Mudgee Rugby Club is one of the oldest clubs in Australia being formed in 1874, the same year that the Southern Rugby Football Union was established. The Southern Rugby Football Union was established to adopt a common set of laws for the game of rugby in the colony of NSW.
It was the forerunner to the NSW Rugby Union and Mudgee was represented at the inaugural meeting by two delegates, George Henry Cox and Richard Arnold. Only two country clubs, Goulburn (1872) and Albion West Maitland (1873), are older than Mudgee. However, there is evidence to suggest that a football club existed in Mudgee’s neighbouring town of Gulgong, as early as 1870 which makes sense as at this time, Gulgong was a bustling town of 20,000 due to the gold rushes.
Rugby football in Mudgee remained a popular pastime and by 1892 three clubs had formed in the town: Mudgee, Mudgee Our Boys and Half Holiday Club. These clubs were part of the Western Union centred in Bathurst. When the Southern Rugby Football Union became the NSW Rugby Union, a branch of the Union was formed, known as the Mudgee Rugby Football Union. Participating clubs were Mudgee, Our Boys, Half Holiday, Gulgong and Rylstone. The branch only lasted one season but rugby continued with clubs being part of the Western Union until 1903, when the Mudgee branch was reformed and a golden era of Mudgee rugby began. The Mudgee Rugby Football Union remained in existence for the next 18 years. Clubs that existed during this time included Mudgee, Our Boys, Grammar School, Gulgong, Rylstone, Waratahs, Lawson’s Creek, Stores, Goolma, Pastime, Wallaroos, District School, High School, East End, Warriors, Cadets, West End, Colts, Rovers, Wanderers, Pirates, Zingarees, Magpies, Kandos, Diggers and Rovers. Each year there was an average of 5 or 6 clubs competing in one, two or three grades.
All Mudgee clubs eventually decided to play rugby league in 1922, one of the last towns in country NSW to do so. Successful efforts were made to revive rugby in Mudgee for a few seasons during the 1930s and 1950s, but it wasn’t until 1961 that the club was reformed and has remained intact continuously to this day. We celebrated the 140th anniversary of the first Mudgee club in 2014 with a gala dinner and special guest speaker Nick Far-Jones. We are now looking forward to the 150th in 2024.
HERB DALY – RECOGNISING A MUDGEE RUGBY LEGEND
Herb Daly was a born and bred Mudgee boy, apart from the 4 years he spent at boarding school in Sydney and Bathurst. At 17 years of age in 1900, he won the award for the best player in his Mudgee club, the Ist Australian Horse, and was selected in the Mudgee district representative team. He was later selected in the Western district team to play University and Central West. Herb’s football continued to develop and by 1906 was selected to play for the NSW Country team and in 1907 was selected to represent NSW in matches against Queensland and Western Australia.
In 1908 Herb’s performances for his state against Queensland and a visiting Anglo-Welsh team saw him rewarded with a place in the “First Wallabies” to tour England and North America. Herb was given a huge send-off by the citizens of Mudgee when many gathered in the Town Hall for a farewell dinner. Many speeches were made as the whole town basked in the glory that Herb had brought upon them. Reports suggest that Herb enjoyed his touring experience but many pundits felt he was the victim of politics as he only played six games on the entire tour and was omitted from all test matches despite showing excellent form when he did play.
Herb returned to Mudgee a hero and was entertained at a smoke concert at the Mechanics Institute. While many of the tourists were lured by the promise of plenty of cash to switch to rugby league on their return to Australia, Herb was happy to return to Mudgee and to continue to play in the local competition. He also became involved in club administration, coaching, selecting and refereeing junior matches. His involvement in Mudgee rugby continued until he enlisted in the Imperial Armed Forces in 1916 and travelled overseas, spending 2 years in France during World War 1. Herb survived the war, was discharged in Great Britain where he remained until 1921 when he returned to Mudgee. In 1922 he moved to Kandos and married his fiancée, Marie Helene Conreur who had followed him to Australia from the UK. A photo of Herbert Franks Daly with a record of his representative career takes pride of place in the Mudgee Rugby club house.
