1910 NSWRFL season

The 1910 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the third season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football club competition, Australia's first. Eight teams from across the city contested during the season for the premiership and the Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield.

Teams

With the loss of Cumberland at the end of the 1908 season, the league remained with eight teams a preferable outcome since no byes would be needed. However by the end of the 1909 season, interest for a local Newcastle competition as well as the difficulties of longer travel for the Newcastle side saw it pull out of the premiership. As a result, a team from Annandale joined the premiership to leave the competition with eight teams.

Annandale
Balmain, formed on January 23 1908 at Balmain Town Hall
Eastern Suburbs, formed on January 24 1908 at Paddington Town Hall
Glebe, formed on January 9 1908
Newtown, formed on January 14 1908
North Sydney, formed on February 7 1908
South Sydney, formed on January 17 1908 at Redfern Town Hall
Western Suburbs, formed on February 4 1908

The jerseys of the 8 teams for the 1910 season are shown below. Also this season St. Luke's Park became the Western Suburbs club's homeground.

Final

Unlike the previous two seasons where a play-off system was used to decide the premier, there was only one game played in 1910. The top two teams, Newtown and South Sydney, played off in a memorable match in front of 15,000 people at the Sydney Showground on 17 September, 1910. Leading 4-2 with reportedly only seconds to go, South Sydney seemed set to take out their third straight premiership. However, after Souths player Howard Hallett was forced to kick the ball clear from his own line, Newtown centre Albert Hawkes caught the ball on the full just metres away from halfway and the touch line. The rules at the time allowed Hawkes to claim a "fair mark" and Newtown to have a shot at goal. Newtown captain Charles "Boxer" Russell was successful in kicking the goal from a difficult position, allowing Newtown to tie the game and win the competition as they had been minor premiers.

Newtown 4 (Goals: Charles Russell 2)

drew with

South Sydney Rabbitohs 4 (Goals: Jim Davis 2)

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