHORT SHRIFT:

In July 1909 NSWRL official Alexander Knox arrived in Melbourne, looking to book a suitable ground to hold a match between the Kangaroos and the New Zealand ‘All Maori’ team. The Maoris’ spectacular playing style had drawn tens of thousands of new fans to rugby league in the northern states, and it was hoped the same could be achieved in Melbourne.

However, Knox said he “found much opposition from the VFL, which tried to discountenance the visit in every way,” adding the VFL was “very jealous of any game outside its own.” No ground was made available until late September, by which time the Maoris would be back in New Zealand. The plan was abandoned.

MCG DEBUT:

Amidst (ultimately futile) talks between the NSWRL and VFL to merge the two football codes, it was decided to showcase rugby league to Melburnians by a match at the MCG. The NSW Blues played the visiting English Lions, in their last match of the tour. Unfortunately, at the end of a long winter, both sides had built up a particularly deep hatred of each other – they used the MCG game to exact revenge and settle old scores.

The 12,900 locals had no idea what was normal for a rugby league game, and what was not. The game started off harmlessly enough – the crowd applauded the first backline movement, laughed at the scrums, and bemoaned the lack of kicking skills. Then the teams decided playing the game was a secondary concern. One reporter described the rest of the afternoon as the “roughest and toughest toe-ball that has ever been dished up in Australia – more fight than football – the swear stream was strong enough to scorch the grass and set the pavilion afire.”

MIDDLE PARK, SOUTH MELBOURNE:

In 1923 Harry Sunderland, a QRL official with a decidedly entrepreneurial flair, moved to Melbourne. Within weeks the Victorian Rugby League and a club competition was formed: St Kilda, University, Easts, ‘Kiwis’, Air Force, and Navy.

Matches were played on open fields at Middle Park, though Navy occasionally held games at Flinders Naval Base (now HMAS Cerberus). A Victorian team was formed in 1924, playing England at Brunswick Street Oval (home of Fitzroy FC), and then toured southern Queensland.

After two steady seasons a search began for an enclosed ground. Sunderland seemed to have secured the ‘Melbourne Motordome’ (the site of the new rectangular stadium), but the lease suddenly went to the VFL, even though they had no use for the venue. It was a fatal blow – a disheartened Sunderland left Melbourne, and the VRL clubs reformed as the Victorian Rugby Union (which went on to provide thirteen players to the Australian Wallabies in the 1930s).

ROYAL MELBOURNE SHOWGROUNDS:

In 1951 the VRL was revived, and one its first requests to the ARL was for the touring French team to play in Melbourne. France was at that time the most spectacular rugby team (of either code) in the world. The ARL agreed, with one official declaring “It will mean that rugby league has got a foot on the bottom of the ladder in Victoria.”

An ‘Australian XIII’ led by Clive Churchill was selected to meet France, and given the pioneering nature of the venture, the players match payments went to the VRL. The Aussie team included three ‘Victorians’, but in reality they were Sydney and Brisbane players who had relocated to Melbourne for work.

The Showgrounds were at the time slated to be the prime venue for the 1956 Olympics, and an Australia v France match reflected that international flavour. However, this ground too wasn’t suited to rugby league, and when the match day arrived with persistent rain, a disappointing crowd of 4,460 were on hand.

Enigmatic fullback Puig-Aubert put on a show though, scoring 19 points (8 goals and a try) in France’s 34-17 win. Melbourne’s The Herald applauded the visitors: “Brilliant champagne rugby too much for Kangaroos.” Unfortunately, few Melburnians had seen the nine-try feast.

JUNCTION OVAL, ST KILDA:

One of the city’s oldest cricket ovals, it has hosted two Australian football grand finals and has been a home to numerous AFL clubs. Though just one premiership rugby league game has been played there, by its infamy it is unlikely to ever be forgotten.

In March 1978 the Fitzroy FC, looking to boost its financial reserves, hosted a “Festival of Football” day – a “Three Code Footy” bonanza. Unfortunately for rugby league, it was the third game on the bill. By the time it kicked-off the spectators who had sat through a Fitzroy v Footscray game and then a soccer contest were heading home. It was fortunate that few saw the game, as Manly and Wests proceeded to ‘belt the daylights’ out of each other, and gave birth to the ‘Silvertails v Fibros’ feud.

Looking to unsettle the star-studded Sea Eagles, Wests coach Roy Masters pointed out to his Magpies team that the touch judges, being Melburnians, would follow the flight of the ball rather than keep their eyes on back-play. It was a free ticket to unleash mayhem, and both teams took it. As with the MCG game in 1914, the display put on by the players did not show rugby league in a favourable light.

PRINCES PARK, CARLTON NORTH:

Since 2006 Carlton’s famous old ground has been the training base for the Melbourne Storm. The venue itself has its own rugby league history. In 1992 Princes Park hosted the 2nd Test of the 1992 Ashes series between Australia and Great Britain. With more than 31,000 spectators on hand, an injury-riddled Lions outfit stunned the Kangaroos 33-10.

Buoyed by the size of that attendance and seeking opportunities to increase the use of Princes Park, in April 1993 Carlton offered Balmain $300,000 to bring three matches south in 1994. Agreement was reached, and it appeared that Balmain were readying themselves to “do a Swans.” Tigers coach Wayne Pearce predicted a team would be based in Melbourne before 2000, but everyone involved said “they were not keen for that team to be Balmain.”

A promising start was made when near on 15,000 attended the Tigers game against the Broncos. Balmain though was soon at the bottom rung of the table, and in the same month that the Origin game filled the MCG, a match against Illawarra was a paltry 6,118. That was enough for Carlton to call an end to the deal, immediately cancelling the third game (against Parramatta). Five years later Balmain merged with Western Suburbs to form the Wests Tigers.

OLYMPIC PARK, MELBOURNE:

Home to the Storm (except 2001), until tonight Olympic Park was Melbourne’s most ‘rugby league friendly’ ground – which isn’t saying a lot – with the rectangular field surrounded by an athletics track, it was far from ideal.

In the first step towards ultimately forming a Melbourne club side, the ARL held a State of Origin game at the venue in May 1990. Living up to its ‘sporting city’ reputation, 25,800 rolled up to see the Blues outlast the Maroons 12-6 on a dewy surface that marred any real chance of spectacular football. A year later, somehow 26,900 fans were shoe-horned into the ground for the opening Test of the Trans-Tasman series. In what is now remembered for being Wally Lewis’ final appearance in the green and gold, the Kangaroos were belted 24-8 by an upstart Kiwis side.

On the back of these crowds the NSWRL held the first ever premiership game in Melbourne (Dragons v Magpies) in June 1993. Unfortunately, poor weather intervened and few fans ventured to Olympic Park. Under the Storm’s residency ‘The Graveyard’ hosted 136 NRL games between 1998 and 2009 – the record crowd being set in their first ever home game (20,522 vs North Sydney).

THE MELBOURNE CRICKET GROUND:

Eight decades after the infamous NSW-Lions game, rugby league ventured back to the MCG. With Origin as its strike-weapon, the ARL hoped to give the code a serious push into the Melbourne sports calendar – games were played in 1994, ‘95 & ’97. Despite a tremendous start, the attendances steadily declined over the three matches.

The first Origin blockbuster in 1994 drew 87,161 – a record for any rugby league game in Australia, and the biggest since 1965’s SCG grand final between St George and South Sydney (78,065).
Ironically, the ARL initially only hoped to fill the 40,000 Great Southern Stand, and intended marking out the playing field directly in front of it. When pre-match ticket sales boomed, the field was put out in the centre. To work as a spectacle, the contest really demanded a free-flowing game –what it got was one of Origin’s most dour encounters (the Blues won 14-0), and the huge audience left underwhelmed.

Rugby league returned to the MCG in 2000 when the Storm brought two marquee games to the larger venue. The most memorable was a 70-10 thrashing over the Dragons in front of 23,239 fans.

DOCKLANDS STADIUM:

Though not quite ideal, Docklands Stadium offered better viewing conditions for rugby league spectators, particularly on the rare occasions that the lower tier seating was retracted into something resembling a rectangular configuration. The firmness of the surface has been criticised, with the ball bouncing unexpectedly and often running over the dead-ball line.

Docklands was home to the Storm for the 2001 season, with the club optimistically believing that it had outgrown Olympic Park. In hindsight it was a premature move, and the venture was ended after that one season. The Storm though made a return to Docklands for the 2007 final against Parramatta, attracting an impressive 33,427 fans on a Sunday afternoon. In last year’s final – held on the same day as the AFL grand final – the Storm surprised many by drawing 27,687.

In conjunction with the Victorian government’s initiative to build tonight’s new rectangular stadium, the ARL has brought representative games to Melbourne and played them at Docklands. Origin matches drew impressive crowds (54,833 in 2006, and 50,967 in 2009) and the Kangaroos played there in the 2006 Tri-Nations (v the Kiwis) and the 2008 World Cup (v England).

SUNDERLAND’S DREAM:

When he started the fledgling rugby league competition in Melbourne 1923, Harry Sunderland confidently predicted “It is certain that there are bright chances when there are many shoulders put to the wheel, and rugby league has a home in Melbourne.”

Tonight, Sunderland’s dream is realised – rugby league has its Melbourne home.

This article was first published in the Test match programme for the opening of Melbourne's first rectangular stadium (7 May 2010)

.