The 1908 NSWRFL season was the inaugural season of the New South Wales Rugby Football League's premiership, Australia's first rugby league football club competition, in which nine clubs competed from April till August 1908. The season culminated in the first premiership final, for the Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield, which was contested by Eastern Suburbs and South Sydney. In 1908 the NSWRFL also assembled a New South Wales representative team for the first ever interstate series against Queensland, and towards the end of the season, the NSWRFL's leading players were absent, having been selected to go on the first Kangaroo tour of Great Britain.
Dally Messenger - Bramley UK 1907
The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Eastern Suburbs and parts of inner Sydney including the CBD. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) and National Rugby League titles, and several other competitions. First founded as the Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club (ESDRLFC), it is the only club to have played in every season at the elite level, and since the 1970s has often been dubbed the glamour club of the league. The Sydney Roosters have won 15 premierships, equal to the record of the St George Dragons. Only the South Sydney Rabbitohs have won more premierships. The club holds the record for having won more matches than any other in the league, the most minor premierships and the most World Club Challenge trophies. The Sydney Roosters are one of only two clubs to finish runners-up in their inaugural season. Currently coached by Trent Robinson and captained by James Tedesco, the Roosters play home games at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Easts pioneers Dan Frawley (right) and Dally Messenger (left) in action for New South Wales in 1912
Three representative Roosters in 1931: Brown, Norman and Stehr.
General view of the former Sydney Sports Ground, Moore Park, as it appeared in 1937.
The Sydney Football Stadium as it appears while hosting a National Rugby League finals match.