The Grand Final That Never Was
Balmain v Souths 1909

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

South Sydney 1909 team - won the premiership after Balmain forfeited. [Image courtesy of Ian Heads]

Imagine it is Grand Final day, just 30 minutes before kick-off. The stands are inexplicably empty, and there is just one team warming up inside the ground. Meanwhile, all the players and officials from the other club are outside the stadium, picketing the turnstile entrances in an effort to stop fans going inside.

Could it ever happen? You’d like to think not, but it has happened before – in 1909, when Balmain refused to play against South Sydney.

The events that day (18th September 1909) gave rise to a permanent blood-feud between the two clubs right through the 20th century.

So much bad feeling exists between them that not even the merging of Balmain with the Magpies into the Wests Tigers has tempered the animosity, nor the myths and legends that fuel it.

The passing of the 100-years anniversary will again stir emotions, and should jersey-clad devotees of either side cross paths, a few hot words are sure to be traded, albeit (let’s hope) in a semi-friendly jest.

Like all never-ending feuds, the events and reasoning that triggered the vendetta depend upon who is telling the story. Balmain reckon both clubs made a pact not to play that day, while the Rabbitohs steadfastly argue there was never an agreement.

No one disputes that Souths took to the field ready to play – they kicked-off the match, chased after the ball, picked it up and raced across for a try. That was enough for the referee to award Souths the match, and with it the 1909 premiership.

In the weeks that followed Balmain (or the “Balmainiacs” as many preferred to call them) threatened Equity Court action against the NSWRL and the Rabbitohs, but in the end it amounted to a lot of hot air.

So just why did Balmain forfeit the game?

There were enough off-field dramas, personal attacks and clandestine agendas in 1909 to rival the Super League war. Amidst it all, 14 current Wallabies were convinced by lucrative payments (financed by Sydney entrepreneur James Joynton Smith) to cross to league for a three match series against the Kangaroos.

The gate-takings from the series though didn’t recoup Smith’s outlay, so the NSWRL arranged a fourth Kangaroos-Wallabies contest, and added the premiership decider as the undercard, hoping to boost the size of the crowd. The NSWRL were in a tight predicament, as its officials had secretly undertaken on behalf of the League to repay Smith if there was a short-fall.

Balmain objected to the premiership decider being consigned to a preliminary match status, and argued that the League had no right to exploit the labour of the club footballers to repay Smith. Balmain officials turned up at the NSWRL’s offices the day before the match, unsuccessfully demanding the game be rescheduled to a stand-alone date. As far as Souths and the NSWRL were concerned, the match was going ahead.

Behind the scenes a North Sydney official, Alexander Knox, was cajoling the Balmain club to go ahead with their boycott. Knox, along with many others at Norths and Balmain, and probably Newtown and Wests too, felt that Souths, as well as Easts, had too much influence over the running of the NSWRL and the selection of Kangaroos teams.

. This article is based on Pioneers of Rugby League.

Balmain’s actions in picketing the ground and refusing to play were aimed at ensuring Smith’s debt could not be repaid, forcing the NSWRL into a public scandal that would see it collapse, and be replaced by a new body where Souths and Easts had less influence.

Unfortunately for Balmain, Knox, and the rest of the revolutionaries, even without the Balmain-Souths game, the Kangaroos-Wallabies contest drew just enough fans to clear the money owed by the NSWRL to Smith.

Balmain had forfeited the premiership decider for nothing.

Could those club officials and supporters of 1909 be with us today, they would quickly observe that Souths (albeit not without a substantial fight of their own) and Easts are still in the competition, while Balmain and the others are not.