North Sydney Bears

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

The North Sydney Bears club is an enigma in the game of rugby league. Unlike its other foundation club brothers, that each rose to the top at different times in the 20th century, the North Sydney club never enjoyed such heady days.

At best, it had 18 months through 1921 and ‘22 as the premier rugby league club in Australia. The rest is a sad tale of underachievement, missed opportunity and down-right bad luck.

North Sydney was formed as a foundation club of the newly arrived rugby league game in 1908 and were known as the Shoremen. Like the other Sydney district clubs, Norths were largely born from players and officials from the local rugby union club.

Looking back many ask today how did rugby league ever get a foothold on the side of the Sydney metropolis that is so devoutly behind the so called ‘amateur' game.

There were certainly people of the upper classes living on the north shore of Sydney at the time the Shoremen arrived (even as far back as the 1890s), but they were further "up the line" of the new railway in suburbs like Pymble, Turramurra and Wahroonga.

The North Sydney village itself was a working class community that was no different to the suburbs on the southern side of the harbour, apart from being a trifle more self-sufficient due to the reliance on harbour ferries for access.

While the North Sydney club's catchment area in 1908 extended east to the coast and as far north as Gosford and the southern reaches of the Newcastle club, the majority of players were local waterside workers, labourers, quarrymen and boat builders. The rest of the local area was hostile to the upstart professional game, the Central Coast was still remote (even with the Hawkesbury River Bridge opened in 1899) and the people of Manly saw themselves as a completely separate community.

The club adopted new colours of red and black for its debut in 1908, discarding the local rugby union club colours of cardinal green and gold. The North Sydney RU club had worn those colours since its formation in 1900 after the introduction of the Sydney district competition saw the north shore's Pirates (who wore black jerseys with a skull and cross-bone badge) and the famous Wallaroo clubs merge. The black in the Norths jersey may owe something to the Pirates as some of their former players were the first officials of the Norths rugby league club.

The club was denied access to community sporting grounds by the local Councils including Chatswood and Mosman Ovals. The only grounds it could find for training were at Careening Grove and Cammeray Park where the local junior rugby union club sought the payment of rent for use of the community facility.

North Sydney Oval (both grounds) was unavailable as the Council referred all requests to its chief user - the North Sydney RU club. They could find no free winter weekends until 1910. The Council was also against erecting a fence around the outside of the Oval to allow the Shoremen to charge entry - it was argued that none of the 40-acre public park in which the Oval was a small part should be enclosed. Needing to earn income to survive, the North Sydney rugby league club's future looked bleak before it had even begun.

In 1908 and 1909 the club played all of its home games on the south side of the harbour, including many at Birchgrove Oval. Not dissuaded, the local community put to water from Lavender Bay - they would form a flotilla of suitably decorated boats and travel across the harbour with the players and supporters to the Balmain peninsula.

The first North Sydney side performed well at times in 1908 but was not of a standard to push aside Easts or Souths who were the frontrunners. The Norths side included Australia's first Kangaroo captain in Denis ‘Dinny' Lutge, along with fellow tourists Jimmy Deveraux, Andy Morton and Sid Deane. The latter three players all signed for English clubs at the end of the tour, which did North Sydney no favour - they finished 2nd last in 1909.

The club was also embroiled in a dispute with the NSWRL that season which almost saw Norths expelled from the competition.

Norths made their first appearance at their home ground of North Sydney Oval in May 1910 and began establishing a reputation for being difficult to beat at home. However, while they may have presented a challenge, they were far from unbeatable and results throughout the 1910s are best forgotten.

The Shoremen often went for dozens of games without ever beating Souths, Balmain or Easts. At times they had trouble overcoming Annandale and Western Suburbs. While World War One saw Balmain arise from the mid-table to win consecutive titles, Norths went backwards.

Press reports started to appear in 1919 calling for the expelling of the equal last placed North Sydney and Annandale as spectators stayed away from grounds wherever they played. With St. George's entry imminent, performances in 1920 would prove crucial.

Mid-1920 saw a remarkable turnaround occur for Norths - just in time. Norths won six games in a row as the premiership season drew to a close pushing them off the bottom of the table. They followed this up with wins over Glebe and Souths in the City Cup, before the unheralded Norths side defeated Wests in the Final. While Norths celebrated, Annandale were cut from the competition.

The new Norths were being lead around the park by Duncan Thompson and gradually they began to become a premiership power. In 1921 the season was reduced to one round as the Kangaroos were to sail to England at the end of July.

Norths didn't lose a game as they won their first ever premiership with players such as Harold Horder, Cec Blinkhorn, Herman Peters, Frank Rule, Clarrie Ives, Ted Taplin and Dallas Hodgins.

In a drawn match against Easts, which attracted a crowd of over 48,000, the club earned more money in one afternoon than it had all season in most other years. The club was on the edge of a golden period that would finally see it match the deeds of Balmain, Easts and Souths.

A title win again in 1922 confirmed that North Sydney was at the top of the rugby league tree. There was no one who could unroot them - but themselves. Their best players soon retired or left, and there were no rising players to replace them. Of even more significance as the 1920s passed, was the impending arrival of the ‘monster' that would destroy the North Sydney working class community forever.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge saw the demolition and removal of over 500 cottages from North Sydney. As the famous poet Henry Lawson put it (he was living in North Sydney at the time) "they're shifting old North Sydney...they're carting off the houses"... and with it the working class community that was the foundation of the rugby league club.

In 1929 the League disposed of the Glebe club for having a static population and changing demographics - they were nothing compared to change that was overtaking North Sydney as its community was ripped apart. (For more on this aspect of the North Sydney club's history refer to Andrew Moore's book 'The Mighty Bears').

The club persevered and as the 1940s unfolded Norths began a steady rise back to the top.

Assisted by a boundary change that saw classy centre Frank Hyde join their ranks, the club built a formidable side for the 1943 season. After a typically disappointing start to the season, the Norths side went on to win twelve games straight to reach the Grand Final where they faced Newtown - a team they had beaten three times already that season.

As luck would have it, the Army called on Norths' star lock-forward Harry Taylor in the lead up to the decider. The disruption proved crucial. As Taylor readied himself for a stint in New Guinea in a Queensland training camp, Norths were caught out by a smart Newtown side that had managed to retain all its ‘military' players.

Norths were rocked by injuries in the first half, including to Hyde, and fell away to lose by 34-7 in front of well over 60,000 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Like everyone, Norths were still trying to rebuild after the end of the war when they were hit with an almost fatal blow. The NSWRL admitted the Manly-Warringah club to the competition and Norths promptly lost both Council areas from their catchment. Of immediate concern was that Norths effectively lost the entire first grade backline to Manly (via the residential rule) including Kelly McMahon and Johnny Bliss.

Scores of lower graders who resided over the north side of The Spit also left. Norths put on a brave face and looked to the far northern outskirts of Sydney in the suburbs of Asquith and Hornsby for a new breeding ground. The mass of suburbia rapidly growing in between showing an ever increasing contempt for sport across the board, or sticking rigidly to the amateur games of cricket and rugby union.

In many respects North Sydney deserves credit for prevailing, rather than being bemoaned for a lack of on-field success.

The rock-hard condition of North Sydney Oval did little to convince players to move to the club, and ensured that the Bears players themselves developed a self-protective tackling style that reduced their defensive potency.

During the forty years after the end of the war (1945-85) North Sydney was ever present at the tail of the competition table. Highlights for the diehard fans were few, apart from the occasional win over neighbours Manly.

The Bears made the semi-finals in three consecutive seasons from 1952 to 1954 before returning again in 1964 and 1965. In a heart-breaking trend that was only going to get worse, Norths reached - and lost - the Final in 1952 and 1965.

The lack of premiership success saw players, none lesser than Ken Irvine, continue to leave the club to find triumphs elsewhere.

The club adopted the Bears name in 1959 after being approached by the owner of the Big Bear Supermarket in Neutral Bay looking for an easy means to advertise his business.

It worked so well that the club's use of the name Bears has long outlived the supermarket.

For the second time in Norths' history, they were given an ultimatum by the NSWRL (in 1978) to improve soon or their time would be up (Newtown were given the same message). As in 1920, the Bears produced a season in 1982 that got the ‘monkey of their back'.

Norths returned to the semi-finals with a team that was largely comprised of local juniors and a huge forward pack that included Don McKinnon, Steve Mayoh, John Gray and Mark Graham. The unspoken of concern when the semi-finals arrived was that nearly everyone associated with the club had no experience of big matches at the SCG.

It told in the first semi when the Top 3 Bears lost to Manly by 26-3 and John Gray, the playmaker, broke his arm. A loss the next week to Easts by 12-10 ended a season that was promising to deliver so much. Ironically, the rough and tough physicality of this Norths side may just have been the team to rile Parramatta (the eventual premiers).

The Bears spent the rest of the decade consumed with internal brawling that rapidly saw wins few and far between. The 1990s produced the club's most successful decade ever - but by its end they had still not won another title and were no longer playing in the first grade competition.

A brash breed of young players stood up in 1990 including Billy Moore, David Fairleigh, Mark Soden and Jason Martin as the Bears finished the season just outside the play-offs. In 1991 North Sydney were again a serious premiership contender.

They marched all the way to the major semi-final for the chance of a Grand Final place. Despite scoring three tries to two, they lost to eventual premiers Penrith 16-14. Kiwi goal-kicker Daryl Halligan had the worst day of his illustrious career, kicking 1 goal from 5 attempts. In the Final against Canberra the Bears were ahead by 12-0, before injuries took their toll and the Raiders won by 30-14.

The Bears gained the services of Jason Taylor, Ivan Cleary and Sean Hoppe for 1994 and soon broke the club record of 8 consecutive wins set by the 1922 Shoremen. With Greg Florimo, Mario Fenech and Gary Larson also in the side a 25-10 flogging of the great Canberra side of the era marked 1994 as a season of rare opportunity for the Bears.

After disposing of Brisbane in the first semi, Norths again faced Canberra for a place in the last ever NSWRL Grand Final. With the Bears leading 6-2 Canberra lost forward Lomax after he was sent off. Four minutes later Larson performed a spear-tackle on Canberra's Furner and both teams had 12 men.

The wider spaces offered in a 12-man game suited the Raiders and an horrific injury toll saw the Bears down to 11 towards the end. Norths lost 22-9 and had to watch Canterbury produce a woeful effort to hand Canberra the 1994 premiership.

Amidst the drama of the Super League war, the North Sydney Bears again reached the Final in 1996. Their opponent was St George, a team the Bears had thrashed by 42-0 during the season. Again North Sydney took a handy early lead before the tide turned and Saints went on to win by 29-12 and face Manly in the Grand Final.

In December 1996 the North Sydney Bears considered, and then rejected, an offer to join the Super League.

In 1997 a hard fought Final against Newcastle was there to be won by the Bears. The great goal kicker Jason Taylor failed to convert two Norths tries that would have kept the Knights out of the game.

Desperate cover defence by Newcastle late in the game, followed by a Matthew Johns field goal broke the heart of the North Sydney side. The Knights won the ARL Grand Final the next week.

Seemingly encouraged by the ARL, the North Sydney club made the decision to move permanently to Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW at a completely re-built Graham Park.

In 1999 the Bears were nomadic as they awaited the completion of the new stadium that was delayed by construction problems and bad weather. Three years later the state of NSW was enduring the longest and harshest drought ever seen.

The club couldn't cope financially and went into the control of an administrator at the end of the 1999 season. The NRL announced that the Bears would not therefore be considered for inclusion in the 2000 premiership.

After over 90 seasons, the North Sydney club was out.

The Bears (via its administrator) merged with the enemy Manly Sea Eagles to form the Northern Eagles joint venture club. After two seasons the Northern Eagles partnership collapsed in debt and bitter acrimony, and the NRL club licence reverted to Manly.

The Bears remain on the outside waiting for the opportunity to again enter the NRL - at either Gosford as the Central Coast Bears or back at North Sydney Oval.

It is hard to argue that the northern side of Sydney will never have its own NRL club again. Taking out the Manly and Warringah districts, the remaining area (from the Spit Bridge to North Sydney itself to Cherrybrook in the north-west) supports an economic and population base larger than most current NRL clubs.

While many say Sydney has enough clubs already, none of them are servicing the north / north-west side of metropolitan area, leaving it uncontested against the other football codes.

Meanwhile, the Central Coast region also remains without a NRL team, despite the opportunities it seems to offer.

The NRL's rejection in 2004 (and again in 2005) of the Bears' proposal for re-admittance to the premiership continued to dishearten "Red and Black" rugby league fans. Far from disuaded though, in December 2008 the club launched a fresh campaign to rejoin the NRL as a Central Coast side, with the aim of inclusion in the 2011 premiership.