Having some white fellas there was good too, they were non-Indigenous players we looked up to, and for them to talk to us and encourage us was special,” tour member Francis Tappin tells NRL.com. “It was fantastic for us, most of us had only heard about those guys before that day. While they were shunned by many they encountered, the tourists were buoyed by a gesture from some of the biggest names playing in the game at the time, with future Immortals Arthur Beetson, Bob Fulton and Graeme Langlands, along with Kangaroos vice-captain Bob McCarthy and Indigenous great Eric Simms paying them a visit before they left for New Zealand. Photo: Suppliedįunding, meanwhile, was secured through the National Aboriginee Sports Foundation. The team in their blue and maroon jerseys, recognising NSW and Queensland, and black shorts recogising Northern Territory. In response, Phillip Hall, one of the managers on the tour, recalls telling the powers that be that “you couldn’t get any more Australian than us”, before, in a somewhat ironic twist, the group ended up wearing blue and maroon jerseys similar to those worn by the original Australian team of 1908. The offer of $190 in funding from the ARL, for a tour which cost around $14,000, did little to help, while it was flat-out 'no' when it came to wearing the traditional colours of Australia. Organisers had fought to receive endorsement from the Australian Rugby League to wear green and gold jerseys and funding for the tour, both of which they felt they were entitled to as a national team representing the country. There was a cluster of brilliant young talent spread through the rest of the squad too, and in the years which followed the tour, players including Ambrose Morgan (South Sydney), Terry Wickey (Penrith and Canberra) Thomas Moylan (South Sydney) and Les Drew (NSW Country) would all play top-flight football in Australia. The tour had attracted interest from some of the biggest names in Indigenous rugby league at the time, with Ron Mason (Penrith) and Bruce Stewart (Eastern Suburbs), who were both playing in the NSW top-flight, along with Wally Tallis – the father of Queensland great Gorden Tallis – whose career had included a stint in the UK with Leigh, joining the group. What they did next changed the course of Indigenous rugby league forever and created a path from which the Indigenous All Stars squad that will play their Māori counterparts next Saturday can be traced back to.Īboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following article may contain images of deceased persons. Trials took place in both New South Wales and Queensland in the coming months, culminating in a ‘Probables’ v ‘Possibles’ day held in Kempsey on the NSW mid north coast, from which the first ever national Indigenous side to play outside of Australia was formed. The reality of bringing players together from the three main epicentres of New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Territory presented a logistical nightmare, and an expensive one at that.īut as plans continued to build in momentum, thanks to the tireless efforts of an organising group which included the incomparable Aboriginal activist ‘Uncle’ Charlie Perkins, the distant dream moved closer to reality. Indigenous rugby league at the time operated in defined geographical siloes and was insular by nature, with even organised state-wide tournaments like the Koori Knockout having only just been started.
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