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Rugby League's long ANZAC Day tradition with the SCG Trust

Photo credit: Hamilton Lund / SCG Trust

The ANZAC Cup match between the Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra at the Sydney Football Stadium tomorrow (kick-off 3.00pm) continues a long tradition between Rugby League and the SCG Trust – a history which dates back to the first ANZAC Day holiday Monday in 1926.

Rugby League historian, Sean Fagan, has researched the game’s rich ANZAC Day history and highlights how the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Sydney Sports Ground, now the site of the Sydney Football Stadium, have been the traditional homes to headline ANZAC Day fixtures.

During the past 83 years, the clash between the Roosters and Dragons featured regularly on ANZAC Day even prior to the striking of the ANZAC Cup between the two clubs which was first played at the SFS in 2002.

Roosters and the Dragons met at the SCG on Anzac Day in 1959, 1961, 1978 and 1979 and now every year since 2002.

Below is an extract from Sean Fagan’s research;

In 1926 the NSW Parliament acceded to the wishes of the ANZACs, and football and horse-racing was to be permitted. However, ANZAC Day that year fell on a Sunday, and normal Sunday observances had to be followed - hotels were restricted to "Sunday trading hours", while professional sports and racing were not allowed. As a result, a holiday Monday was gazetted for whenever ANZAC Day occured on a Sunday - thus the ANZACs and public would not be denied their "day for rejoicing".

On that first holiday Monday in 1926, a full race meeting was held at Rosehill, and first grade rugby league games were played in the city at the SCG (Easts v Balmain, 20,000 attendance) and at Wentworth Park (Newtown v Sydney University). The first match on ANZAC Day was in 1927, when Glebe met Western Suburbs at the SCG.

Though objections to playing professional sports continued in some areas, the sentiments of the ANZACs won out, and by the end of the decade ANZAC Day rugby league matches were being held in most of the bigger country towns throughout NSW.

A tradition of ANZAC Day matches (or the Monday holiday) was quickly established, and right through the 1930s ANZAC Day in Sydney also signalled the opening round of the premiership season's club matches.

In the decades that followed club or representative matches were played almost every year on ANZAC Day (or the Monday holiday).

Conversely, in Victoria, the government resolutely held to the "closed" public holiday, and it was not until 1960 that a VFL (AFL) game was held on ANZAC Day.

The only seasons in which there has been no premiership/representative ANZAC Day rugby league match (or holiday Monday match) was in 1930 (Anzac Day was Friday, and a full club round was played on Saturday 26th), 1942-45 (WW2), 1995 (Super League War) & 2001 (Anzac Day was a Wednesday, and no mid-week NRL game was scheduled).

For the footballers of earlier decades, ANZAC Day usually meant a heavier load of matches with the NSWRL, more often than not, scheduling a full round on ANZAC Day itself, and also making use of the holiday Monday when it was available.

This meant that the teams were often turning out in 3 games in 7 days via the addition of a mid-week ANZAC Day match. In some seasons this resulted in 2 games in as short a space as 3 days (Saturday followed by a holiday Monday game, or a holiday Thursday match and then the usual Saturday game).

The last instance of this "crammed scheduling" was in 1985, with an entire round of club matches played on a Thursday ANZAC Day, and another full round on the Sunday three days later.

In more recent times footballers backed up after playing in City-Country matches held on ANZAC Day in 1990 (SFS), 1991 (SFS) and 1997 (Friday night game in Newcastle). The 1997 ANZAC Day evening also saw a match at Lang Park in Brisbane between the South Queensland Crushers and Balmain, as well as Super League's "ANZAC Test" at the SFS.

The "ANZAC Test" was also played between the Kangaroos and Kiwis from 1998 to 2000 and in 2004, but none were on ANZAC Day itself. The official use of "ANZAC Test" ceased from 2005 onwards, however the media and the public generally have continued to apply the term to the one-off Test, even to those held in the second week of May (2008 and 2009).

From the very first ANZAC Day and holiday matches in 1926 and 1927, the NSWRL was determined that at least one match needed to be played at the SCG, as the venue provided both the prestige to signify the importance of the day, and it was close to the city, enabling easy access from the street march. In many years the Sports Ground, directly adjacent to the SCG (approximately where the SFS now stands), was also used to host a match at the same time.

Though Sunday football had come to be a regular part of the Sydney season by the early 1960s, the SCG Trust refused to allow Sunday games, even on ANZAC Day. As a result, ANZAC Day matches that fell on a Sunday were played at the Sports Ground (first in 1965). Ultimately, the SCG never hosted an ANZAC Day game on a Sunday.

The SCG was the venue for the NSWRL's 1977 and 1978 "League-athon" matches, which were held in conjunction with ANZAC Day. In 1977 two matches were held at the SCG on each of the three days, including on the ANZAC Day Monday.

The following year (1978) saw the SCG host three matches on the Sunday, with the remaining three games played on the ANZAC Day Tuesday. One of those clashes was between Easts and St George, and the two clubs met again in 1979 in a stand-alone mid-week ANZAC Day clash at the SCG.

The tradition of ANZAC Day matches at one or both of Sydney's Moore Park grounds was first broken in favour of suburban venues in 1975-76, and then from 1981-83. In 1984 an Easts home game against Wests saw a return to the Sports Ground, but less than 5,000 fans attended.

The SCG traditional match returned in 1985 and 1986 (the game which saw Canterbury's Peter Kelly sent-off after the first tackle against Souths). However, despite a crowd of 25,000, this was the last ever ANZAC Day match at the SCG.

The Sydney Football Stadium held its first ANZAC Day match in 1989 (Easts v Canterbury), but only hosted another two premiership matches (1993 & 1996) until 2002 with the playing of the first (now traditional) game between St George-Illawarra and Sydney Roosters. These clubs have met each season on ANZAC Day at the SFS (2002-07) and at the Olympic Stadium (2008).

In the NRL era (1998-present), no ANZAC Day fixtures have been hosted outside of Sydney, other than as part of normal weekend scheduling, with matches in Adelaide (1998), Melbourne (1998 & 2009), Townsville (1999 & 2009), Canberra (1999) and Brisbane (2004 & 2008).

EVENT DETAILS
ANZAC Day Cup - Sydney Roosters v St George Illawarra Dragons
Sydney Football Stadium
Saturday 25 April 2009 
3.00pm