1908 SEASON

The story of the Western Suburbs Rugby League Club dates from the foundation of rugby league in Australia in 1908. The Club therefore is part of the fabric of rugby league in Australia but in those formative years it was very much about growing and developing the game rather than keeping comprehensive records for future historians.

The information that is available is often the sporadic and sometimes inaccurate reports in the print media of the time, and the occasional photograph. In 1908 some rugby league team photos were published but most often were uncaptioned which has made it difficult to identify the players in the photo and also when and where the photo was taken.

One of these photos was the Western Suburbs First Grade team photo which was published in the Australian Star newspaper on 21 July 1908. The photo was uncaptioned and for more than one hundred years it was not known who the players were in the photo nor where and when it was taken.

Using some tangential research techniques, it has been possible to identify the Wests team which played Eastern Suburbs at the RAS Showground on 30 May 1908. It was only the fifth competition game ever played by Wests and the earliest photographic record of this great Club.

Western Suburbs DRLFC First Grade 1908
(The photo was taken at the RAS Showground on 10 May 1908 – Wests v Easts)

Standing: Unknown, Percy Franks, Unknown, George Seabrook (Referee), Unknown, Tom Phelan, Ernie McFayden
Middle: Frank Frost, Jim Abercrombie, Jim Stack (C), James Hodgson, Ted Mead
Front: Edward Ellis, Claude McFayden, William “Bill” Elliott, Ray Gormley

The “Unknown” players in the team photo are Alfred Mount, and Robert Ellis. No information is available to identify them individually.

The story of how the provenance of this photo was determined can be read by clicking on the “Read More” button below