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In the early years of the 20th Century many junior teams had nicknames which would seem incongruous one hundred years later. Whilst many clubs today adopt the monikers of NRL teams many of the early rugby league clubs used nationalistic symbols to represent their clubs (eg Millers Point Kia Ora).

Apart from South Sydney Federals, other teams also used that nickname such as Kogarah Feds and Enfield Feds (who have been reborn again in the new millennium). The South Sydney junior league, one of two grassroots competitions that can trace their lineage back to the games foundation season in 1908, only had four teams for that inaugural year and Feds was not one of them.

At that stage they were a rugby union side, and such was the mindset against the new code that when the Feds did switch to the new game in 1909, at least one member of the side had his family burn his football gear in a futile attempt to prevent him playing!

But the Feds came over to league in the tidal wave of support that switched from the 15 man game to the more highly-evolved code after the Wallaby defections in 1909. South Sydney Federals soon made their mark in the new game

Under the grade system at that time the first grade competition was restricted to Souths, Easts, Norths, Wests, Newtown, Glebe, Balmain and Annandale. The Second and Third Grade competitions, though, were open to other clubs and there were many different clubs competing in the lower grades at times up until 1929, when they were restricted to the senior clubs. (The highest number of clubs in Second Grade was 17 in 1912 and Third Grade peaked at 23 teams in 1911).

Although the district clubs all entered their own teams in Second and Third Grade, other clubs in their area also entered teams including notable clubs such as Mosman (Norths), Camperdown (Newtown), Grosvenor (Glebe), Leichhardt (Annandale), Parramatta (Wests) and Sydney (Easts). The South Sydney district was a hotbed of rugby league and they provided several clubs for those lower grades, such as Mascot, Kensington, South Sydney Kinkora, Surry Hills and the famous South Sydney Federals.

The biggest years for those competitions were those before World War One wreaked havoc on Australian society and tore the heart out of a generation. To win a competition then was an outstanding achievement and Feds Third Grade premiership wins in 1909 and 1913 will stand for evermore in the NSWRL record books.

By then the clubs most famous son had already graduated to the first grade ranks. Harold Horder is a name that resonates through league history. He made his first grade debut in a blaze of glory against Glebe in a City Cup game in 1912, scoring an amazing length of the field try when he chased a kick back to his own goal and beat the advancing defence when he used his arm to swing around the goal post and raced away.

A member of the ARL Hall of Fame Top 100 Players (as voted in the centenary season of 2008), Horder won premierships with South Sydney and North Sydney, played for both NSW and Qld and starred in international football as well, establishing a record of 35 tries on the 1921-22 Kangaroo tour which will surely never be surpassed. A measure of his standing is that he was ranked only second to Dally Messenger in the standing of many good judges from the period before WWII.

Harold Horder was by no means the only decent player in the ranks of the South Sydney Feds, his brothers Roy and Clarrie were also accomplished players with the latter also representing New South Wales in interstate matches.

Harold Horder and his brothers Roy and Clarrie

Other well-known identities from the games early years involved with the Federals include JJ McGrath, a founder of the South Sydney district club, and Vince Sheehan who went on to play first grade.

Although the South Sydney Federals club has long since vanished the efforts of those who laid our games foundations, at all levels, should be remembered and celebrated.

Terry Williams Historian Rugby League Museum

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