Rugby league was first played in New South Wales in 1907. The New South Wales Rugby Football League (NSWRFL) was formed in August 1907, when player discontent with the administration of the
New South Wales Rugby Union, over rejection of compensation payments for injuries and lost wages, led to a breakaway movement. Key figures in the new league were
James Joseph Giltinan, legendary cricketer
Victor Trumper,
Alex Burdon,
Peter Moir, Labor politician
Henry Hoyle,
George Brackenreg and
Jack Feneley. The first NSWRFL game was played on 17 August 1907, in which a
New Zealand team defeated a
NSW team 12–8. The
Sydney premiership was started on 20 April 1908. Nine teams contested the initial season. These were the nine teams: •
Balmain Tigers •
(Central) Cumberland Fruitpickers •
Eastern Suburbs Roosters •
Glebe Dirty Reds •
Newcastle Rebels •
Newtown Jets •
North Sydney Bears •
Western Suburbs Magpies •
South Sydney Rabbitohs The NSWRFL premiership was continued on the basis of the first competition in
1908. In 1929,
Jersey Flegg was appointed to the position of president of the NSWRFL and in 1941 he became chairman of the
Australian Rugby League Board of Control. At the time of his death in 1960, aged 82, he was still serving in these roles. When NSWRFL president Flegg died in 1960,
Bill Buckley replaced him and also became boss of the
Australian Rugby League, a position he remained in from 1960 until his death in 1973. In 1973,
Kevin Humphreys was appointed President of NSWRFL and Chairman of Australian Rugby League (ARL). Under him
State of Origin was introduced. In 1983, Humphreys was succeeded in these positions by
Ken Arthurson. Under Arthurson, the NSWRFL was succeeded by the New South Wales Rugby League Ltd (NSWRL) and the clubs in the league expanded outside the borders of the state and even the country until, in 1994, after the 87th consecutive premiership season, the
Australian Rugby League (ARL) replaced the NSWRL in the operation of the premier competition. Notwithstanding the handover of control of the game at the elite level across Australia to the ARL, NSWRL retained responsibility for both the administration of the
New South Wales rugby league team in
State of Origin series, as well as day-to-day management of the state-based
New South Wales Cup second-tier premiership, as well as junior representative competitions and divisional leagues throughout NSW and the ACT. It did so in conjunction with the NSW
Country Rugby League before their merger in 2019. In a similar way, the rival
Queensland Rugby League retained responsibility for that state's Origin team and lower tier competitions.
Royal Agricultural Society Shield The
Royal Agricultural Society Shield, or
RAS Shield was the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL)'s first premiership trophy. It was presented to each year's premiership winning
rugby league team; the first to win three successive titles would take permanent ownership of the shield. The
Eastern Suburbs club achieved this feat winning premierships in 1911, 1912 and 1913. The hand crafted silver and oak designed shield was donated to the NSWRL by the
Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales in its first year of competition. Leading journalist
Claude Corbett wrote in Sydney, Sun, newspaper on, 1 May 1914, "The Royal Agricultural Society Shield, which was presented at the inception of the
League's first grade competition has been won outright by Eastern Suburbs, who upset all calculations by winning the premiership three years in succession. The club has presented the shield to their captain,
Dally Messenger, 'as a token of appreciation of his captaincy'." In 1929,
Jersey Flegg was appointed to the position of president of the NSWRFL. Midway through the 1909 season,
Edward Larkin was appointed full-time secretary of the NSWRFL. The NSWRFL had commenced a very popular and successful mid-week competition in 1974, originally known as the
Amco Cup, but later as the Tooth Cup and the National Panasonic Cup. The success of this competition, which included teams from both Brisbane and New Zealand, ultimately created pressure for further expansion in the NSWRFL competition. In 1980, the NSWRFL President
Kevin Humphreys, who had been chairman of the League since 1973, was instrumental in the establishment of the
State of Origin series between teams representing the NSWRFL and
Queensland Rugby League (QRL). The immediate success of this series, which remains the premier representative competition in Australia, and the overriding success of the Queensland team further pressured the NSWRFL to expand the club competition outside the boundaries of the state. Sydney suburban teams came and went throughout the NSWRFL's history but it was not until
1982 that the competition included expansion outside of the Sydney area. This corresponded with the adoption of commercial sponsorship of the competition for the first time, the
Winfield Cup. The two new inclusions were from the Australian Capital Territory – the
Canberra Raiders – as well as a team from the southern New South Wales region – the
Illawarra Steelers. ===
Winfield Cup=== The
Winfield Cup trophy remains a permanent symbol of one of the game's most successful eras. Cast in bronze by Alan Ingham, it was the game's ultimate prize for the duration of the Winfield sponsorship from 1982 to 1995. Based on John O'Gready's world famous photograph of
Norm Provan (St George) and
Arthur Summons (Wests) after the
1963 Grand Final, the trophy represented the premiership pinnacle for players in the Winfield Era. The
Winfield Cup captured these and many other things about League in its primary image, "The Gladiators" and the famous trophy, like the J.J. Giltinan Shield, remains an part of the game's heritage. The League's name was changed in 1984 to the New South Wales Rugby League and
Ken Arthurson became the new chairman. In 1988, two
Queensland teams joined the competition, with the inclusions of the
Brisbane Broncos and the
Gold Coast-Tweed Giants seeing the game move beyond the outer borders of New South Wales. At the same time, a team from the Hunter region of New South Wales was included, with the return of a franchise for
Newcastle. Their return was the end of an 81-year wait in the wilderness and this time around the franchise was badged the
Newcastle Knights. In 1990, the NSWRL introduced a
salary cap system to even the playing field of teams in the Winfield Cup. ==
National Rugby League clubs==