"The Game Must Go On"
Rugby league and the 1919 Spanish 'Flu Pandemic

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

"Swine flu" causes disprutions to rugby league in 2009.

The ‘Swine flu’ impacted on Australian sport during the winter of 2009.

In many ways the 'Swine flu' story replicates the arrival of the deadly ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic that swept the globe during 1918-20, with its impact on rugby league.

Indeed, the ‘Spanish flu’ almost brought about the demise of the QRL, while threatening the financial well-being of the NSWRL and NZRL.

The ‘Spanish flu’ arrived in Australia in early 1919, and ultimately 12,000 Australians died from it's effects. It eventually took the lives of 40 million worldwide – twice the number of people killed in World War One.

Most of the victims in Australia were young men residing in working class suburbs. Many could not afford health care or be absent from work, and lived in closely confined tenements and lodgings. Given this same group largely provided rugby league with its players and fans, the code did not escape without some interruptions.

The NSWRL had organised in late 1918 for a New Zealand team to visit Australia. The tour looked doubtful as the pandemic took hold, but in late April 1919 a NSWRL official told cable news reporters that “Despite the influenza, both as regards attendance and finance, the prospects of the tour are bright.”

The Kiwis went ahead with the tour, despite knowing that on the back of their six-day sea voyage to Sydney, they faced another week held up at the North Head Quarantine Station. Government authorities had endeavoured to control the spread of the flu by introducing quarantine measures for arrivals from other states and overseas.

Meanwhile gatherings were prohibited in closed buildings such as theatres and halls, while Sunday church services were only permitted to proceed provided worshippers wore an approved mask.

While advice was given to the public to avoid large crowds, and some outdoor events were banned, NSW and Queensland governments were very reticent to expressly prohibit popular spectator sports such as rugby league and horse racing. They did however issue very strong warnings to the public, discouraging attendance and advising of the perceived risk fans were taking.

The public though failed to see any great danger from going to the big SCG rugby league matches. The first two NSW v New Zealand contests drew a combined total of 85,000, while the opening match of the annual NSW v Queensland series brought another 35,000.

Had those games not proceeded, or been played in front of empty stands, the NSWRL and NZRL would have suffered a significant dent in their finances. For a code only just over a decade old, windfalls from big attendances provided welcome relief.

Some footballers in Sydney missed matches because of the flu, but not in sufficient numbers that led to any first grade clubs being unable to field a team. In Brisbane though a first grade game was cancelled after the West End club could not bring together sufficient players to take on Railways.

The club competition in Brisbane had been thrown into turmoil earlier in season from the 'flu. The QRL used the Exhibition Ground for its weekly Saturday matches, with double and even triple-headers played. The entirely enclosed facility meant that the League could securely charge the gate-money crucial to the on-going viability of the code.

However, on one Saturday afternoon in the late Autumn of 1919, over 2,000 fans, players and officials arrived to the find the Exhibition Ground had been suddenly turned into a temporary extension of the adjacent hospital, such were the numbers of patients who were in need of urgent care from the 'flu.

With the QRU having a firm lease on the ‘Gabba, and no other enclosed ground in Brisbane, the QRL were placed in a very precarious position financially. If they were forced to play games on unfenced fields with no grandstands or terrace seating, spectator numbers would plummet and gate-money would have to be collected “via the old bucket method.” It was a shaky predicament.

Harry Sunderland, the League’s secretary, had been looking forward to the upcoming visit of the Kiwis in particular to strengthen the code’s bank balances - the QRL had no funds left over from the limited money it took during war-time 1918.

Taking it all on his own shoulders, Sunderland mortgaged “everything I owned” to take out a loan which funded the erection of a grandstand and fencing at Davies Park.

Sunderland breathed more than a sigh a relief when a crowd of 10,000 rolled up to watch Queensland play the Kiwis in the first visit of an international team since the Englishmen of 1914. With that gate-money, Sunderland had two more makeshift grandstands erected during the next week, and the QRL profited further when another 12,000 flocked in to see the Maroons and Kiwis in a second match.

The ‘Spanish flu’ did not kill any of the current first grade players, however, it did take former North Sydney and Newcastle representative player James Walsh (brother of 1908 Kangaroo Pat ‘Nimmo’ Walsh). In Manilla (northern NSW) Dally Messenger and his wife Annie contracted the flu while running their pub, the Royal Hotel. Both fell gravely ill, and despite hospital care, Annie Messenger passed away.

In early August 1919 an Australian team was brought together in Sydney in readiness for a tour of New Zealand. With shipping still in disarray from the quarantine arrangements and with many ships still being used to bring back soldiers from Europe, the NSWRL were unable to secure passage for the Kangaroos out of Sydney.

Eventually the team were moved to Newcastle where they boarded a cargo ship for the trip to New Zealand. Once the boat left the harbour the players soon realised they would be spending the next week living amongst cockroaches and rats.

Half-way across ‘the ditch,’ bites from the ship-bred vermin led to Charles ‘Chook’ Fraser, Duncan Thompson and Ray Norman all falling victim to blood-poisoning. So dire was Norman’s condition he was hospitalised when the team arrived in Wellington.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Aussies were forced to cope with the NZRL’s sudden decision to bring the first Test forward to the next day. To their credit, the sea-worn Kangaroos did not quibble with their hosts, preferring to take out their loathing on their opponents, thrashing the Kiwis 44-21 in a runaway.

Despite the difficulties of the time, it was reckoned there was more to be gained by rugby league “playing on,” offering the public weekly relief and amusement away from their daily troubles and concerns.