DALLY MESSENGER - UNVEILING OF SCULPTURE

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

Despite being a sporting city, Sydney hasn't done a particularly good job of honouring its "heroes of the fields" with sculptures or statues.

The "Basil Sellers Sports Sculptures Project" is fast rectifying the situation.

Comprising 10 (slightly larger than life-size) sculptures sited around the grounds and walkways at the Sydney Cricket Ground and Sydney Football Stadium. When completed the Project will comprise 4 cricketers, and two each from rugby league, rugby union and Australian rules.

A sculpture of cricketer Richie Benaud was unveiled in early January 2008 adjacent to the Ladies Stand at the SCG.

The first at the SFS, in the main promenade from Driver Avenue up to the Stadium entry, is of Dally Messenger, recognised as Australian rugby league's first superstar and one of game's founding fathers in this country.

Messenger was a true ambassador for the game. Decades after retiring he was still to be found kicking-off bush football matches, attending presentation nights, and "meeting-and-greeting" fans of the game at the NSW Leagues Club in Sydney.

It is an appropriate setting for the sculpture, given the adjacent SCG and (now replaced) Sports Ground were the scene of so many of his triumphs.

A century ago, as today, Sydney loved a winner. Until Messenger arrived on the scene, we could never defeat the New Zealanders or English at rugby union.

In July 1907, with hope of victory, three matches against the All Blacks in just 8 days drew over 130,000 people to the SCG. On the back of a solo display by Messenger that included one of his "famous leaps", NSW downed the New Zealanders 14-0 in one match. At the final whistle "the ground rocked with the tumult" of the crowd's roars.

Messenger was "The Man of the Moment". The city was euphoric for days. "It was not excitement, it was frenzy," wrote one newspaper account of how the city reacted.

In Sydney, "winning is everything." Messenger provided Sydney with the football wins it craved. That he did it in a charismatic, dramatic and entertaining way made him a much adored superstar.

In 1908, having joined league, Messenger led NSW to two wins over the Kiwis - those wins gave the new rugby code a tremendous boost in popularity. New Zealand was no longer invincible. The confidence these Messenger-led victories gave rugby league, its players, supporters and officials should never be underestimated.

Back in mid-2007 I was approached by the Trust to provide historical background support for the Dally Messenger sculpture.

Having just released a book on Messenger, The Master, I was obviously thrilled to be given an opportunity to be involved.

After meeting with sculptor Cathy Weiszmann and the Trust's art advisor for the project, Henry Mulholland, it was matter of providing as much information as I could to help Cathy with the historical information and photographs, particularly on Messenger, but also generally on footballers of the era and their playing gear.

The jersey Dally is "wearing" is the famed "old-time Australian jersey" in maroon and sky blue colours, with a kangaroo badge over the heart.

This jersey was worn by Messenger in his rugby league Tests for Australia on the 1908/09 Kangaroo tour and at home in 1910 against England. The same jersey was also used in 1907 by the Australian rugby union team that Dally appeared in just before crossing codes.

The kangaroo badge was used on all of those jerseys, apart from the Kangaroo tour which used a badge in the shape of a map of Australia.

The rear of the jersey shows a conventional "blank square" with the No. "4" placed with in it. This was the jersey number allocated to Messenger for the 1908/09 Kangaroo tour.

The jersey is not tucked-in, it being usual to leave it over the top of the shorts - primarily to cover the large belt worn around the football shorts.

Messenger's shorts are thicker and longer than today's, reflecting the style in use a century ago.

The exposed portions of his legs (between the shorts and socks) are heavily bandaged - footballers, including Messenger, did this as a safety precaution on Australian grounds.

The soil of football fields, particularly the Bulli soil of the SCG, was a major source of infections if the bacteria in the dirt entered an open wound - in a time long before antibiotics, such an instance could (and did) prove to be fatal to a footballer.

The boots were modelled on those in photographs of Dally, with additional details from other boots from the era.

The leather football at Dally's feet is an accurate reproduction of the size and shape of footballs in use in Sydney in the rugby codes during Messenger's time. Interestingly, these footballs were not as round or as large as those in use in Britain at the time.

Merely constructing an accurate historical representation of a footballer does not make for an artistic work, nor a successful sculpture.

To take an idea from the written or spoken word, develop eight small posed models, to evolve that into a finished work that expresses and displays the emotion and presence of the subject, and in this particular case, convey the importance of this man in our history and to the precinct within which he stands, requires a rare talent.

It was Cathy's mind, her inner vision, her hands, that brought about the final work. All credit for the finished sculpture belongs with Cathy.

The Dally Messenger sculpture provides the man, and the game in its centenary season, a lasting tribute in a just setting.

It will perpuate the history of his contribution to both rugby codes and to the founding of the 13-man game in this country, and to his memory as a footballer and as a man.

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