Tommy Anderson: League's First "Wonder Kid"

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

Tommy Anderson

The first grade careers of most rugby league players have been fleeting. The majority are less than 30 matches, many played only a handful of games.

Obviously, most of those were players either weren't up to the required standard, luck avoided them, injury cruelled their chances, they weren't 'favoured', or they simply didn't make the most of their opportunity.

Take for example the club career of Tommy Anderson, in the first years of rugby league in Sydney. Anderson played for South Sydney in the first game of 1908 and by the end of 1910 had tallied 30 appearances. In 1911 he moved to Balmain, played one game, and was never seen again.

There are plenty of players with similar records from that era. When rugby league began players of all ages moved to the new game. Many were nearing the end of their football days when they made their debut appearance - and understandably their rugby league careers weren't long.

Working life was far more transient than it is today, with many jobs requiring long travel times or movement away from Sydney. Money from rugby league was never enough to survive upon or feed a family - not until the upheaval of the 1990s.

And there was the steady flow of 'converting' rugby union players that soon turned into a stampede in 1910. Many of the men that went to League in late 1907 and early 1908 were displaced from first grade by the former Wallaby stars.

In the case of Tommy Anderson though, none of these were the reason his career ended.

Tommy was a 19 year old in 1908, he soon played for both NSW and Australia, before making the Kangaroo to England.

Within two years of returning from that tour, his career was over.

The term 'shooting star' has been applied to countless players over the century - in the case of Tommy Anderson it was closer to the truth than for most.

Anderson was still a teenager when the 1907 NSW v All Golds matches were played in Sydney. He was a powerful young man, for a time he was a wrestler, and could look forward to a promising rugby union career as a three-quarter or fullback.

But when the South Sydney rugby league club was formed in early 1908, Anderson aligned himself with the new game. Unlike the older footballers around him, Anderson had an entire playing career 'on the line' if the NSWRL failed - and there were plenty of people in Sydney who predicted it would.

Putting aside fear of a lifetime ban from the Metropolitan RU authorities, Anderson set to learning the skills of the new rugby game with his team mates. When the South Sydney team took the field for their first ever game, Anderson was in the side as a winger.

Shortly before halftime in the match - against North Sydney at Birchgrove Oval - Anderson claimed the honour of scoring South Sydney's first ever premiership try. He was beaten to the honour of the first ever rugby league try in Australia by a score a few minutes earlier in the Easts v Newtown match at Wentworth Park.

Souths went on to win the game 11-7 to end a day that Anderson would have been well pleased with. Anderson continued in good form and he soon began a rapid rise to the top of the 'rugby league tree'.

Very quickly Anderson established a reputation as one of the hardest men to tackle in the game, and began averaging a try every match.

With the Test series against the New Zealand side already lost, Australia went for the youthful Anderson for the 3rd Test (held at the Showground) in Sydney.

Tommy was selected in the centres to play alongside Dally Messenger, outside a new halves pairing of Albert Rosenfeld and Arthur 'Pony' Halloway. Jim Deveraux was pushed to the wing to make way for Anderson.

Anderson had certainly enjoyed a meteoric rise, but he also knew that with the offer of a Kangaroo tour to England beckoning, a solid performance in the Test could secure him the trip of a lifetime.

With New Zealand holding a 6-0 lead into the second half, opportunities for Anderson were few. From a scrum win the ball shot to Messenger - he and Anderson quickly moved toward to the 'All Golds' defensive line, before Dally dummied to his young centre partner and flew through for the try.

The Kiwis scored again and held a 9-3 lead into the final quarter of the match. Messenger and Deveraux soon combined to create an opening for Anderson to scoot through and score a try wide out.

Australia was now down by a point and the New Zealanders were tearing into their opponents in an attempt to quieten down the less experienced Aussies. The clashes had become so 'close-quarters' that Anderson and Graves both had their Test jerseys ripped off their backs!

Two late tries to the Aussies - including one to a half-naked Graves which amused the crowd - secured the victory by 14-9.

Tommy Anderson was selected in the New South Wales side for the first ever interstate clash against Queensland. The match was held in early August as a Kangaroo tour selection trial. The Queenslanders had no answer to Anderson as he scored four tries in a 43-0 rout by the Blues.

Anderson again got himself inscribed in the record books for another 'first ever' when he claimed NSW's first ever try against the Maroons.

Anderson's performance ensured he was selected in the Kangaroos tour party. They sailed for England on the morning the premiership finals began. This forced Anderson and his fellow team mates from South Sydney to miss out on being in the team to win the first ever premiership Final.

Little is recorded of Anderson's involvement during the Kangaroo tour - he ultimately only played five matches, none of them being in the Tests. Injury doesn't seem to have played a part in his absence from the field. He was one of only three 20 year olds in the squad - perhaps his age told against him in the selection discussions. But for an incumbent Test player he received little opportunity or 'fair go'.

On return to Australia he quickly took his place in the South Sydney side. In the 1909 semi-final the tough young winger scored two tries in a spiteful and torrid match against Newcastle. His tries helped Souths to a 20-0 win and a place in the Final.

As events transpired, that win by the 'red and greens' meant their winning of the premiership after Balmain forfeited the Final. It was slightly disappointing for Anderson as he had again missed out on playing in a Final.

On the positive side, he was still only 21, had achieved two premierships, a Test match, state representation, a Kangaroo tour and had his name permanently etched into the record books.

Yet within 18 months his career was over. Why?

In 1910 the Sydney competition was well and truly alive - the top players from rugby union had joined, crowds were huge, the English Lions were on their way...and Easts were filthy that despite having the best players in the game, including Messenger, they had no premiership titles and Souths had two from two.

Most clubs knew that to beat Easts they would have to 'quieten Dally'. When the 'tri-colours' met Souths, the task of attending to Messenger was assigned to Anderson. The former Kangaroo tourists and Test partners went head to head throughout the game.

Souths instructed Anderson to 'bounce' Messenger every time he was near the ball. Anderson was told to be physical with Messenger at every opportunity - to hit him hard, to make every tackle and clash hurt, to make him hesitate, to deride him in front of the fans and his team mates.

Well that was the plan...

Reports of the game have Anderson and Messenger meeting a number of times in mid-air, chest to chest. The body clashes were so heavy that they were heard across the field. Anderson continued to attack Messenger all afternoon - all the players on the field, and even the spectators and reporters on the sidelines, all knew what was happening.

Yet it seemingly had no effect on either player. Messenger appeared to be completely oblivious to Souths' tactics and remained unaffected. He played his normal game as if nothing different had happened. Afterwards his team mates were perplexed as to how he had survived the barrage without any mental or physical damage.

The same could not be said of Tommy Anderson. He was reported to have ended the match as 'severely shaken'. Whether it was from Messenger being unaffected or because he was himself injured is unclear.

Anderson's form deteriorated rapidly over the next few weeks. He lost all confidence and skills.

No one was sure whether he was covering an injury or had been crushed by the failure of Messenger to react in that heated match.

He soon lost his place in the South Sydney line-up and he never regained it.

In 1911 he moved across to Balmain, and after one match in first grade, his career came to an anti-climatic end.

His fellow Kangaroo tourists told many years later how Anderson "lost all normal vitality" and seemed to live his life "in a kind of punch-drunk state".

It was sad end to a promising football career, and a tragic result upon his life, if the tactics in that match against Messenger were the cause.

His team mates from the Kangaroo Tour were in no doubt - his condition could be traced back to that fateful afternoon where he took on Messenger.