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Availability

Order your copy from the link above. It is printed immediately by POD (print on demand) in whatever city in whatever country you reside. Once your book is printed, it is immediately posted out, and you should get it in 4-5 days. You click the link in American dollars. In Australia the book costs $38 AUD + $8 P&P.

For an eBook or PDF copy for personal use only, suitable for reading in Kindle, iBooks, or similar, please deposit $25 AUD into BSB 814 282, Ac 3130 7885. Then send me an email at dallymessenger@mac.com and I will email you the precious link.

Significance: Australia’s desire for status
The Beginning of Rugby League

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This book describes a significant part of Australia’s journey from a convict colony to a nation seeking its own identity. In the late 19th century, Australians grappled with a sense of inferiority as a lower status component of the British Empire. Second- and third-generation Australians who visited Britain were called “colonials.” Even with the primitive cable communication of the time, news, including British newspapers, and the “royal” mail had a six-week journey by steamship to reach NSW.
There was a national quest for recognition. One way of achieving this was through sport. Dally Messenger, a rugby league sensation, captivated audiences in Great Britain with his extraordinary genius on the football field. His achievements in the “mother country,” where he was dubbed “The Master,” brought immense pride to New South Wales.
Upon his return with the New Zealand team in early 1908, Messenger was honoured at a number of civic receptions. A scroll presented to him in one of these celebrations bore a powerful tribute:
“No name has added more glory to the fame of our country than your own.”
This is his story.

The story of H.H. Dally Messenger

Dally Messenger -“The Master”

Herbert Henry “Dally” Messenger was born in Balmain, Sydney, in 1883. He made a stunning beginning in Easts Rugby Union second-grade matches in 1905. Moving to first grade in 1906 and 1907, his astonishing performances swelled Rugby Union match attendances to unprecedented levels.

To support payments to injured players, in late 1907, he made the switch to the fledgling Rugby League. The first three games of rugby league took place in August 1907 against the “professional” New Zealander All Blacks (later called the All Golds). 

Dally so impressed the All Blacks that they invited him to join them in the tour of Great Britain as an “honorary“ New Zealander. In England and Wales, his performances were so exciting that he began to be described as the greatest rugby league footballer of the age. It was the English crowds who first began to describe him as “The Master.” He returned to Australia in 1908 to play in the first season of Rugby League as captain of Eastern Suburbs and, later, the 1908-1909 First Kangaroos.

His decision to switch from rugby union to rugby league ensured the success of the new code. No other footballer has ever matched his unique abilities, and were it not for the thousands of witnesses to them at matches played between 1905 and 1913, they would be hard to believe. He died at Gunnedah, NSW, in 1959, aged 76. His memory lives on, and, in the year 2025,
Dally Messenger remains
“The Master” of Rugby League.