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Ref: Rugby League, ‘Kangroos at Parkhead’
Match: Australia v England
Date: 3 Feb 1909
Celtic Park hosts the Australian ‘Pioneers’
Rugby League and football (association) are the two main football codes of the north of England. However, whilst Rugby League was able to pull the heartstrings of its devotees in Yorkshire and parts of Lancashire, it has generally failed to spread its roots outwith of the North of England & the eastern states of Australia, but that has not been without trying.
The then young rugby football code, having seen its split in England in 1899 from the Rugby Football Union followed by a similar schism in Australia in 1907, saw the emergence of Rugby League (or ‘Northern Union‘ as it was at first called in England), and an effort was made to spread the code into Scotland with an exhibition game, as well as an intention to make some much needed revenue as well.
With its similar working class roots, playing a game in Glasgow was possibly a way to attract similar minded people. Thus a game was arranged to be played at Celtic Park on Feb 3rd 1909 between England & Australia. The ‘Kangaroos‘, as the national rugby league side of Australia is dubbed, was for the first time on tour in the UK for financial and promotional reasons.
“Kangaroos at Parkhead”.
Sadly the match was literally a damp squid, being played in torrential rain, and the crowd reflected this with just around 3,000 paying to watch Australia fightback to snatch a dramatic 17-17 draw with England.
One report has it that the Australians brought a kangaroo (or maybe it was a wallaby) with them all they way from Australia, and even brought it up with them to Glasgow!
One Australian player did leave a big impression. Australia’s dual-code internationalist Herbert Henry (‘Dally’) Messsenger so impressed on the day that Celtic manager Willie Maley attempted to get him to stay with an offer of a sum of £1000 to sign on for Celtic as an outside-right. Sadly, Dally had promised his mother faithfully to return home, no matter what offers were made to keep him in England.
So it looks like it was his mother to blame for him not signing for Celtic! Could have been a pedant and made an exception as offer was to play in Scotland not England! Dally is a legendary figure for Australian sport, and there is even a statue of him outside the iconic Sydney Football Stadium in Australia.
In any case, whoever thought that many would wish to pay to watch the English national team in Scotland at a club with Irish roots must have been lacking any real nous. The whole tour across the UK was financially poor in its overall takings, and the British hosts even had to pay the fares home for the Australians.
The ‘Kangaroos’ side was part of what has been dubbed the ‘Pioneers’, the first rugby league squad of players from Australia to tour the UK, and was pivotal to the game’s development in Australia for its credibility. The tour is still very much celebrated in Australian Rugby League circles, and Celtic are honoured to have hosted the pioneering legends from Australia for a match despite its lack of success. Rugby League in the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales is as important to their history as football (association) is to Scotland’s history. It’s interesting to see the little footnote that Celtic Park as a host has played in their history.
In contrast to Australia, the Union code has remained the stronger rugby football code in Scotland, but its numbers are few and its importance heavily exaggerated by its supporters in the middle & upper classes and the small numbers in the borders area. Rugby League has a small interest but nothing significant.
Football (association rules) had already easily become the code of choice amongst the working classes in Scotland (and ultimately the country as a whole), with little serious competition from any rival code as was much the case elsewhere.
If the weather had been a little better that day then who can now tell if that small step might actually have helped push their code to get a niche at least in Scotland.
Links
Articles
Celtic boss Willie Maley tried to sign a Rugby player
https://www.glasgowhawks.com/news/when-celtic-tried-to-sign-a-rugby-player-2423843.html
With Parkhead set to host the Pro 14 Final the same day as the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden will Celtic still be keeping an eye on potential signings at Parkhead as one of their legendary managers Willie Maley did in 1908
When Australia’s representative rugby league team, the Kangaroos, first toured Great Britain in 1908-09. They played an exhibition match at Celtic Park, against the Northern Union and Australia’s H. H. (‘Dally’) Messenger totally blew the opposition away. His play was so impressive that Celtic FC’s manager, the legendary Willie Maley, approached Dally about switching to soccer
Australian journaliat Morry Walsh records
“It was while he was in England with the 1908-9 Kangaroos. The team struck a bad financial patch. The Lancashire cottonworkers were on strike, money was scarce.
The team was invited to Glasgow to play an exhibition game. Willie Maley, famous manager of Glasgow Celtic, offered them the Parkhead ground free of charge.
Maley was enthralled by Messenger’s spectacular dashes down the wing, his uncanny kicking accuracy.
After the game he offered Dally the then fabulous sum of £1000 to sign on for Glasgow Celtic as an outside-right.
But before he left Australia Dally had promised his mother faithfully to return home, no matter what offers were made to keep him in England.
Playing League later at St. James Park he was spotted by directors of Newcastle United Soccer Club.They pestered him for days to switch to Soccer.
Later, the Kangaroos were training at Southport, where the Tottenham Hotspurs were having a training run.
The two teams had an impromptu game of Soccer. Daily’s educated feet almost made the round ball talk. Hotspur directors made him a £1000 offer.
But Dally never broke a promise, his rule to this day.”
Stranger things have happened
