Former Greats - Wally Messenger /

Wally Messenger

Wally Messenger, the younger brother of Immortal Dally Messenger, holds a special place in the history of the Roosters and the game. Messenger was the first Rooster, and the first player in the game, to score 500 career first grade points. He was the game’s record point scorer holder from 1917 to 1922 and the Roosters record holder from 1917 to 1941. Messenger played in two Roosters premiership teams (1912 and 1913) and all three City Cup successes of that era (1914, 1915 and 1916). He played two tests for Australia and was a try scorer in the famous ‘Rorke’s Drift Test’, when Australia beat the Northern Union 14-6, despite playing most of the second half with just 10 players. He was the game’s leading point scorer in 1915 and the Roosters leading point scorer for eight successive seasons (1913 – 1920). He was the first player in the game to score more than 24 points in a match, when he scored 25 points (3 tries and 8 goals) in a match against Annandale at the Sydney Cricjet Ground No. 2 in 1920.

Dally Messenger once said of his younger brother that "given my opportunities, Wally would have been a world beater". He was described at the time as a “strongly built, tricky young man" with "infinitely greater skill than the average player". A one-club player, Messenger was a major contributor to the Club’s successes in its first dozen or so seasons and a genuine star of the game.