What is the history of this mob called Chelsea Eagles Rugby League Club ?
When The Black and Gold Eagle Soared !!!
A SHORT HISTORY OF CHELSEA UNITED RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB 1951 – 2006
Complete Club records were never kept and most documentation has since been lost.
After 60 years so many past members are deceased but by searching the Souths Juniors archives and probing the minds of dedicated ex members, we present this condensed essay, with apologies to those we may have excluded.
Chelsea United R.L.F.C. as you know it, was formed in 1951 by George and Stan Ryan. The name comes from Chelsea Street in Redfern. The original club colours were a gold jumper with a black V and black and gold hooped socks.
This soon changed to two thin black V’s.
A team called Chelsea had won the Souths Junior League A grade in 1935. Their colours were red, white and blue. They ceased to exist by the start of World War 2
Chelsea started when the Junior League was strong and S.S. Fernleighs were dominant in our area. Fernleighs
had won three A grade comps on the trot.
Alexandria Rovers won eleven comps between 1949 and 1954. Moore Park did not come into our area before the end of the fifties. The early years were extremely tough but Chelsea managed to win a consolation A Reserve knockout in 1953.
The Club branched out and fielded a C grade cricket team in the Moore Park Association in seasons 1953-54
and 1954-55. The Club had moderate success before interest dwindled. Some of the players to perform with
distinction were J. Dack, A. Smith, J. Phillips, J. Byrnes, R. Ryan, R. Hough, P. Bower and J. Owens.
But let’s get back to football! First success came in 1954 when the B grade beat Alexandria Rovers 6-5 at Redfern Oval in a tense Grand Final. Ray Burns landed three goals. Rovers had won five previous consecutive Premierships but it was to be our day in the sun.
Chelsea won the B grade again the following year, 1955, in spite of many selection problems caused by National Service Training. Come 1956 and a nursery of stars in E grade produced a welcome Premiership. Dick
Green scored under the post and a mystery punter had two thousand pounds on Chelsea. Each of our lads was
given five pounds by the gentleman…a big bonus at that time.
By now the Club was moving towards a golden period, 1958 and 1959 would see Chelsea win the A, D and F
grades as well as the Club Championship.
Chelsea United B grade played Bondi United at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1958 as a curtain raiser before a
large crowd. Coach Roy Murphy saw his boys rise to the occasion and run out winners 21-3. Chelsea had ar-
rived!
The Club won the E grade and a third consecutive Club Championship in 1960. That was followed by wins in C
and D grades in 1961 and 1962. The C grade made it three in a row in 1963 as well as a fourth Club Champi-
onship. 1964 saw the magic of Les Brown steer the E grade to a third victory.
In actual fact Chelsea United had won thirteen Premierships and four Club Championships in seven seasons, at
a time when Souths Juniors were a mighty force in Rugby League circles.
Chelsea had four captains who held up the President’s Cup trophy. Barry Atkinson 1963 and 1964, Jim Norman 1965 and Les Brown in 1968. Barry Atkinson was the only player ever to represent Souths Juniors in four
consecutive President’s Cup Premierships. Chelsea had no less than thirty five representatives in ten of the
Souths Juniors President’s Cup victories.
In 1962 Chelsea had five representatives in the Souths Juniors H. Flegg victorious team being Alan Webb,
Norm Hazzard, Ron Black, Gary Wildman and John Shortland, as well as five representatives with the President’s Cup premiers viz: Warren Thompson, Herbie Martin, Barry Atkinson, Wayne Stevens and Col Downing. Robert Corkhill was ball boy as well as the C grade premier’s ball boy.
Then again in 1963 Chelsea had seven representatives with the President’s Cup premiers in Barry Atkinson (c), Herbie Martin, Col Downing, Wayne Stevens, Dave Martin, Ken Vessey and Graham Kennedy. One could argue that Bob Degan missed out because of a large
Chelsea representation. He had a stellar club year in
1962.
There can never be any doubts that Chelsea was a very proud family club.
The number of our teams were reduced during the seventies but Chelsea still won the A grade Premiership.
The decline continued as we got on with our lives but a fourth A grade Premiership came in 1986. Pat O’Grady
started to have health problems and Ike Quinn, Don Holman, Glen Harrison and Ray Teuma battled hard to
keep Chelsea alive in rough times.
Glen Harrison coached the last Chelsea Premiers when they won the under eleven division in 1995. The Chel-
sea Old Boy’s Reunions were organised by Pat O’Grady, Ike Quinn, Dick Green, Warren Thompson, Glen Harrison and Ray Teuma. Warren Thompson, Col Downing, Ken Vessey and Alan Webb now work to keep the Old Boy’s Reunion in motion.
Chelsea United ceased competition football in 2006.
In its heyday, the Club was financed by the Friday and Sunday night cabarets at the notorious Doherty Hall in Surry Hills, the sale of football doubles, (as many as twenty two sets per week) and generous support from the Crown, Bat and Ball, Cleveland Inn and Forresters hotels. Other supporters were Nick James cafe, Bob Barton tailors, local barber John Macalpine and bootmaker Harry Blandy.
The Club held annual Balls and ran Benefit Nights for those in need. We shall not speak of the naughty strippers and blue movies!
Our original training ground was Moore Park, opposite the Bat and Ball Hotel and at the finish it was Waterloo Oval. After Thursday night training, we had a quiet drink at the Crown that often became rowdy.
In retrospect, the calibre of the playing roster and astute officials became a recipe for success. Let me present
some examples:-
Bob Hough started playing D grade in 1951 as a mere 12 year old and played until 1961. Many times he played B and A grades on the same weekend. He was a member of 1958 and 1959 A grade wins. He captained the President’s Cup runners-up in those same years. He coached the F Grade Premiers in 1959, and D grade Premiers in 1961 and played first grade for Souths in 1962. We estimate Bob played between 150-160 games for Chelsea United.
Keith Phillips played in four Chelsea competition wins and many times played B and A grade on the same weekend carrying injuries. He may well have played the most A grade games, served on the committee and never stopped supporting the club to become a worthy life member.
In that same game Harry Phillips sustained a lacerated scalp, went to hospital for stiches, returned late in the second half and did his part.
In 1962 the C grade ran on with only ten men against Maroubra at Snape Park. Our team was decimated by because of President’s Cup duty, so we arranged for Larry Gaffney and John Rankin to come from their Kensington Oval D grade match. They were to come off early if the win had been secured. They arrived just before half time to sign on. We won that game 9-3 thanks to a master class from Bob Degan. Bob could play lock, hooker or five eight. He later broke his leg playing reserve grade for Souths and was unable to play the last nine games. He missed a sponsor’s motor car prize for best player by a couple of points.
There were five Woods brothers playing for Chelsea in 1964. They each played in a different grade viz: B, C, F, G and I. They were a very well known family from Froghollow, all clever footballers and quicksilver at the dinner table. Neville Woods was a smart dresser and a passionate punter.
It is fraught with danger in attempting to select any group of players from the life span of a club: Be that as it may, some of the toughest I ever saw from Chelsea United were:- Billy McCarthy, Alan Selby, Sam Votano, Brian Fuz, Gary Stevens, Butch Kennedy, Bob McCarthy, Don Ryan, Ken Vessey, Ron Tubb, Bob Hough, Toby O’Brien, Ray Phillips and Thommo Walsh.
POINT SCORERS:
Bob Hough was leading point scorer in A and B grades. Peter Atkinson and Brian Trenholme each scored 8 tries
in a match. Des Lewis played for Pat O’Grady coached teams and in the lower grades was a prolific point scorer.
Ray Burns must have kicked a mountain of goals.
A SELECTION OF FAVOURITE CHELSEA CHARACTERS
Stan (Pongo) Ryan, Big Jim Feint, Tom (The) Brown, Midge White, Jim (Jungle) Norman, Eric (Duke) Degan, Sid (Silent) Howell, Crown Hotel Licensee – The Governor, Leo Garland, John (Hoofty) Moore, Pat Norton, Pat (The Pog) O’Grady, Digger Livingston, John (Hollywood) Graham, Dick (Calculator) Green, Freddy Bieber, Barry Bieber and Johnny Heard.
Barry Bieber played President’s Cup and against Great Britain when he was in the Central Queensland representative,b team. He is a Vice President of the Souths Juniors and current masseuse for Souths S.G.Ball and Harold Matthews Cup squads. His brother Ken sustained a football injury and tragically passed away in his twenty first year.
There you have a condensed period of efforts over fifty five years.
To all we have mentioned and those we have not, many thanks for your contribution. We had a lot of fun and many made friends for life.
South Sydney District R.L. Club was the PRIDE OF THE LEAGUE and there was a time when CHELSEA UNITED was the pride of the powerful SOUTH SYDNEY JUNIOR RUGBY LEAGUE.