Originally published in The Rugby League News Vol.38 – No.13, June 17, 1957.
Mostly time deals harshly with sporting reputations. Good players in all sports often are quickly forgotten once their playing days are over. As with music, only the best of each era survives to remain evergreen in history. Which makes the fame of Dally Messenger all the more remarkable.
To-day Herbert Henry Messenger at 74 years of age can look back on a wonderful career in Rugby League.
And on the fact that though it is 45 years since he last played his name is still a household word in Rugby League and he is still regarded as the incomparable backline player.
“The Master”, as he was known in his heyday and has been known ever since, was a wizard player and those who saw him play will not have that any player has ever approached his standard.
That his deeds have remained evergreen so many years after his career ended is the best proof which can be offered of Dally’s ability.
Messenger ranks with Don Bradman, Victor Trumper, Walter Lindrum, Phar Lap and others at the very top of the Australian Sports tree.
The modern generation knows Dally M by repute and because of the football gear bearing his name and retailed by Mick Simmons over a period of many years.
But even now when a player takes an extraordinarily long kick at goal, you’ll hear the cry, “Who does he think he is, Dally M?” Men who can go right back to the days when Dally M was in his prime will never forget some of his exploits.
Coming from the Double Bay district, which gave Australia other champion Rugby League players in “Sandy” Pearce and his son Joe, Dally learned to kick in the local park.
When he was not playing football he was out sailing and it was accepted that his knowledge of the winds was a big help in his uncanny goalkicking.
As a kid he could kick goals from around the halfway mark in bare feet at Double Pay Park. Dally was a unique natural football whose closest teammates would never be able to pick what he would do any more than his opponents.
In one game against New Zealand he waited as the ball came to him with opposing forwards baring down on him.
As the ball and the forwards arrived almost simultaneously Messenger without the slightest indication of what he had in mind punched the ball over the heads of his opponents, doubled round behind them, took it before it could hit the ground and went on to score.
That was an innovation but one which was short-lived. As a result of it a rule was brought in to cover a deliberate knock-on.
Messenger never played to any planned campaign – all he was there for was to get the ball over the opposing line.
There is only one plan for you fellows, bung it to me as quick as you can.
Dally Messenger To his Eastern Suburbs teammates
Probably the story which best sums up his outlook on a match was provided one day when he was playing with an Eastern Suburbs reserve team which he was captaining.
Just before they went on to the field a player asked Dally wasn’t he going to give the team a talk and outside the plans for the match.
“Plans,” commented Dally, “there is only one plan for you fellows, bung it to me as quick as you can.”
Rough and ready tactics but none better when Messenger was in the side.
In 1911 Messenger established a scoring record for an Australian in a season when he notched 270 points, a truly remarkable achievement. These figures stood until the Bradman of the League, Dave Brown came along to break the old record in 1935 when he scored 385 points.
In both Messenger and Brown’s day the kicker had to take the ball back for penalty shots because a man could stand on the mark where the kick was given.
Hall Of Fame | Dally Messenger
Nowadays of course it is the infringing side which has to go back 10 yards and consequently goals are easier to kick.
In 1911 when he ran up his record total Messenger scored 148 points in club games, scored eight tries and kicked 24 goals against Queensland, two tries and 16 goals for N.S.W against N.Z. and kicked six goals for Metropolis v. Northern Districts.
One of the highest tributes paid Dally was his selection to accompany the New Zealand All Golds to England in 1907.
Dally played for the Pioneers against Baskerville’s team at the Cricket Ground in 1907 and was such a sensation that Baskerville insisted on taking him to England with the side. They never regretted adopting him as a Kiwi for the trip as English crowds flocked to see him in action.
Dally went again the next year, 1908, as a member of the first Kangaroos, being vice-captain.
Messenger still holds the individual interstate scoring record with 32 points from one match in 1911.
That day “The Master” scored four tries and kicked ten goals – two efforts which have seldom been bettered.
No wonder they called him “The Master”.
