1908 /

The Parramatta Pioneers

When we think of the history of rugby league in Parramatta, it is important to remember the pioneers in the local area who competed in 1908 when the first organised rugby league competition in Australia began.

 The N.S.W. Rugby League competition featured a team named Cumberland, a breakaway team from the Western Suburbs Rugby Union club. 

Cumberland lost seven of their eight games and lasted just one season in the Sydney premiership. They were forced to amalgamate with Wests.

 The name Parramatta was first recorded in Rugby League records in 1910 when the area was represented in the first Western District Junior Rugby League by two clubs – Parramatta District and Parramatta Iona. Parramatta Endeavour and Parramatta Royals would follow.

In 1911, a team called Parramatta District, a club that played in the junior league the previous season, competed in the Sydney third grade competition – the first Parramatta side to play in the N.S.W.R.L. competition.

 Parramatta North was the strongest club in the Western Districts junior league during 1913-1915.

 Many young men from the Parramatta catchment signed up to serve in World War I and lost their lives during service.

  Following the Great War, it was decided to split the huge area into two divisions called the Southern Districts Junior Rugby League and the Western Districts Junior Rugby League.

 The Western Districts competition had an A-grade (open weights), B-grade (10st 7lb) and C-grade (9st 7lb). In A-grade the teams were Parramatta North, Parramatta Endeavours, Granvile, Auburn, Lidcombe, Penrith, Emu Plains and Wentworthville. In B-grade there were Parramatta North, Parramatta Endeavours, Auburn, Granville, Lidcombe, Penrith, Emu Plains, Wentworthville, St Marys, and Blacktown.

 The 1923 Parramatta Endeavour team boasted a front rower called Jack Argent who would later become the first President of the Parramatta Eels. The McMillan brothers of the Endeavour club were a force in the A-grade competition. Frank McMillan would go on to become Parramatta’s first coach when they finally entered the N.S.W.R.L. competition in 1946.

 Rugby league was becoming popular in the west, and it was realised by the late 1920’s that the Western Districts junior league was stretching geographically to the limits. The Western Suburbs club could not cope with the growing expansion.

 It was in the 1930s that the idea was born for Parramatta to have its own team in the Sydney Competition. One night in 1936, after many meetings and careful research, Jack Argent, along with well-known businessman Jack Scullin, Tattersalls Hotel host Arthur Gates and Australian representative Jimmy Craig, fronted the N.S.W.R.L. Committee to put forward Parramatta’s case for grade status.

 The matter was referred to a Sub-Committee of Vice-Presidents and the proposal was shelved.

World War II interrupted discussions, but a Parramatta team was on the horizon.