Former Greats - Dally Messenger /

Dally Messenger

One of just fifteen Rugby League Immortals, Dally Messenger Is a giant in the history of both the game and the only Australian club he played for, Easts. His defection from rugby union was hugely instrumental in getting the game off the ground in Australia and attracting other rugby union players to join the fledgling code. He was the one player that fans flocked to watch.

Messenger grew up in Double Bay, and made his debut for Easts in Round 6, 1908. At Club level he captained the Club in all of his 48 matches across five seasons (he sat out the 1909 season) and led the Club to its first three premierships. The 1913 team, which completed a gat trick of premierships, will be remembered as one of the great club teams. It was awarded the Roayl Agricultural Shield following their success in 1913.

Dally Messenger was capable of extraordinary feats on the field due to his unpredictability and astonishing physical co-ordination, coupled with a freakish ability to kick goals from almost any part of the ground. He was available for just one Kangaroo tour, the first one in 1908/09, and he captained Australia in the first two test matches of that tour. In the 1911 Interstate series for New South Wales, Messenger scored 9 tries and kicked 24 goals in the three matches, including scoring 4 tries and kicking 10 goals in Match Two.

Messenger was the Game's top point scorer in 1910, 1911 and 1912 and the Club's top point scorer in 1910, 1911, 1912 and equal top point scorer in 1913. He was also the Roosters, and the game's, point scoring record holder from 1911 before his brother Wally broke his point scoring records, for both the Club and the game, in 1917.

It is unclear to this day whether rugby league could have survived, and ultimately flourished, had Dally Messenger not switched to rugby league when he did. The game and our club owe he, and many of his pioneering team mates, ernormous gratitude for the decisions they made back then.