From:http://www.sporthistory.org/TomBrocklect.htm#2007
2007 9TH TOM BROCK LECTURE
delivered by Mr Sean Fagan

”Nothing But a Nine-Day Wonder”: The founding of rugby league—Australia's first professional code.

The Tom Brock Bequest Committee, on behalf of the Australian Society for Sports History and the NSW Leagues' Club, invite you to the, Ninth Annual Tom Brock Lecture delivered by Mr Sean Fagan, ”Nothing But a Nine-Day Wonder”: The founding of rugby league—Australia's first professional code.

Thursday 27 September 2007
6.00 for 6.30 pm
NSW Leagues' Club
2nd floor,
65 Phillips Street, Sydney
Light refreshments will be served after the lecture.
RSVP:
Brooke Upton (02) 9514 6116

Abstract: Rather than being a ‘Nine-Day Wonder' as one journalist described it, rugby league and the NSWRL is about to celebrate its centenary. By just its third season, rugby league had not only survived, but gained domination of winter sport in Sydney, in the nation's largest metropolis. How did it all happen so quickly? While the League's opponents were decrying professional football as an abhorrent evil, what was it that made the ‘new rugby' code so immediately popular with the public and footballers alike? After a decade of simmering discontent, a heady mix of star footballers, private speculators, player payments, profit sharing, club structures, 13-a-side rugby, internal bickering, and public sentiment, all combined to bring about the founding of Australia's first professional football code: rugby league.

Biography: Sean Fagan is a sports historian and writer, specialising in rugby league and 19th century rugby union. He is the author of the highly acclaimed book The Rugby Rebellion—The Divide of League and Union (2005) and has just completed writing The Master: The Life and Times of Dally Messenger—a biography on Australia's greatest rugby league player. His work can be found on the internet at RL1908.com and ColonialRugby.com.au He is a member of the NRL and ARL Historians Committee, helping to plan for the code's centenary in 2007 and 2008.

From:http://www.sporthistory.org/TomBrocklect.htm#2007

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