life and football 1920s-1960s in Tumut, Gundagai, Cootamundra, Young, Harden-Murrumburrah, Junee, Temora, Barmedman, West Wyalong, Cowra, Grenfell and Boorowa
After the war increasingly enormous efforts were made to wrest the Holy Grail and awash local pubs, cafes and sundry businesses in Maher Cup money.
Legendary internationals with plenty of fire still in the bellies went west in the late 1940s – Joe Jorgenson to Junee, Herb Narvo to Cootamundra, Clem Kennedy to Grenfell, Nevyl Hand to Gundagai and George Watt to Boorowa. Barmedman scored probably the best man never to play for his country – Tom Kirk. The results were mixed. Narvo, Watt and Kennedy brought the Cup home – albeit all briefly. Jorgenson disappeared. Hand failed and was replaced – but phoenix-like became the inspirational leader of possibly the best side ever formed in country NSW. Fred De Belin, Kangaroo and partner with Harry Bath in the second row of Balmain’s 1946 premiership winning team, was intending to follow suit. Continue reading →
Below are those who in my calculation played in 50 or more Maher Cup matches.
69 matches –Lionel ‘Nick’ Cullen (Harden-Murrumburrah) – 1950 to 1970 – and still playing first grade after the Maher Cup finished. A Harden local (Aurville), he played for over two decades for his home town with remarkable resilience and consistency. According to Eric Kuhn he was one of only two players who participated in every match in Harden-Murrumburrah’s amazing 29 Maher Cup streak from 1958-1960. He later coached local teams and still lives in the area.
66 matches –Bill Lesberg(properly Leseberg) (Cootamundra) – 1922 to 1931. It’s quite amazing that Lesberg was aged 28 when he played his first Maher Cup match for Cootamundra and still had time to amass 66 appearances. Victorian-born, his winter sporting interest had initially been Australian Rules – where he developed his phenomenal kicking skills. Long, accurate, both placed and dropped goals (when the latter was worth two points), often from ridiculous angles and with either foot, resulted in ‘Berg’ being the Cup’s undisputed all-time point scorer. Like most of the men in this list, train driver Lesberg worked and then lived his retired days in Cootamundra’s Warren Sub.
Cootamundra 1926: with eight players who qualify for the over 50 match club: Bill Leseberg (far left), Ray Sheedy (4th from left), Jack Kingston (6th), Gordon Hinton (7th), Eric Weissel (8th), Jack Watson (10th), Dade Quinlan (2nd from right), Phil Regan (at end).
66 matches –Sid Hall (Young & Bendick Murrell (one game)) – 1925 to 1945. A brilliant and tough centre for Young, Sid Hall declared his retirement from the game aged 31, in 1933. The next year we was back as the teams’ captain-coach. Not even the hiatus of the war years wearied him – he was part of a highly successful Cherrypickers’ Maher Cup side that reformed in 1945. He finally retired aged 43.
65 matches –Eric Weissel(Cootamundra and Temora) – 1922 to 1934 . The brilliance of ‘The Wizard’ – on display most winter Wednesdays at Cootamundra in the 1920s – probably did more than anything else to enshrine the Maher Cup with legendary status. Although he spent all his life in the Riverina, representative games and international duties frequently took him away. Further the vagaries of the Maher Cup draw resulted in his adopted club Temora being granted no challenge for two years between July 1927 and July 1929, when the team turned their attention to other challenge cups in play, particularly the Jack Hore Gold Cup. In 1930 Temora created their own Eric Weissel Cup – which is still in play.
65 matches –Ray ‘Rawbones’ Sheedy(Cootamundra) – 1922 to 1928 – hooker in almost all Coota’s matches during their golden era; died in 1950 after falling from an electric train in Sydney.
64 matches –Ron ‘Dookie’ Crowe(West Wyalong and Barmedman) – 1951 to 1971. If he wasn’t so good we would have played more matches. Scores of representative games for group, region, NSW and Australia, as well as commuting to South Sydney during 1962, kept him away from many Maher Cup games. The Cup petered out in the late 60s but ‘Dookie’ Crowe was still able and available for West Wyalong and Barmedman will beyond its demise. He retired from playing football well after the Maher Cup era, in 1978, aged 45.
64 matches –Bill Kearney(Young) – 1933 to 1946. If there was anyone who could be dubbed Mr Maher Cup it would be Kearney. His influence went well beyond being a player; as coach, broadcaster, club official, local government councillor and businessman. Kearney was a most effective captain and a deft kicker, who played and led during Young’s most successful footballing period. He was a big personality remembered by all, mightily respected, but not always loved.
64 matches –Jack Watson(Cootamundra) – 1924 to 1932 – consistently in-form winger in Coota’s glorious 1920s team; captain in 1931.
62 matches –Col Quinlan(Barmedman) – 1945 to 1966. Probably no-one played Maher Cup football over such a long period; from aged 16 to 37 (brother-in-law ‘Rusty’ Gorham comes close). The driving force within the feared Barmedman forward pack – dubbed the Clydesdales – ‘Guts’ Quinlan just kept playing on and on. He collapsed and died while working on his farm in 1967.
57 matches – Les‘Dade’ Quinlan(Cootamundra) – 1922 to 1927 – First Word War veteran and consistent Coota forward who didn’t play Maher Cup until aged 29. From a farming family at Yathella, he never married and quietly worked as a general hand at Cootamundra’s Sacred Heart Hospital for many years. He died in 1961.
55 matches –Phil Regan(Cootamundra) – 1922 to 1927 – from Glebe where he played first grade from 1911; wounded in the Great War; and probably the first paid player-coach in the bush when he took the Coota job, also aged 29.
55 matches –Eric Kuhn(Barmedman and Harden-Murrumburrah) – 1953 to 1968. From a farming family at Weethalle in the mallee country, Eric was enticed to ignore the local club, West Wyalong, and play for Barmedman. Under Keith Gittoes the littlest village in Maher Cup Country enjoyed a most successful Cup run in 1955 – with young Eric becoming a star half back. In 1957 Harden started to build a powerful team and signed up the ‘The Mighty Atom’. He was an essential ingredient in the most successful Maher Cup side ever. Eric later coached teams at Harden, Murrumburrah, Galong and Bathurst. He and still resides in Harden.
55 matches –Garry Lanham(Harden-Murrumburrah and Cootamundra) – 1957 to 1966 – started Maher Cup football aged 17; partnered Nick Cullen in Harden’s second row during the ‘Hyphenates’ record run 1958-1960.
53 matches –Gordon Hinton(Cootamundra) – 1926 to 1932 – originally from Gunnedah played at Armidale before coming to Coota. He was also a boxer and swimmer; kidney injury limited his full potential. He made his career as a fireman in Sydney. Died in 1996, buried at Cootamundra.
52 matches –Abe Hall (Young) – 1929 to 1941 – Sid’s little brother; another to start playing Maher Cup aged 16; died in 1950 in an industrial accident at Grenfell.
50 matches –Jack Kingston(Cootamundra and Young) – 1925 to 1932 – Coota international who toured with Weissel to play the English; also played at Young, Leeton, Kiama, Western Suburbs, Werris Creek and maybe elsewhere.
If you think you know someone who I’ve overlooked for the 50 Club tell me and I’ll tally them up as we now have almost complete teams for the 729 Maher Cup matches played.
The Maher Cup produced copious amount of poetry and probably just one family notice – this one published in the Tumut & Adelong Times 7 September 1923.
My memories of the Maher Cup are through the eyes of a young boy and teenager.
Before the War, my father took me on a pushbike to Fisher Oval where I saw my first match. When I was older, Dad and I spent the day in Young having travelled there by a special train. Young must have won that day, as I can vaguely remember the elation of Bill Kearney, the coach of the Young team. Continue reading →
Although little remembered outside of Maher Cup memories, many of those who witnessed Bill Lesberg’s work on the paddocks of the south-west slopes and the Riverina in the 1920s considered him the greatest goal-kicker to ever play Rugby League in country New South Wales.
Lesberg played at fullback for Cootamundra. There was another brilliant goal-kicker in that side, one Eric Weissel. However “Berg” almost always got the nod. His speciality was the drop goal, worth two points, and the half-way line was certainly not too far. The left foot was preferred but either acceptable. Converting from the touch line was always likely. Teams had to factor that any ball that went to Lesberg in their own half was likely to result in a field goal. Continue reading →
It must have been special to see this gifted athlete and footballing genius play in the days before the city folk and the nation noticed him. Some say those were his best years – witnessed by lucky punters on local paddocks – mostly at Cootamundra.
Cootamundra Cadets team of 1921 which included Eric Weissel; from left to right from back row: Sid Drinnan, T.Maher, C.Kelly, Tom Ryan, L.Deal, Glenn Evans (referee), T.McGuigan, Eric Weissel (aged 18), L.Ryan, J.Sissian, S.Whealy (secretary & treasurer), F.Smith (captain), J.Maffersoni (president), R.Cohen, Perce Mills, S.O’Neill, K.Cohen (mascot), Sid Chambers, M.Rooney. Source: S.G. Chambers, Cootamundra.
Eric Weissel, “Weissel the Wizard”, “Ec” to his friends, was a try-scoring, goal-kicking genius. In the Riverina of the 1920s and early 30s his performances helped develop the Maher Cup into a footballing phenomenon.
Playing for small town clubs all his life, his performances were not commonly witnessed by Sydney commentators and experts. Although his brilliance may never have been properly appreciated outside Maher Cup country, many local witnesses consider him to be possibly the best five-eighth the world will ever see.
He came from an extraordinary sporting family and below is an attempt at recording some of their history. Continue reading →
Roddy Gilmore, farmer of Canowindra, was a pretty useful second rower. He worked a 600 acre soldier settler’s block, carved from the North Bangaroo Estate in 1924. It was said that he “cut off the legs of his working trousers to make his football shorts for his first game (Worboys, p22).
On Wednesday 29 August 1928 he played for the Maher Cup against the champions of the south, Cootamundra. Continue reading →
In 1954 the Boorowa News provided the following estimates of town and district populations of the twelve “Group Nine towns”.
Cowra: town 7,000; district 15,000
Tumut: 3,500 and 13,000 (including Adelong and Batlow)
Young: 4,500 and 12,000
Cootamundra: 6,000 and 10,000 Continue reading →
“And the rain it gently, pattered down! And the lovely green flats of the ‘Bidgiee silhoutted, as it were, against the sky line as the special train from Tumut, with footballers and supporters aboard steamed over the railway bridge yesterday afternoon. The footballers’ quest was the Maher Cup — they were going to capture it for Tumut— so they said. And their supporters were going to stir them on to deeds of derring do”.
(The Gundagai Independent, 7 June 1923).
Background
Let us step back from the poetry. It was a Wednesday afternoon – the 16th challenge for the Maher Cup was set to be played at Fisher Park Cootamundra. It was less than three years since Ted Maher put the Cup into play. Things were starting to get very serious. The rules were read scrupulously, and Rule 9 was a problem. Continue reading →
