Ballina picks its league team of the century
Frank Curran, a prominent Test player of the 1930s, heads the list of nominees for the Ballina rugby league Team of the Century, to be announced on September 27.
Also nominated are two sets of fathers and sons – Alan Miles and his sons Michael and Shane, and Tony Koellner and his son Michael – and one of the great Aboriginal rugby league players of the district, Dick Roberts senior, who has been nominated in two positions, fullback and five-eighth.
A group of local ‘selectors’ headed by former Sydney Western Suburbs legend Denis Meaney has compiled the list and included players from as early as the 1920s up to present-day players.
Frank Curran was a former Ballina Rovers player who went to South Sydney in the 1930s. He toured England twice as a Kangaroo, in 1937 and 1938, and went down in history as the first Australian player to score on French soil in a 1938 Test.
He returned to Ballina and became a prominent businessman.
Denis Meaney said the final team would be announced at a special event at Ballina Seagulls Rugby League Club on September 27. Such is the interest that the club has hired a marquee to cater for the big crowd expected to attend.
He said the night would celebrate this year’s centenary of rugby league as well as the development of Ballina township. Footage of the town’s development over the years will be shown on the night.
Almost 80 players are in the early nominations and a final squad, plus reserves and a coach, will be announced on the night. Individual judges know only their final selected team but not what the other judges have selected. Only one person, a Justice of the Peace, knows the final team.
Nominees:
- Fullback: Dick Roberts, Alan Miles, Michael Ross, Michael Miles, Danny Sharpe, Michael Sheather, Shaun Laurie, Theo Cooper.
- Wingers: Len McMullen, Ted Kay, Brian Adam, Harvey Kay, Ashley Moran, Marshall Scott, Peter Wells, Ron Cooper.
- Centres: Jack Reardon, Ron Fenwick, Bob Quinlivan, Fred Pullen, Greg Quinn, Greg Bourke, Balin Couples, Brad Mansfield, Brenton Cochrane.
- Five-eighth: Dick Roberts, Joe Morris, John Gillard, Chris Storrier, Graham Lees.
- Halfback: Ted Ainsworth, Ray Savage, Podge Holwell, Joe Morris, Rob Murdock, Mick Foster, Wayne Cullen, Darren Hampton, Stan ‘Chicka’ Kelly, Troy Johnstone, Phil Hawke.
- Lock: Ji
m Cox, Jim Gibson, Darren Gill, Shane Miles, Don Walker. - Second-row: Ian Woodcock, Bob McLaren, Ken Flanagan, Anthony Killingbeck, John Harris, Brett Coombes, Mick Boyd, Mitch Aubusson, Dean Jarrett, Josh Mather.
- Front-row: Frank Curran, Jack Moss, John Whalen, Ron Shepherd, Fred Mitchell, Barry Glass, Rod Sironen, Mick Koellner, Dylan Montgomery, Steve Parsons, Max Beecher, Corey Windle, Frank ‘Bungy’ Flanagan.
- Hooker: Sprogs Miller, Ron Harley, Tony Koellner, Brenton Bowen, Alan Ward, Matt Temby.
- Coach: John Gillard, John Wicks, Jim Gibson, Greg Fryer, Alan Perry.
PICTURE: Michael Ross, nominated as fullback, and Greg Fryer, nominated as coach, during their playing days with Balmain.
The game’s local origins
The Richmond River Historical Society says that Tweed Heads Seagulls formed the first registered provincial club in Australia in 1909, one year after the formation of rugby league in Sydney. It is believed that Ballina league teams first competed in 1920.
“In 1914 enthusiasm for rugby league was inspired in the Richmond River district by a local contest with the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Lismore on June 29,” the society reports.
“Peter Schaefer (former South Lismore club official) says in the publication Southies Reunion 1913-1983 that the clubs to participate in the Richmond River Rugby Football League competition were South Lismore, Wallaroos Lismore, Kyogle and Casino.
“South Lismore was the winner in 1915 of the first Richmond rugby league final held at the Lismore Recreation Ground.
“World War I then took precedence.
“An attempt to reopen the Richmond Rugby League faltered in 1919.
“Teams participating in 1920 included South Lismore, Alstonville, Bexhill, Ballina, Coraki, Dunoon, Marist Brothers, Keerong, Rous Mill, Wallaroos, Wanderers, Woodburn and Lismore Pirates.”
The historical society also recounts some of the research done by Jim Brokenshire, a former newspaper editor and proprietor from Mullumbimby.
“Jim Brokenshire agrees that 1914 was an important year for the introduction of league in the region. In the Brunswick: Another River and Its People (1988) he reports that in February 1914 The Northern Star wrote: ‘Rugby Union Football seems to be on its last legs on the North Coast. A branch of the rugby league has been started on the Tweed and another at Casino.’
“This was followed by a story on 19 March 1914 that at a meeting a week before, local footballers from Mullumbimby, Byron Bay, Newrybar, Billinudgel, Bangalow and Brunswick Heads had met at Tara’s Hall, Bangalow, to adopt the rugby league code 24 votes to 14.”
August 21st, 2008 at 5:48 pm
What about Greg “Gundy” Ainsworth…Yet another father/son history with the seagulls.