“The past is never dead. It’s not even past” – William Faulkner

So Benji Marshall is leaving the NRL, leaving Rugby League completely. One more top player lost to the game. Just like Sonny Bill (The prodigal son), Karmichael Hunt, Israel Folau and so many others, Benji will try his hand at a different sport, Rugby Union in his case. This trend of “Code Switching” has been beat up as a major problem for the NRL. Other sports have more money to throw around to attract players, and Rugby League risks losing its stars to those stray dollar bills. What people don’t realise, though, is just what a crucial part code switching played in the formation of Rugby League in Australia, especially the case of the greatest code switcher of them all, Mr Dally Messenger. These days Dally Messenger is best known as the legend behind the eponymous ‘Dally M’ awards. In his own time, however, he was a legend amongst mortals; the Donald Bradman of Rugby League; he was “The Master”. But before he became perhaps the finest Rugby League player of all time, he was an Australian international and NSW star in Rugby Union.

Herbert Henry Messenger was born in Balmain, Sydney on the 12th of April 1883. His famous nickname came from an incident in his childhood where a 2 year old young Messenger had eaten a few too many green apples down at his father’s boat shed. He was sitting feeling bloated when in walked local politician William Bede Dalley, the then Attorney-General of NSW, a man who sported himself a not-insignificant beer belly. Noticing the chubby gutted politician, little Herb asked the statesman if he, too, had perhaps eaten a couple too many green apples. He was known as Dally ever after (no word on whatever happened to the ‘e’).

At just 172cm tall and weighing around 79kgs, Dally was not a dominating physical figure even in that era, but he was a great defender, a powerful runner, and perhaps the greatest goal kicker ever known. As a rugby player, he spread his time between the centres, wings and first five eights positions. He broke into the Western Suburbs first team in 1906, where his ball skills, kicking game and clever tricks made him a fan favourite. In 1907 he became a full time centre, and was soon an automatic picks for both New South Wales and the Wallabies. He was poised to become one of the great Rugby players of all time, but something would happen later that year that would change the face of Australian sport.

Across the ditch, Rugby Union was well established already as the national sport of New Zealand. 1905 saw the famous tour of ‘The Originals’, the first All Blacks. This tour was a resounding success, netting a huge profit of £12,000, but the players, as amateurs, saw very little of that money. They received just three shillings a day, and no compensation for work missed during the tour. After all, these players all had day jobs, and the tour to the UK and North America took many months. That’s a lot of sick leave. The Originals were the first NZ team to perform the Haka, and remain the most prosperous All Blacks team of all time, winning 34 out of 35 games, outscoring opponents by 976 points to 59.

Wellingtonian Albert Baskiville, well known in Rugby circles, was familiar with many of those Originals players, and offered a sympathetic solution. After reading an article in The Daily Mail expressing much admiration for The Originals tour yet also disappointment that they did not tour the northern Rugby clubs, Baskiville wrote to the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU) with the offer of an international tour. The NRFU agreed to host them; meaning international rugby would be witnessed in the north of England for the first time since a New Zealand invitational tour in 1888/89. The agreement was that the NZ team would receive 70% of gate receipts, with a guaranteed £3000 buffer, making this tour the first ever professional Rugby tour. With his connections, Baskiville was able to get several talented and enthusiastic players on board, including several of the Originals squad. Among those was George William Smith, who was to prove an important figure in the story. Baskiville resigned from his job at NZ Post to organize the tour for the English 1907/08 season.

The reason that the Northern clubs had been excluded from the originals tour was another dispute over player payment. Rugby has long been seen as a sport of the upper class in London, and the working class players from industrial northern towns objected to the southern bias. It didn’t help that despite there being a majority of northern teams, union meetings were all held in London. Yorkshire clubs complained in 1893 of the over-representation of London teams in the RFU. The professional Football League was formed in 1888, and they wanted something similar. Northern teams argued for a compensation scheme for missed work due to playing commitments, but eventually the divide became too much, and in 1895, 22 northern teams split and formed the NRFU, with their own rules and regulations. The Northern Rugby Football Union thus established the game that we now know as Rugby League.

Naturally, the Londoners didn’t take this too well. Widespread sanctions were issued against anyone involved in the northern schism. This included amateurs who so much as played against a NRFU team, and any referee who officiated NRFU games. By 1905 the NRFU had more associated teams than the RFU.

Buoyed by the achievements of the NRFU, similar ripples were emerging in the Rugby stronghold of New South Wales. The same issues of class and professionalism were emerging. These were exacerbated when NSW rep Alex Burdon broke his arm playing for the Blues, but received no compensation, despite the fact that his livelihood was compromised by the injury. All Black George Smith was in touch with a number of Australian rugby players, and he, through Sydney player Peter Muir, was able to arrange three games in NSW on the way to England for Albert Baskiville’s professional tour. Muir and J.J. Giltinan, whom Smith had also spoken to, arranged for a meeting to be held to establish a board for the implementation of Northern Rugby Football Union rules in Australia. The meeting was facilitated by Australian cricket legend Victor Trumper, who became the inaugural treasurer of the New South Wales Rugby Football League. This was the first example of the phrase “Rugby League” being used.

Despite the threat of expulsion from the ARU, many players were recruited to the NSWRFL. Chief among them was a young Sydney rugby prodigy named Dally Messenger. Messenger was a starring player as a New South Wales side went down 12-8 to the professional New Zealand side in a game played under Rugby Union rules in front of 20000 fans. The touring New Zealand side, dubbed the ‘All Golds’ due to their professional status, would defeat NSW (The ‘All Blues’) in the next two games as well, despite Dally’s best efforts. Messenger, who captained New South Wales in the final match, would be invited to tour with the All Golds from then on, and he accepted. It is not exactly clear when he was invited on tour, if it was a part of the initial deal or a consequence of his thrilling performances against the kiwis (and they were just that, the first incarnation of the team we now know as ‘The Kiwis’). The NSW players involved were henceforth banned from Australian Rugby, leading to the inevitable formation of Australia’s first Rugby League competition in 1908, which after many changes in name and administration eventually became what we know and love today as the NRL. Dally Messenger had his Rugby Union games and statistics struck from the record, and they would not be reinstated for 100 years. It was a short three game tour (a fourth was scheduled in Melbourne but was discarded for unknown reasons), but the New Zealand ‘All Golds’ sparked the development of professional sports in Australia and essentially introduced Rugby League to the Aussies.

The tour was a triumph for all involved, with many players including George Smith, remaining behind in England on professional contracts. Messenger, in particular, with his skill and unpredictability wowed the English fans. He topped the aggregate scoring on the All Golds tour by over 100 points, and also starred in a cricket match played against the crew of the ship. On the way back, the All Golds stopped off in Australia once more, where they were witness to the first round of the inaugural NSWRFL competition. They toured Queensland, helping kick-start the game there, and they played three tests against Australia, the first ever for the Kangaroos (Messenger playing for his homeland once more), winning the first two before dropping the third. Sadly Albert Baskiville, who had played in the latter stages of the tour as injuries mounted (he was an accomplished club player himself), took ill with pneumonia. He died in a Brisbane hospital in between the first and second test against Australia (He scored a try in the first). The Sydney Morning Herald declared that Baskiville had “practically originated the professional Rugby movement in Australasia”. The Baskerville Shield (this was how he spelled it, though Baskiville is what his birth certificate reads) is awarded to the winner whenever New Zealand and Great Britain play.

The All Golds returned to New Zealand to an indifferent public reception, unlike the unanimous state of rapture that the Originals returned to. A New Zealand Maori League team had toured Australia simultaneously with the second Australian leg of the All Golds tour, but by most accounts, Baskiville’s death set back the development of Rugby League in New Zealand by several years. Leagues emerged provincially, but not nearly of the equivalent of their Union counterparts. Maybe things would have been different if an equivalent superstar had defected in New Zealand.

*The statue of Dally Messenger that stands outside Allianz Stadium in Sydney. Note the two caps at his feet.*

Messenger rapidly established himself as the first superstar of Australian Rugby League. His defection gave the game credibility and his talents gave it a reputation. He was a fixture for all representative teams. He even played for Queensland once. Following two heavy defeats against New Zealand, Dally helped make up the numbers in the third game, scoring all 22 points in 22 all draw. His kicking game was something to behold. He once, according to witnesses, hit a goal from 75 metres. The season following the All Golds tour, Messenger was a part of the inaugural Australian Rugby League tour to Britain. He was already famous there after his previous year’s efforts, so much so that his name was featured on flyers and posters advertising the tour. “Messenger will play” could be seen on signs outside the stadiums. Reportedly, several football clubs, including Glasgow Celtic, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur, offered Messenger contracts to play soccer professionally, such was the breadth of his kicking talents and athletic ability. It is fitting that the official player of the season award is now named in his honour.

For all we can say of Benji Marshall, and those that went before him, money and code switching were the catalysts for the NRL. If Dally Messenger had honoured his status as a New South Wales Rugby Union playing member, Baskiville’s tour could not have been the success that it was.

It is funny just how much the same issues that continually threaten the game today, like salaries and the encroaching threat of other sports, have actually been ingrained since the beginning. Those amateurs at the turn of the 20th century in essence just wanted the same things that players today want: financial guarantees and to play the game they love. After all, technology changes, rules and administration change, but human nature has never changed. Code switching is inherent within the game of Rugby League. We’ve just come full circle is all. Losing Benji is devastating to the game, but is nowhere comparable to Dally M’s defection. And if it weren’t for Herbert Henry Messenger, Benji may not have had anywhere to defect from. You gotta pay the piper eventually, and if Rugby Union are gonna bag a few guys back, well, maybe that’s only fair. It’s not like Benji ever hit a 75 metre penalty goal.

- Wildcard