Of milestones and old men
The complete 1940 Brisbane Rugby League season is now live on Redcap’s BRL. See how Norths and their legendary back-rower Edward ‘Babe’ Collins won another title in a season dominated by veterans of the BRL. A summary of every game, the teams and point-scorers are available by clicking on each round in the 1940 season page.
The BRL was looking a bit aged in 1940, and it wasn’t just Henry Denny, the venerable Western Suburbs prop who brought his wonderful career to a close just a few weeks shy of his 42nd birthday.
Former Grammarians Charlie Ryan and Jack Stapleton were still guiding Norths around. Larry Gillespie came out of retirement to help Brothers. Valleys reunited with veterans Bill Dall and Gordon Robson. Wests brought back Gordon Macrae and Eric ‘the ghost’ Harris from England and resuscitated the career of five-eighth Alby Hunt after five years out of first grade. What was old was new again.
A lot of it was due to the war – many young men were enlisting and many of those who weren’t were engaged in essential activities on the home front, often away from home. Options were limited. Souths and Easts both played short on multiple occasions, and Easts suffered through probably the worst single season in BRL history, losing every single game and copping a record 87-8 evisceration at the hands of Norths in round 10. It was the third-straight game in which they’d conceded 70 points or more!
At the other end of the table, Norths and ‘Babe’ Collins dominated, winning their third title in seven seasons. The Babe had always been good, but 1939 and ’40 were probably his peak years, and in 1940 he passed a significant milestone.
He wasn’t the only milestone-passer either. Many of the BRL’s ageing population were moving to or toward the top of a few statistical categories. So with the league now just over 30 years old (a decent sample size), let’s have a look some of the statistical leaders.
Collins became the BRL’s all-time leading try-scorer in 1940, passing the mark set by Os Hardy in 1924. Interestingly, while both Collins and Hardy played in the outside backs from time to time, both were primarily forwards. The indestructible ‘Firpo’ Neumann and another forward, Bill Dall also passed the 50-try mark, just the fifth and sixth players to do so.
| Player | Teams and Seasons | Tries |
|---|---|---|
| Edward Collins | Coorparoo (1930-32), Norths (1934-40) | 65 |
| Ossie Hardy | South Brisbane (1913), West End (1914), Wests (1917-19), Valleys 1920-24) | 63 |
| Bill Carter | Coorparoo (1929-32), Easts (1933-35) | 58 |
| Graham Crouch | Bulimba (1920), Coorparoo (1922-29), Wynnum (1931-32) | 53 |
| Bill Dall | Valleys (1932-38 & 1940), Brothers (1939) | 52 |
| Fred Neumann | Valleys (1929-40) | 52 |
Another all-time mark was set by ageless Norths five-eighth Charlie Ryan when he passed Graham ‘Paddy’ Crouch’s record of 124 games set in 1932. Neumann moved up to third on the all-time list, while two other players, Henry Denny and his teammate Tom Purtell, became the eighth and ninth members of the 100-game club (premiership fixtures only).
| Player | Teams and seasons | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Charlie Ryan | Coorparoo (1929), Grammars (1930-32), Norths (1934-40) | 131 |
| Graham Crouch | Bulimba (1920), Coorparoo (1922-29), Wynnum (1931-32) | 124 |
| Fred Neumann | Valleys (1929-40) | 122 |
| A. Jeavons | Coorparoo (1921-30) | 116 |
| Mike Kennedy | Coorparoo (1923-31), Wynnum (1932) | 112 |
| Eugene Robson | Valleys (1929-36), Norths (1937-38) | 107 |
| Tom Purtell | Wests (1931-40) | 104 |
| Henry Denny | Wests (1929-32 & 1934-40) | 104 |
| Bill Thompson | Coorparoo (1925-32), Easts (1933 & 1937-38) | 102 |
Crouch and his long-time Coorparoo teammates Jeavons and Kennedy were the first three members of the club, which in some ways reflects Coorparoo in the 1920s. None of three played a lot of representative football and therefore played major roles in driving Coorparoo into the finals. But when the big boys came back, the ‘Roos often fell short, winning just one of the six premiership deciders they played during the decade.
Crouch is nonetheless an interesting story. He did play some representative football and was the first Indigenous player to tour with a football team of any code when he went to New Zealand as part of a Queensland team also featuring Jimmy Craig, Norm Potter, Vic Armbruster, Cec Aynsley and a few other greats in 1925. He’s still fondly remembered by the Wynnum club, where he finished his career in the early ’30s.
Finally, let’s take a look at the BRL’s leading point-scorers. In 1940, Valleys half Bob Williamson became just the fifth member of the 300-point club, while Charlie Ryan and his teammate Norm Wright joined the 250-point club.
| Player | Teams and seasons | Points |
|---|---|---|
| George Lockie | University (1927-32), Norths (1933-34) | 442 |
| J. Shields | Valleys (1929-33) | 424 |
| Graham Crouch | Bulimba (1920), Coorparoo (1922-29), Wynnum (1931-32) | 341 |
| Bob Williamson | Valleys (1937-40) | 334 |
| Mick Moloney | Carlton (1928-30), Brothers (1931-33 & 1935-37) | 320 |
| Norm Wright | Coorparoo (1932), Easts (1933-39), Norths (1940) | 269 |
| Charlie Ryan | Coorparoo (1929), Grammars (1930-32), Norths (1934-40) | 264 |
| Charlie Thorogood | Woolloongabba (1916), Coorparoo (1917-24) | 261 |
| Gerald Allman | Brothers (1921-27) | 257 |
Williamson had appeared well on track to surpass George Lockie’s all-time record until he lost his job as Valleys’ first-choice kicker to Danny O’Connor in 1940. We’ll keep an eye on that…
Leave a Reply