Opera of the proletariat: Rugby league, the labour movement and working-class culture in New South Wales and Queensland

Labour History

Volumn , Issue 79, 2000, Pages 57-70

  Moore, Andrew ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84906115521     PISSN: 00236942     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3828/27516729     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. J. Mundey, Green Bans and Beyond, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1981, pp.16-18. Mundey's early promise as a footballer was not fulfilled, principally playing halfback in reserves.
2. T. Uren, Straight Left, Random House, Sydney, 1995, p.8.
3. H. Greenland, Red Hot: The Life and Times of Nick Origlass 1908-1996, Wellington Lane Press, Sydney, 1998, p.8.
4. Metal Worker, September 1987, p.15.
5. Draft entry, 'Savage, Robert Emmet (Bob) 1895-1959', by P. Sheldon in Biographical Register of the Australian Labour Movement 1788-1975 in author's possession; I. Heads True Blue: The Story of the NSW Rugby League, Ironbark Press, Sydney, 1992, pp.72,164,166,177,189,207,223.
6. Rugby League News, 23 September 1951; 29 May 1954; 11 June 1955; December 1965.
7. Apart from the late Ian Turner, whose work in the area of sport and Australian Rules football sometimes earned him the dismissive sobriquet, the 'footy prof, other important exceptions are G. Parsons and D. Cottle. See, in particular, the book Turner co-wrote with L. Sandercock, Up Where, Cazaly? The Great Australian Game, Paladin, Sydney, 1982
8. G. Parsons, 'Labour, Rugby League and the Working Class: The St George District Rugby League Football Club in the 1920s', Teaching History, vol. 12, no. 2,1978, pp.22-35
9. G. Parsons, 'Capitalism, Class and Community. "Civilising" and Sanitising the People's Game', in D. Headon and L. Marinos (eds), League of a Nation, ABC Books, Sydney, 1996, pp.8-15
10. D. Cottle, 'A Social History of the Workers Sports Federation in Victoria, c. 1934-1939', Sporting Traditions, vol. 15, no. 1,1998, pp.71-80.
11. R. Gollan, 'Labour History', in Bulletin of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, no. 1, 1962, p.4.
12. An important article on sport and working-class culture whose theoretical tenets influence the contextual presentation of sport here is C.J. Nottingham, 'More Important than Life or Death: Football, the British Working Class and the Social Order', in L.H. Van Voss and F. van Holthoons (eds), Working Class and Popular Culture, Stichting van Beheer IISG, Amsterdam, 1988, pp.147-159.
13. While dismissive of a functionalist perspective of the role of sport, Nottingham includes the information that in 1919 the British intelligence official Sir Basil Thomson evidently regarded soccer's popularity among working-class males, together with 'the continuing popularity of the Royal Family' as the two major factors likely to sustain social peace'. For this reference I am grateful to Lucy Taksa. Another excellent guide through the minefield of issues related to 'culture' is Bailey (see her paper in this collection).
14. See, for instance, 'Rugby League', Australian Left Review, no. 100, July-August 1987, pp.42-43.
15. A. Howkins, 'Labour and Culture: Mapping the Field', in J.E. Martin and K. Taylor (eds), Culture and the Labour Movement, The Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 1991, p.26.
16. Heads, True Blue, p.29.
17. Parsons, 'Capitalism, Class and Community7, p.9.
18. T. Collins' reinterpreta?on of the events that led to the George Hotel meeting, Rugby's Great Split: Class, Culture and the Origins of Rugby League Football, Frank Cass, London, 1998, is a particularly important piece of labour history. Collins would, however, argue that the emergence of rugby league football and socialist politics were unrelated.
19. See also D. James, Class and Politics in a Northern Industrial Town: Keighley 1880-1914, Keele University Press, Keele, 1995.
20. On the history of rugby league in Newcastle see B. Power, The Saga of the Western Men, privately published, Newcastle, 1966
21. B. Power, The Rebels of Rugby: 'The Bolsheviks' v. 'The Lilywhites' 1907 1920, privately published, Newcastle, 1992.
22. E. and S. Yeo, 'Perceived Patterns: Competition and Licence versus Class and Struggle' in their edited collection, Popular Culture and Class Conflict 1590-1914, Harvester, Brighton, 1981, p.278
23. cited in Collins, Rugby's Great Split, p.232.
24. For the early history of rugby union in New South Wales see T. Hickie, They Ran with the Ball, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 1993.
25. Heads, True Blue, p.26.
26. Accounts of the origins of rugby league can be followed in: C. Cunneen, The Rugby War the Early History of Rugby League in New South Wales, 1907-15', in Richard Cashman and Michael McKernan (eds), Sport in History, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1979, pp.293-306
27. C. Cunneen, 'Men, Money, Market, Match', in Headon and Marinos (eds), League of a Nation, pp.20 28
28. Parsons, 'Capitalism, Class and Community'; M. Phillips, 'Football, Class and War: The Rugby Codes in New South Wales, 1907-1918', in J. Nauright and TJ.L. Chandler (eds), Making Men: Rugby and Masculine Identity, Frank Cass, London, 1996, pp.158-180.
29. An outstanding, theoretically informed account is provided by M. Smith, A Game of Class: An Interpretation of the Sydney Rugby Split 1907-1914, unpublished manuscript, 1999. For a copy of this manuscript I am grateful to T. Williams of the New South Wales Rugby League.
30. H.M. Moran, Viewless Wind: Bang the Recollections and Digressions of an Australian Surgeon, Peter Davis, London, 1939, pp.36-37
31. Heads, True Blue, p.41.
32. B. Kidd, The Political Economy of Sport, CAHPER Sociology of Sport Monograph Series, Ottawa, no date, pp.18-19 discusses the evolution from ascriptive to meritocratic standards of judging sporting performance in the late nineteenth century with great clarity.
33. R. Stremski, 'Australian Rules Football', in W. Vamplew, K. Moore, J. O'Hara, R. Cashman and I. Jobling (eds), The Oxford Companion to Australian Sport, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1994, p.37.
34. Cunneen, 'Men, Money, Market, Match', p.27.
35. L. Blackwell, Class, Community and Rugby League, unpublished BA Hons thesis, Macquarie University, 1984
36. R. Cashman, Paradise of Sport: The Rise of Organised Sport in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1995, p.95.
37. See L. Hall (compiler), Down the Bay: The Changing Foreshores of North Sydney, North Sydney Council, North Sydney, 1997, in particular, reminiscences of North Sydney rugby league stalwart, F. Orreill, pp.16-18.
38. R. Masters, '100 Years of League', Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 26 August 1995.
39. R. Cavalier, The Australian Labor Party at Branch Level, Guildford, Hunters Hill and Panania Branches in the 1950s', in A Century of Social Change: Labor History Essays, vol. 4, Pluto Press, Sydney, 1992, p.93; NSW Tramway Journal, 17 December 1947; for further details of these early figures associated with the North Sydney RLFC
40. A. Moore, The Mighty Bears! A Social History of North Sydney Rugby League, Macmillan, Sydney, 1996, pp.37-38.
41. Heads, True Blue, p.41; information from Mr T. Brock, 15 May 1996.
42. Railway and Tramway Officers Gazette, 20 September 1925.
43. C. Cunneen, 'Larkin, Edward Rennix' in B. Nairn and G. Serle (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 9, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1983, p.673.
44. E. Scott, Rugby League in Brisbane: from the Genesis to the Formation of the Brisbane Rugby League, unpublished Masters thesis, Human Movement, University of Queensland, 1990, p.7. For this reference I am grateful to Dr G. Mallory.
45. J. Shields, 'Craftsmen in the Making: The Memory and Meaning of Apprenticeship in Sydney between the Great War and the Great Depression', in J. Shields (ed.), All Our Labours. Oral Histories of Working Life in Twentieth-Century Sydney, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1992, p.89.
46. North Sydney RLFC general committee minutes, 12 May 1914. Records held at football club offices, Mann Street, Gosford.
47. Railway and Tramway Officers Gazette, 20 September 1925.
48. Moore, The Mighty Bears!, ch. 1.
49. Cited in Heads, True Blue, p.157.
50. The New South Wales Rugby Football League Annual and Souvenir, 1928, pp.130-132.
51. L. Taksa, Toil, Struggle and Repose: Oral History and the Exploration of Labour Culture in Australia', Labour History, no. 67,1994, p.121.
52. M. Soiling, Glebe District Rugby League Football Club 1908-1929, unpublished manuscript, p.19. For allowing me access to this manuscript, shortly to be published, I am grateful to Mr Soiling.
53. Ibid., pp.17-18.
54. The Counsellor, no. 3,1958, p.33.
55. The Locomotive Journal, 8 May 1958.
56. Maritime Worker, 9 November 1976.
57. T. Brislan, A Maverick Among Marxists, unpublished Manuscript, pp.106-109, Noel Butlin Archives of Business and Labour, Australian National University, M67.
58. For further discussion of this dual union, see A. Moore, The Pastoral Workers' Industrial Union 1930-1937', Labour History, no. 49,1985, pp.61-74.
59. The Legend of Fred Paterson', film documentary with research by R. Fitzgerald, ABC, 11 April 1996
60. R. Fitzgerald, The People's Champion: Fred Paterson: Australia's Only Communist Party Member of Parliament, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1997, p.41.
61. Personal interview, Mrs N. Jeffery, Balmain, 17 May 1985.
62. Blackwell, 'Class, Community and Rugby League' cited by Cashman, Paradise of Sport, p.95.
63. Moore, The Mighty Bears!, pp.142-143.
64. Power, The Saga of the Western Men, p.63.
65. Rugby League Week, 4 September 1971.
66. Worker, 26 November 1904.
67. Heads, True Blue, p.24.
68. New South Wales Parliamentary Debates (NSWPD), vol. 17,22 August 1956, p.1785.
69. Moore, The Mighty Bearsl, Chapter 6
70. See also, for a related initiative, B. Phillips, The Red Inn: The First 50 Years of Newcastle Workers Club, Newcastle Workers Co-operative Club Limited, Newcastle, 1998.
71. Seamen's Journal, August 1967.
72. Heads, True Blue, p.237.
73. H.R. Miller, 'Soviet and Australian Sport', in NSW Aid Russia Committee, Sport in Russia, 1941, pp.9-10.
74. North Sydney District RLFC, Annual Report, 1941, p.13 in records of North Sydney RLFC.
75. Heads, True Blue, p.335.
76. For an argument as to the reasons why rugby league became established in New South Wales and Queensland, but not other countries, see A. Moore, Jimmy Devereux's Yorkshire Pudding: Reflections on the Origins of Rugby League in New South Wales and Queensland, Australian Society of Sports History, Tom Brock Foundation, (forthcoming).
77. In Rugby's Great Split Collins argues, 'Given the lower levels of social deference and the ostensibly more democratic norms of Australian society (at least for whites) it was clear that the imposition of the amateur ethos could not last' (p.217). Elsewhere he writes 'In Australia, the social strictures of amateurism were largely incompatible with the organisation of daily life' (p.224).
78. Ongoing litigation by the South Sydney Rabbitohs may yet facilitate their revival. At the time of correcting the final draft of this article the result of these legal maneuvers was unclear. Two other foundation clubs (Balmain and Wests) were induced to merge, an issue that is discussed in D. Cottle, The Death of the Magpies', Football Studies, (forthcoming). The fourth, North Sydney, was forced into receivership in September 1999 and a subsequent merger with Manly-Warringah.
79. The Super League War awaits complete documentation. Perhaps the most valuable contextual account is provided by M. Westfield in The Gatekeepers: The Global Media Battle to Control Australia's Pay TV, Pluto Press, Sydney, 2000, pp.302-305,309-311,315-316,327-334; 357-359,375
80. M. Colman's Super League: The Inside Story, Ironbark, Sydney, 1996 is a useful preliminary report by an outstanding sports journalist.
81. J. McKay and D. Rowe, 'Field of Soaps: Rupert v. Kerry as Masculine Melodrama', Social Text, vol. 15, no. 1,1997.
82. An important scholarly contribution of its historical backdrop is provided by M. Phillips, 'From Suburban Football to International Spectacle: The Commodification of Rugby League in Australia 1907-1995', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 110,1998, pp.27-48.
83. Some of the themes illuminated by the affair are discussed in A. Moore, Television, Tradition and Vision in Australian Rugby League: Premature Reflections on the 1995 "Pearl Harbour Raid"', Paper presented at the British Sports History Society Conference, University of Huddersfield, 15-16 July 1995, and 'Super League and the "Decline of Working Class Culture"', Overland, vol. 149,1997, pp.69-73.
84. G. Griffin and S. Svensen, The Decline of Australian Union Density-A Survey of the Literature', Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 38, no. 4,1996, pp.505-547 provides a valuable overview of scholarly literature in this area. I am also grateful to John Shields for his advice.
85. S. Roach (with R. Chesterton), Doing My Block, Ironbark, Sydney, 1992, p.158.
86. Information from T. Brock, former historian of South Sydney RLFC; see also Mundey, Green Bans, p.16.
87. A. Moore, The Industrial Relations of Super League: A Response to Brett Hutchins', Sporting Traditions, vol. 13, no. 2,1997, pp.167-169.
88. SMH, 1 June 1995; NSWPD, vol. 245,25 May 1995, p.219.
89. R. Tiffen, The Packer-Labor Alliance, 1978-98: RIP, Media International Australia, no. 77,1995, pp.20-34
90. The Keating government's relations with Murdoch and Packer are discussed in detail in Westfield, The Gatekeepers, pp.178-180,253-254,281,283-284,307-308.
91. In a growing literature on this topic G. Maddox's account in The Hawke Government and Labor Tradition, Penguin, Ringwood, 1989, remains a convincing scholarly account.
92. Labor Times, June 1999.
93. Sun Herald, 30 April 1995.
94. SMH, 10 August 1999; Daily Telegraph, 17 December 1999. An excellent account of South Sydney's battle to remain in the 2000 competition is provided by D. Leser in 'Skinned', Good Weekend, 13 November 1999, pp.18-25.
95. SMH, 3 February 2000.
96. R. Masters, '"And I Awoke and Found me here on the Cold Hill Side': Rugby League and the Decline of Working Class Culture', Meanjin, vol. 54, no. 3,1995, p.26.
97. For instance Loosehead Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 1,1999, p.5 reports that both the chair and juniors secretary of the Cairns Rugby League had resigned from their positions. 'We're not going to be unpaid workers for Rupert Murdoch and News Ltd', they argued. The author's personal experience of rugby league in the North Sydney district suggests that this is a widespread experience.
98. SMH, 21 October 1999.