Dally Messenger

The cornerstone on which the founding fathers of RL built the professional code, Dally Messenger's defection from the RU ranks was the catalyst for the first ‘professional’ rugby series against the NZ ‘All-Golds’ in 1907. Herbert Henry 'Dally' Messenger was born in April 1883 in Duke Street, Balmain and grew up in Double Bay. He was nicknamed Dally as a child when it was pointed out he had the same portly build as family friend, William Bede Dalley, who later became Premier of NSW (the 'e' was somehow lost in translation). Although only 172cm tall, the stocky centre became a legend in Easts' RU ranks and played in two Tests against NZ in 1907. Messenger was the most popular figure in sport at the time and it is doubtful the new code of ‘northern league’ (as the professional game was first known) would have caught on had he not changed codes and other players not followed his lead. After playing against the 'All Golds' in 1907, he was asked to tour with the Kiwis to England. On his return to Australia he played with the newly formed Easts club but in the code's first year, Messenger was the game's major draw-card. He played for Easts, NSW v Queensland and NZ, Queensland v. NZ, for the Kiwis against Queensland and Newcastle, Australia v. NZ and finally with the Pioneer Kangaroos – all in 1908. Messenger was not initially chosen to captain the Kangaroos but did so in each Test following an injury to tour leader Dinny Lutge. The pioneer tour was a failure and Messenger's form was less than impressive in the big matches despite top scoring with 155pts. His last Test series was against Great Britain in 1910, where he captained Australia in the first Test, but he declined to tour with the 1911-12 ‘Australasian’ Kangaroos in order to get married. While he never did play in another Test, Messenger's feats as a goal-kicker became legendary. He had long earned the tag 'The Master' with freakish displays that have since passed into legend. In a match for NSW in 1911, he scored a record 32pts (4t and 10g) in a match. Easts won premierships in three consecutive years (1911-13) and he scored 270pts during the 1911 season - a record that stood for almost a quarter of a century. On his retirement in August 1913 (Messenger later played in a Kangaroos v The Rest match in 1917 at the height of the war), the League gave him the RAS Shield as a memento of his career which later became the centre of a protracted legal battle between the NSWRL and the Messenger family. The first player in the professional code to have his name endorse a brand of football, Dally Messenger died in 1959, aged 76, penniless despite the huge incentives the game once offered. Biography, The Master by Dally R.Messenger (1982).

Career Statistics

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