Walter Messenger (July 1890 – 1961) was the youngest son of
Charles A. Messenger and Annie (née Atkinson). He was an Australian
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
footballer who played in the 1910s and into the 1920s. He was a state and national representative er whose club career was played with
Eastern Suburbs Eastern Suburbs may refer to:
Places
*Eastern Suburbs (Mumbai), India
*Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Australia
**Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney, Australia
Sports clubs
;Association football
*Eastern Suburbs AFC, Auckland, New Zealand
* Eastern ...
in the
New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership
The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sout ...
.
The younger brother of league great
Dally Messenger
Herbert Henry Messenger, nicknamed "Dally" and sometimes "The Master" (12 April 1883 – 24 November 1959) was one of Australasia's first professional rugby footballers, recognised as one of the greatest-ever players in either code. He played f ...
, Wally Messenger won premierships with Easts in
NSWRFL season 1912 and
NSWRFL season 1913
The 1913 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the sixth season of Sydney's top-level rugby league club competition, Australia's first. Eight teams from across the city contested during the season.
Season summary
By the start of ...
, playing with his brother as captain.
He made two Test appearances for
Australia's National Rugby League team, ''The Kangaroos'' in the 1914 domestic
Ashes series, kicking three goals on debut and scoring a
try
Try or TRY may refer to:
Music Albums
* ''Try!'', an album by the John Mayer Trio
* ''Try'' (Bebo Norman album) (2014) Songs
* "Try" (Blue Rodeo song) (1987)
* "Try" (Colbie Caillat song) (2014)
* "Try" (Nelly Furtado song) (2004)
* " Try (Ju ...
in the deciding test of the series. He represented for
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
in one match against
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
also in 1914.
For the
1915 season, he was the
NSW Rugby Football League's top point-scorer. Wally Messenger is listed on the ''Australian Players Register'' as Kangaroo No.93.
Early life
Wally Messenger, the youngest of the eight children of
Charles Amos Messenger
Charles Amos Messenger (1853 – 21 April 1905), a professional sculler and rower, was born in London where his family was well known in aquatic circles. He married Annie Frances Atkinson on 30 November 1875 in Gore Street, Fitzroy, Victoria, ...
, was part of an "era of sporting achievement" of the Double Bay Public School. Both Wally and his older brother Dally (by seven years) were coached by an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher John Moclair, encouraged by principal Henry Giles Shaw (1891-1896). For many years they ensured that the Rugby team was undefeated in inter-schools competitions at Junior level. They quite often defeated teams from the Senior Schools competition as well, including a victory over the Fort Street High School, winners of the senior competition.
The Relationship between the brothers: Wally and Dally
In the course of history Wally Messenger’s achievements have been somewhat eclipsed by the fame of his older brother
Dally. Yet at the time of Wally‘s rugby league career Dally supported and lauded Wally’s sporting development in every way he could.
[
Dally encouraged his seven years younger brother Wally, when he played ]Australian Rules Football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
at the Double Bay School, and in a local Australian rules competition in 1906, when Wally was sixteen. ''The Arrow'' described Wally ''“as nimble and as clever as footballers are made.“''[
Wally then switched to Rugby League. In 1912 Wally entered first grade in an Eastern Suburbs match against South Sydney. The brothers played thereafter together at top level. Dally, normally the team’s goal kicker, often shared the kicks with Wally.][
“He is not as unorthodox as his brother,” said ''The Referee'', but he has the power to field and kick the ball with infinitely greater skill than the average player.” ''The Referee'' described Wally as having ''“infinitely greater skill than the average player. He is a strongly built tricky young man, and is very dangerous.“''][
Wally played two tests for Australia in 1914. Tragically, the ]First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
(1914-1918) intervened and put a stop to his very promising football future. Dally is quoted as saying: ''“... given my opportunities, Wally would have been a world beater.”''[
]
The Rorke’s Drift Rugby League Test Match of 1914
Wally Messenger was prominent in perhaps the most legendary game of Rugby League ever chronicled. It was described as Rorke's Drift
The Battle of Rorke's Drift (1879), also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was an engagement in the Anglo-Zulu War. The successful British defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenants John Chard of the ...
, an analogy to an outnumbered embattled group of British soldiers in Southern Africa who won a victory over a much larger and formidable army of Zulu warriors (1879).
It was the third Test Match of Australia versus Great Britain, played in Sydney on the July 4, 1914. Great Britain, playing three men short owing to a string of injuries, nevertheless, by heroic and fiercely resolute play, won the Test, 14 points to 6. On the Australian side Wally Messenger scored one of their two tries.[Gate, Robert, ''Rugby League, An Illustrated History'', George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd, London SW4, 1989 pp48-49 ]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Messenger, Wally
1890s births
Australian rugby league players
Sydney Roosters players
New South Wales rugby league team players
Australia national rugby league team players
1961 deaths
Rugby league wingers
Date of birth missing
Rugby league players from Sydney
Australian people of English descent