On his return to Australia, he joined the fledgling code of rugby league along with 13 of his Olympic teammates. He played at full-back in the first Test against Great Britain in 1910 when Australia hosted the tourists. He was selected in 1911 for the 2nd
Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and played in 24 tour matches, scoring 9 tries. He played on the wing in the victorious 1st and 2nd Tests of 1911. During the
1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand, the first ever, Russell made his international league début in the first Test in Sydney on 18 June. Four of his former
Wallaby teammates also debuted that day
John Barnett,
Bob Craig,
Jack Hickey and
Chris McKivat - making them collectively Australia's 11th to 15th dual code internationals. This repeated a similar occurrence two years earlier when five former Wallabies in
Micky Dore,
Dally Messenger,
Denis Lutge,
Doug McLean snr and
John Rosewell all debuted for the
Kangaroos in the first ever Test against
New Zealand. His club football was with
Newtown, where he played for 7 seasons. He was captain-coach of the Newtown premiership-winning side of
1910, landing two goals to tie the final against
South Sydney 4-4, thus enabling Newtown to win the premiership. Russell was also selected for the
1911–12 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain. ==Post playing==