First State of Origin match played during World War II between Australian troops in New Guinea
The 2024 State of Origin series is once again upon us. It is generally believed State of Origin began in 1980. However the true beginning of State of Origin rivalry was on Bougainville on September 16, 1945.
On September 16, 1945, at a ground in Torokina, Bougainville, Queensland played against NSW in what rugby league historians consider the game’s first-ever State of Origin, 2 match series.
At Brisbane’s inner-city Victoria Barracks is a trophy, made from a Japanese artillery shell, that was awarded to the winner of a two-match “Origin” series played between Australian troops on the island of Bougainville, about 1500km north-east of Cairns, days after the end of World War II.
The trophy was engraved with the names of the players in both teams.
Rugby league was the odd game out when Australia went to war in 1939. Rugby union, Australian rules and cricket were the official sports of the Australian armed services. It was only through the lobbying of James Larkham, state Member for Rockhampton and a former president of the Queensland Rugby League, and Ingham-born Arthur Fadden, briefly prime minister in 1941 and inaugural president of the North Queensland Rugby League, that rugby league was adopted by the military. Matches between battalions became regular events.
There were even “interstate” clashes between Queensland and NSW battalions, although just like the criterion that led to the introduction of State of Origin in 1980, selection was based on place of enlistment, rather than place of birth.
The honour of playing and watching the first “Origin” match went to those who were based on Bougainville at the time Japanese forces on the island surrendered on August 21, 1945. With the war ending 12 days later, the Australian Army was faced with the massive logistical task of bringing its forces – including an estimated 30,000 on Bougainville alone – back home.
The Australian troops were stuck there for months with nothing to do. The American ships took the Yanks home first and the Aussies had to wait for the ships to come back for them.
The officers were doing anything they could to keep the men occupied. There were cricket games, stage shows, Aussie rules and rugby league. In true military fashion, everything had to be done by the book, and a Bougainville Rugby League was formed.
Matches were played on the site of a former US medical company hospital and evacuation centre, renamed Medco Ground. The competition was affiliated with the BRL, giving its matches official status, and the Bougainville Rugby League still operates strongly today.
Throughout the war Aussies from all over the country fought alongside each other without any thought of where they were born or grew up.
They were all in it together, but with the fighting over and the men’s time taken up with playing and watching sport, interstate rivalries resurfaced. Just as their sons and grandsons would 35 years later, the Diggers on Bougainville became frustrated at seeing teams representing NSW battalions fielding players who grew up in Queensland, and vice versa. The seed of the first Origin series was planted.
In September 1945, Major H.A. “Tiger” Titley, 36, a member of a prominent Charters Towers retail family, was a senior officer on Bougainville. When Warrant Officer Ron Connor came to him requesting permission to organise an Origin series, he was talking to the right person. Major Titley played hooker for Rovers club in Charters Towers before the war, where he got his nickname, Tiger.
Major Titley gave the go-ahead for the game and arranged for the 31/51 Battalion* band to provide entertainment. Commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, Major General William Bridgeford, commissioned a trophy that was made in the army workshop and selectors from each state started choosing their teams. At 1400 hours on September 16, 1945, the Queensland side, wearing maroon jerseys and captained by Rockhampton fullback Jack Barnes, ran onto Medco Ground and lined up against NSW, wearing blue and led by Newcastle five-eighth Horrie Marjoribanks.
The best-known of the Queenslanders was 29-year-old Sergeant Kelly Brennan, who started his career with Ipswich Brothers in 1933 and went on to play with Rialto and West End. A tough, solid hooker, Brennan played 12 matches for Queensland between 1946 and his retirement in 1948.
Two matches were played and were both won by Queensland – 10-9 and 20-13. An article from Rockhampton’s Morning Bulletin of September 27, 1945, headlined “Football on Bougainville – Queensland’s win”, gives a detailed account of the first match, written by Warrant Officer Connor. WO Connor, as well as being secretary of the Bougainville Rugby League Association, was one of the Queensland selectors.
Describing the match as “one of the most spectacular and exciting games of rugby league I have ever witnessed”, Connor said soldiers who had recently returned from leave on the mainland rated the standard of play on the island higher than A grade. “One man went so far as to say that this interstate match was better to watch than the one played in Brisbane a few weeks previously.”
The teams were, Queensland: J. Barnes (capt), J. Christopher, L. Ashmore, C. King, E. Lade, N. Hoare, R. Williamson, H. Bradshaw, M. Tresedor, T. Kraft, M. Thompson (vice-capt), K. Brennan, F. McLennan.
NSW: H. Parkinson, W. Peachy, D. McRitchie, T. Briggs, H. Dhu, H. Marjoribanks (capt), R. Miller, H. Taylor, V. Love, C. Smith, J. Hobson (vice-capt), D. Sinclaire, H. Freeman.
Many of the players were A-graders from Brisbane and Sydney. Referee was Brisbane’s Frank Ballard and the game was broadcast to troops throughout the islands by Tom Pedrazzini.
“NSW won the toss and Bobby Williamson kicked off for the Bananalanders,” Connor wrote. “From the word ‘go’ the Queensland forwards were on the ball and stayed there until the final whistle.”
Winger Jim Christopher kicked two penalty goals and scored a try just before half-time to give Queensland a 7-nil lead at the break. Midway through the second half, NSW fullback Norm Parkinson kicked two goals to move the Blues within three points and “then kicked a beautiful field goal from about 40 yards. The kick was remarkable in that the ball hit the crossbar, bounced into the air and fell on the right side. Queensland 7, NSW 6.”
NSW then scored a try that Connor described as “the most brilliant of the match”, with centre Doug McRitchie on the end of a backline movement in which “all men from the halfback to the winger handled”. Parkinson missed the conversion, leaving NSW ahead 9-7 with five minutes to play. Queensland went on the attack and when Christopher missed a goal with two minutes left, it seemed the Blues were home but as is so often the case in Origin football, the final scene was still to be written.
“The Queensland forwards carried the play to ten yards from the NSW goal line and fierce rucking resulted. Thompson, who was acting as dummy half, gathered the ball and passed to Hec Bradshaw, who smashed his way through the NSW defence, was tackled by the fullback but dragged him over the line to score about 30 seconds before the fulltime bell rang. The spectators swarmed over the field and Hec was carried shoulder-high to the dressing room.”
The Japanese artillery shell trophy cup was handed over to the Queensland Rugby League by the army at half-time in a 1946 Brisbane club match. The original trophy bearing the names of both teams remains at Brisbane’s Victoria Barracks military museum.
*31/42 battalion and 51 Battalion are today our local army units, based at Porton Barracks, Edmonton.
Sources
42nd Battalion news bulletin No.75 December 2023
The Daily telegraph 22nd June 2013
The Courier Mail
Herald Sun
Mike Colman and QWeekend June 22, 2013
Rockhampton Morning Bulletin 27 September 1945
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56389217
