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Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger, (12 April 1883 – 24 November 1959) was an Australian rugby league and rugby union player. One of Australasia's first professional , he is recognised as one of the greatest-ever players in either code. He played for New South Wales in the first match run by the newly-created New South Wales Rugby Football League, which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.
Sometimes nicknamed "The Master", Messenger had a stocky build, and while standing only about in height, he was a powerful runner of the ball and a solid defender. According to his peers, the centre's greatest attributes were his unpredictability and astonishing physical co-ordination, coupled with an ability to kick goals from almost any part of the ground. He was a teetotaller and non-smoker during his career and other than breakfast, Messenger would rarely eat before a match.
In Sydney, Messenger attended Double Bay Public School in the city's eastern suburbs. It was here that he initially honed his rugby skills, while also playing cricket and indulging in his other great sporting love, sailing. Messenger worked, too, at his father's boat shed. By this juncture, he had gained the nickname of "Dally". It derived from a prominent politician of the 1880s, the then Attorney-General of New South Wales, William Bede Dalley, whose most conspicuous physical feature was a splendid pot belly – an anatomical augmentation that Herbert Henry Messenger happened to boast, too, when he was a small child. Fortunately, little Herbert Henry shed his pot belly as he grew older, together with the "e" from the spelling of his nickname.
In 1905 Messenger began playing for Easts in the club's second-grade team, but showed sufficient promise to earn promotion to the first-grade side on two occasions that season. In that same season, he also purportedly played Australian rules football club in a number of first-grade matches in the Sydney competition.
Messenger began the 1906 season in first grade with Easts as a 'standoff' (Fly-half). He swiftly won a following amongst the club's supporters due to his mesmeric ball skills, cheeky tricks, blistering acceleration and accurate short- and long-kicking game off either foot. Messenger moved to what would become his customary position of Inside centre following his selection there for the New South Wales team in 1906. By the time of his Wallaby debut in 1907, he had made that position his own.
In his book Viewless Winds, the 1906 representative footballer Herbert Moran wrote that Messenger's play "was full of surprises, unorthodox, flash" and "directed largely by the unconscious mind". He said that Messenger "never became a slave to copybook practices" because his "instinct enabled him to see and take an opening in that operative second which is all-important". Moran compared him to Donald Bradman in terms of their mutual ability to instantaneously co-ordinate their bodies into the right position in apparently ample time before the ball would arrive.Moran, Herbert (1939) Viewless Winds
When talk of a professional rugby competition, or a Rugby League, was being aired, Messenger was instantly interested by the development. He was approached by a consortium that included Test cricketer, Victor Trumper with friend J. J. Giltinan, who knew getting Messenger on board would be a major boost for the new code. He signed on with the new professional code on Sunday 11 August 1907. As the premier rugby footballer of the time, Messenger's signing is considered an integral moment in the foundation of rugby league. Australian Dictionary of Biography "Dally Messenger" After he became a professional rugby league footballer, Messenger's rugby games were struck from the record books of the New South Wales Rugby Union and not restored for 100 years.
In the North of England, Messenger became more acquainted with the new game. By the completion of the tour Messenger had topped the tour aggregates by more than 100 points.
The 1908 Interstate rugby league series saw the first ever match between New South Wales and Queensland and Messenger scored a goal for the Blues in their 43-0 victory over the Maroons in Sydney. During the 1908 New Zealand Māori rugby league tour of Australia Messenger was selected to play for New South Wales and Sydney against the tourists.
Having toured with the New Zealand professional team the previous year, Messenger was well known in the North of England and on arrival attained celebrity status. Placards bearing the words 'Messenger Will Play' were erected outside of grounds. Messenger was offered contracts by leading association football clubs, including Celtic, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur, but refused them.
Messenger captained Australia in the first two tests of the tour, missing the third through a knee injury incurred after regular field goal attempts. On tour Messenger was credited with numerous goals from the other side of half way, including one from the sideline on his own 25-yard line that appeared in earlier versions of the 'Guinness Book of World Records' as measuring over 80 yards (73m). Another from over 75 yards is mentioned in an English newspaper under the heading 'A Wonderful Kick' ".
" Quite a sensation was caused at last Saturday's football match when Mr Messenger kicked the ball from the 75 yards' mark and secured a goal....."In the second test Messenger is said to have scored one of the greatest individual tries ever witnessed in Test rugby league. At the end of the tour Messenger had again topped the aggregates, this time by just under 100 points.
The Coronation of King George V took place on Thursday, June 22, 1911. There were festivities all around Australia. The prevailing mood at the time was one of kindness, and the Sydney Cricket Ground hosted the first Rugby League match there between New South Wales and New Zealand. Dally became the first captain to lead a Rugby League side onto the SCG as he led his team onto this holy ground.
in action for NSW v Qld 1912]]Recently married Messenger stood down from the 1911–12 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain, leading his club Eastern Suburbs to its first premiership. In the semi-final that year against South Sydney Messenger scored 20 of Sydney Roosters 23 points. For each of the three consecutive seasons 1910, 1911 and 1912, he was the NSWRFL's top point scorer. In 1911 he overtook Arthur Conlin's record for the most points scored in an NSWRFL (101); Messenger's eventual total of 379 stood as the new career record until it was bettered by Harold Horder in 1918.
After retirement from representative football, he led his side to a second premiership in 1912 and followed that with a third consecutive premiership in 1913. Easts were given permanent possession of the NSWRFL's first trophy, the Royal Agricultural Society Shield. On announcement of his retirement, the Eastern Suburbs club presented the shield to Messenger in appreciation.
In July 1914, just before the World War I began, Dally was persuaded to come out of retirement to enter "The Kicking championship of the Commonwealth" sponsored by the Australian Rules administrators. This was knockout competition from all states ending in a final between Dally and Herbert Lim. Kicks between the posts from 45 yards out along the touchline and a fifty yard kick from the centre. Dally won this accuracy section.
In the longest kick section Dally was up against the giant champion, Dave McNamara, from the Essendon and St Kilda teams in Melbourne. McNamara kicked 67 yards (61+ metres) from boot to landing point. Dally, although he had kicked many longer distances in his playing career could not quite make it on the day.
None of his various business opportunities proved to be successful. In his later years, he lived in the New South Wales Rugby League's club in Phillip Street. It was reported in the press that Messenger had suffered a heart attack on 18 November 1959Dally Messenger in Hospital Canberra Times 18 November 1959 page 28 and he died in Gunnedah six days later. His body was returned to Sydney for a large funeral and was buried on 26 November 1959 at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park : Anglican section FM DDD - Grave 321
Career Postscripts 1914
He was awarded Life Membership of the New South Wales Rugby League in 1914. Referee, Sydney Life Members of the NSWRFL - 13 May 1914, (Page 12)
Life after football
In addition to his rugby prowess, Messenger was a talented cricketer, canoeist and sailor. After the end of his rugby league career, he ran a couple of in Sydney and Manilla, New South Wales and a banana plantation in Mount Buderim, Queensland. He later worked as a carpenter in the NSW Department of Public Works.
Accolades
Courtney Goodwill Trophy
The Courtney Goodwill Trophy, international rugby league's first trophy, was presented initially in 1936 and depicted Messenger, along with three other pioneering greats of the code, namely Jean Galia (France), Albert Baskiville (New Zealand) and James Lomas (Britain). "League Legends: fast facts about rugby league" at nsm.org.au
Bicentenary "Heritage 200" list
In the 1988 Bicentenary year, "Heritage 200" listed the 200 people who had most contributed to the development of Australia since 1788, Dally Messenger was named and recognised for his contributions to Australian sport.
Australian Bicentennial Authority & Coates, Alan & Beaurepaire, Beryl, Dame, 1923- (1988). Heritage 200 entries, 1988.NLA MS 7495
The Dally M Medal
The Dally M. Medal is awarded annually to Australian rugby league's best player, as judged by an expert panel of commentators, whose votes are tallied at the conclusion of each regular playing season.
The Dally Messenger stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground
A stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground was also named after Messenger, in recognition of his many outstanding games of club and representative football.
Rugby League Hall of Fame
In 2003 he was admitted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame. Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame
Royal Agricultural Society Shield
In 2004, the original (first 6 years) premiership trophy, the Royal Agricultural Society Shield, presented to Dally Messenger personally in 1914 and held by Messenger's family became part of the National Museum of Australia collection.
Formal reinstatement by The Australian Rugby Union
In 2007, a century after he was shunned by rugby union for switching to rugby league for 180 pounds, his playing record was formally reinstated. Dally M back in rugby fold" The Courier-Mail 24 June 2007
The 100 greatest ever players
In February 2008, Messenger was named in a list of Australia's 100 greatest ever players (1908–2007) commissioned by the NRL / ARL to celebrate the code's Australian centenary year. 100 Greatest Players
Team of the Century
Messenger went on to be named in Australian rugby league's Team of the Century. Announced on 17 April 2008, the team was a selection panel's majority choice for each of the 13 starting positions and four interchange players.
NSW Rugby League Team of the Century
In 2008 New South Wales announced their rugby league team of the century also, naming Messenger on the wing. If he were playing today, however, because of the increased average size of footballers, he would probably play as a (scrum-half).
Messenger Statue outside the Sydney Football Stadium
Messenger was immortalised in 2008 by a life-size bronze sculpture created by artist Cathy Weiszmann and erected outside the Sydney Football Stadium. The statue forms the second sculpture in an envisaged 10-part series for the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust's Basil Sellers Sports Sculptures Project. Dally Messenger sculpture (statue) Statue honours Dally Messenger – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Dally Messenger statue unveiled at SFS
Rugby League Immortal
Joining fellow pre-WWII greats Dave Brown and Frank Burge, Messenger was inducted as a Rugby League Immortal in 2018, along with recent greats Norm Provan and Mal Meninga.
External videos and articles
References and Notes
Published Books
More External links
Categories: 1883 Births, 1959 Deaths, Australasia Rugby League Team Players, Australia International Rugby Union Players, Australia National Rugby League Team Captains, Australia National Rugby League Team Players, Australian People Of English Descent, Australian Rugby League Players, Australian Rugby Union Players, Dual-code Rugby Internationals, Eastern Suburbs Rufc Players, New South Wales Rugby League Team Players, New South Wales Rugby Union Team Players, New Zealand National Rugby League Team Players, Queensland Rugby League Team Players, Rugby League Centres, Rugby League Players From Sydney, Rugby Union Players From Sydney, Rugby Union Wings, Sport Australia Hall Of Fame Inductees, Sydney Roosters Captains, Sydney Roosters Players, 20th-century Australian Sportsmen
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