Redcap's BRL

A complete record of the Brisbane Rugby League, 1909 to 1995, and more…

Brisbane Rugby League (Barry Cup) 1917 season

Pineapples at Woombye, near Nambour. Local author John Birmingham once remarked that for many years the purpose of Brisbane was little more than “a pass-through for beef, coal and pineapples”.

League table

TeamPlayedWonLostDrewForAgainstDiffPoints
Valleys109101893615318
Wests108111454510017
Merthyr105416298-3611*
Westerns103618895-77
Coorparoo1036172104-327
Wattles10010016194-1780
*Wattles and Merthyr did not play against one another in the first half of the season due to Merthyr starting the season late. The round 8 game between the two teams was mooted as a four-pointer (i.e. the winner would receive four competition points). In the end, Wattles forfeited and in late July were deemed to have thus forfeited two games and four points to Merthyr. Merthyr therefore receive two wins and four points for that single game.

Rounds

Round 1Round 2Round 3Round 4
Round 5Round 6Round 7Round 8
Round 9Round 10Round 11

Finals

StageDateTeamsLink
Playoff18 August 1917Westerns vs CoorparooDetails
Semi-Final25 August 1917Merthyr vs ValleysDetails
Semi-Final1 September 1917Westerns vs WestsDetails
Premiership Final8 September 1917Merthyr vs WesternsDetails
Challenge Final15 September 1917Valleys vs MerthyrDetails

Skip to 1918 season

Valleys restore normal service after two shocks

Disruption was rife early in the 1917 season. The war in Europe dragged on, claiming more and more young lives to, as Blackadder put it, ‘move Field Marshal Haig’s drinks cabinet a few inches closer to Berlin.’ Even though more were enlisting, the federal government was trying vainly to establish conscription. So tense was the atmosphere, there was even talk of limiting or ceasing spectator sports.

Rugby union had already mostly ceased, with Merthyr (Christian Brothers), a forerunner to the Past Brothers and Souths rugby league clubs, joining the league a few rounds in. University and Grammars would follow a few years later.

But Wattles, a small junior club who’d been promoted in 1916, eventually quit the league in acrimonious circumstances. Already struggling to get a team together (they eventually forfeited four games), Wattles’ round nine game against Valleys was abandoned due to ‘ugly tactics’ employed by the south-siders. While they were reported to have retired from the competition, reading between the lines, it seems likely the league had told them something along the lines of ‘retire or be retired’.

There didn’t seem anybody who could possibly challenge Valleys and Wests. Then, Valleys fell to Merthyr in the first semi-final, before Westerns produced one of the bigger upsets in BRL history by downing Wests the following Saturday. Though when you consider Westerns boasted the talents of the Meibusch brothers (later of Toowoomba), future Kangaroos Nev Broadfoot and Jim Bennett, and former Wests premiership player Billy Brereton, perhaps it wasn’t that surprising.

Merthyr beat Westerns in the final, but of course, Valleys struck back, with the challenger winning the premiership for the third straight season. Losing the semi-final wasn’t necessarily a bad strategy for the minor premier – have a rest while the others belt each other and come back fresh for the decider.

Skip to 1918 season

The local press reacts to events in Russia

The October revolution was perhaps the defining moment of the 20th century, with so much of what was to happen in the decades hence shaped by it in some way. At the time, the main worry was how it would affect the course of the war.

The Bolsheviks were ultimately a ghastly lot, and the historian Antony Beevor’s research about what happened and how it affected those who were actually there is well worth a listen or read

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