Wallaby Hall of Fame

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

Dally Messenger
Dally Messenger

I read recently that the Australian Rugby Union "will inaugurate the Wallaby Hall of Fame this year to highlight and acknowledge the contribution of the game's greats since the first Australian team of 1899".

That's nice - but what has this got to do with rugby league?

Well, as we all know, since 1907 there have been quite a few Australian rugby union players who left to join the "professional code". A result of their move to rugby league meant that they were formally disqualified by the relevant rugby union authority.

In August 1907, one NSW rugby official threatened Dally Messenger and other prospective rugby league players with a warning: "You mark my word, any player who identifies himself with the professional rugby in this state will be disqualified, and that for life."

As we know, the matches against the New Zealand "All Golds" took place. In mid-September 1907 the rugby union concluded its inquiry into the players who had appeared for the NSWRL team. It decided to disqualify them all - including Messenger. No duration was placed on the exclusion, "they are simply disqualified" announced the NSWRU. The ex-Wallabies who defected two years later, led by Chris McKivat, were given the same sentence.

It is up to rugby union to make its own determination of what criteria will be used to assess each player's merit for the "Hall of Fame". My own view is that men like Messenger and McKivat, who led the stampede to rugby league, negated whatever positive contributions they made to rugby union by their subsequent actions.

More importantly, I am wondering what is the effect of the disqualifications imposed on the rugby union players who went to rugby league from 1907 to 1995. Can a disqualified player be inducted into a "Hall of Fame"? Surely a disqualification is such a serious blemish on a player's record that he could never be considered for any award?

This would seem to rule out men such as Dally Messenger, Chris McKivat, Alec Burdon, Arthur Hennessy, and the dozens who followed, from ever being inducted.

Of course, if rugby union in Australia would deem it appropriate to publicly annul each of the pre-1995 disqualifications, and therefore admit they should never have been imposed, then it would be an entirely different matter.