Nswafl 1903 - 19??

[Bloody Hell]

Does anybody know anything about the New South Wales Australian National Football League?

I remember reading somewhere (RWO?) that Aussie Rules was as popular as union and league at the turn of the century in Sydney, but the footballers where locked out of the grounds they used (owned by union and league) as too many players were leaving the other sports.

I grew up in NSW and had never heard of such a competition - but while looking for stats came across bits and pieces like this - http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/newtown.htm

" In 1903 Newtown was one of 11 founder members of the New South Wales Australian National Football League. Over the course of the next 82 years it vied with Eastern Suburbs/East Sydney as the competition's leading club. Indeed, until the early 1980s it was, in terms of premierships won, the most successful side in Sydney, and yet for the final 15 years of its existence it failed to secure a single flag, while in the only grand final it managed to reach, that of 1981, it compiled the ignominious total of 3.23 (41).

Despite being an ever-present in the volatile early years of the competition, Newtown did not genuinely arrive as a force until the 1920s. During the first 5 years of that decade it contested every grand final, was sufficiently competitive on each occasion to have a genuine chance of winning, but lost the lot. It lost again in 1927, but the following year broke through for the first of 3 consecutive flags.

Even better was to come, as Newtown proved itself the most consistently powerful club in Sydney over the next 2 decades, contesting no fewer than 15 grand finals for a total of 12 premierships. "

History is an important part of the AFL....and you'd think this propaganda would have helped the Swans establish themselves with the 'Victorian' game of aussie rules in Sydney....

[swansrock4eva]

Send a PM Eirinn's way.