Up the Mighty Murray! – Episode 15: In the midst of the Murray

 

 

 

 

Episode 15        In the midst of the Murray

 

At Moama and Shepparton in the Murray League

 

 

Map of the Murray River

 

 

From Gunbower we make a short run upstream to Moama situated on the NSW side of the Murray River opposite Echuca. In this double bunger football episode we will also detour up the Goulburn River to visit an Indigenous football netball club at Shepparton.

 

Over the next two weeks we pause and reflect on the history of Indigenous Australian Football along the central section of the Murray. We will celebrate the achievements of the Cummeragunja football teams of a century ago in overcoming the hindrances imposed upon them, not the least by football administrators. Our focus will move to a contemporary Murray League club, Rumbalara, as we examine their history and the challenges they currently face. In episodes 15 and 16, while visiting the Murray League and the Goulburn Valley League, look forward to meeting some Indigenous greats of the game from days gone by. 

 

Indigenous Australian Football heritage: Cummeragunja and Rumbalara Football Clubs

 

 

Location of the former Cummeragunja Mission

 

 

As the Australian Football community across the nation celebrates the contribution of Aboriginal footballers to the wealth of the code, in dedicated Indigenous rounds each year, there is an opportunity to reflect on the full history. In this context the imperative is how Indigenous footballers overcame the obstacles that were placed in the way of their participation in the game they have a natural affinity with. To be in the Murray River environment near Echuca provides us with a window into that history. Roy Hay has done the research and written the history. His book Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the 19th Century: they did not come from nowhere focuses on specific places where Indigenous footballers emerged from the discrimination and disadvantage to become successful and integral participants in the code. 

 

The hindrances imposed upon the participation of Indigenous teams in sport came from both their ‘keepers’ and the administrators of local football and cricket associations. Indigenous players were either prevented or discouraged from leaving the missions, and when they did manage to form teams in local competitions, there were attempts by the administrators of leagues to impede their involvement and ultimately their success. One such example was the Indigenous people from the Maloga and Cummeragunja missions on Yorta Yorta Country near Echuca.

 

An Aboriginal mission was founded at Maloga, 25 km upstream from Moama, in 1874. The mission became a home to dispossessed survivors whose people had been ravaged by smallpox. It was a private institution run under very strict religious lines by the administrator Daniel Matthews,  who believed that sport was damaging to the physical and moral well being of the young Aboriginal men under his charge. He set out to prevent them from leaving the station for sporting endeavours. Not to be defeated, the men formed a cricket team. Author Nancy Cato (in her 1976 book Mister Maloga: Daniel Matthews and his mission, Murray River, 1864-1902) pointed out that Aborigines at Maloga “had discovered their prowess in sport, particularly cricket and running, which gave them a passport into the white man’s world, even to his respect and friendship.” But those ‘passports’ were not universally recognised and that ‘respect’ was not always given.

 

Following protests by residents against their treatment and the conditions at the Maloga Mission a new reserve was established by the NSW Government at Cummeragunja near Barmah in 1888. A football team was soon formed at Cummeragunja playing scratch matches against local clubs and within a few years the team was defeating opponents from across northern Victoria. The orientation of the Riverina to Victoria rather than NSW shaped the Cummerergunja club’s decision to play the Australian code rather than rugby union. The club joined the Nathalia District Football Association in 1898 and won premierships in its first two seasons. 

 

Efforts by the club to play matches against more distant places had mixed success. While clubs from Bendigo and Ballarat were willing to host the Aboriginal mission team, the VFA and VFL clubs were not so forthcoming. 

 

One of the many problems faced by the Cummeragunja  team was the difficulty of players to travel on a weekly basis for matches. Another was that decisions affecting the club were often made at association meetings without a Cummeragunja delegate in attendance.

 

Playing in the Western and Moira Ridings Football Association (W&MRFA), Cummeragunja won the 1921 premiership and were promplty dumped from the competition the following year because they were simply too good. The team was known as the ‘invincibles’. In 1927 a restriction was imposed by the league with the design of weakening the club’s chances of success.  A ruling was made that no club could field players aged more than 25 years. The Aboriginal club objected and made the sensible suggestion that other clubs consider merging so that they might be able to match the standard of Cummeragunja. Cummeragunja won five premierships in the W&MRFA between 1927 and 1931, giving the players and their followers many chances to sing the team song:

 

“We are from Cummera, we are the team

We can’t be beaten, that’s easily seen

At the end of the season, you know the reason

We are the premier team”

 

(Source: Roy Hay, Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the 19th Century: they did not come from nowhere)

 

Sir Doug Nicholls was born at Cummerangunja Mission in 1906. There Nicholls learned to play the game he loved. After playing with Tongala in the Kyabram District Junior FA, Nicholls moved to Melbourne and played in the VFA with Northcote. In 1932 he joined Fitzroy where he played 54 games and was a four time representative of Victoria in interstate football. The annual AFL Indigenous round is named in his honour. Another VFL player from Cummeragunja was Robbie Muir (St Kilda).

 

Life became harsher after 1915 when the NSW Aboriginal Protection Board gained more control over the station, which eventually led to one of the first mass Aboriginal protests when about 200 people walked off the reserve in 1939. The residents were protesting against the terrible conditions and the removal of children from the station, which they themselves had originally set up and controlled. Many of those who walked off moved across the Murray River to settle in the Victorian towns of Echuca, Barmah, Mooroopna and Shepparton. The area between Shepparton and Mooroopna on the Goulburn River became known as ‘The Flats’ and housed Indigenous people up until the 1950s. But conditions there were no better. According to Yorta Yorta elder Uncle Ruben Baksh, the people lived in the old tin huts with hessian bags. They had no running water, electricity and no proper sewerage.

 

Football was an important part of life at The Flats and in 1946 they again fielded a team. The ‘All Blacks’ as they were known won the premiership in their first season in the Second Division of the Central Goulburn Valley League. History records that they were expelled from the league the following year. After The Flats settlement was abandoned, the men continued to play football. 

 

The Rumbalara Football Netball Club from Shepparton traces its origins back to the Cummeragunja team of the late 19th Century. The club represents a fifth generation of Aboriginal footballers who take inspiration from the first. The Rumbalara (meaning ‘the end of the rainbow’) club was established at a transitional housing development called Rumbalara in Shepparton. The club played matches whenever and wherever they could, spending many years trying to join a local competition without success. In short, none of the leagues wanted to include an Aboriginal club. As Richard Cooke (2020) wrote in The Incredible Story and lasting influence of the Rumbalara Football Club, “the frost of the old hostility was still on the land.” 

 

In 1994 the club commenced building works on an oval and clubrooms at North Shepparton. Finally, in 1997 Rumbalara was admitted to the Goulburn Valley League (Division 2) and a year later won the grand final, exactly 100 years after Cummeragunja’s first premiership. At the time, club President Paul Briggs said “all the Aboriginal players in the side had ancestors who were a part of the 1898 Cummeragunja premiership side and also the string of flags the team won in the 1920s” (The Riverine Herald 23 September 1998). Further flags followed in 1999 and 2002 when the club participated in the Central Goulburn League.

 

The Rumbalara Football Netball Club has a lot on its agenda besides football. As the club’s website says:

“The success of the club extends far beyond the sporting arena to improvements in the physical and emotional health, education and employment of Rumbalara FNC’s members and their families. Rumbalara FNC has created an environment where Indigenous people, especially youth are inspired and encouraged to actively participate in sporting community that Rumbalara FNC provides, as well as providing an opportunity to participate in the social and non-competitive aspects of this community.”

 

Moama 

 

Two ex-convicts established competing punt services on the Murray River in the mid 19th Century, James Maiden at Moama on the NSW side and Henry Hopwood on the Victorian side. The area on the northern side of the river was known initially as Maiden’s Punt and soon became an important cattle crossing point. In the 1850s, with the Victorian gold rush in full swing, Moama became a major cattle market town.

 

After the famous paddlesteamer ‘race’ up the river from Goolwa to Swan Hill in 1853 (between the PS Maryann and the PS Lady Augusta), the Maryann skippered by William Randell steamed on a further 300 km to become the first riverboat to reach Maiden’s Punt. The twin river settlements were soon to become the ‘paddle steamer capitals’ of Australia.

 

Echuca became the dominant port after Hopwood persuaded the Victorian Government to extend the rail service from Melbourne to Echuca in 1864. Not to be out done, New South Welshmen built a private railway linking Moama with Deniliquin. A rail bridge over the Murray was completed in 1878 with the consequence that the Riverina was now within the direct influence of the southern state and its capital city Melbourne. Later, in 1923, the rail line was taken over by the Victorian Government who connected it to the state rail system.

 

With their historical buildings, river environments and riverboats, the towns of Moama and Echuca attract large numbers of tourists to the Murray region. The locals on the NSW side of the Murray, tongue-in-cheek, refer to the river as the “Moama River”.

 

Lopsided footy contests

 

Heavily one-sided contests in country footy are not a new phenomenon, but they appear to be a growing and an intractable trend in many leagues. For the purposes of this discussion we will call a “heavily one-sided contest” a 100 points plus score differential. Consider the following evidence from the first 18 rounds of the 2023 season in the Murray Football League:

 

• there were 18 matches with 100+ score differentials, with four of the 13 clubs experiencing the heavy defeats (Rumbalara 10, Tocumwal 6, Barooga 1 and Nathalia 1)
• four of those results were margins in excess of 200 points (all Rumbalara losses)
• at least one 100+ differential occurred every round (except rnd. 2 when Rumbalara had the bye)

 

A discussion topic: Why are lopsided matches such a part of modern country football? Are they a real problem? What is being done to even out competition and what more can be done?

 

A day at the footy in the Murray League

 

Location of clubs in the Murray League

 

The Murray League was founded in 1931 replacing the Goulburn Valley Football Association. Five clubs initially participated – Barooga, Cobram, Numurkah, Strathmerton and Tocumwal. Today it is a 13 club competition, with Numurkah and Tocumwal the only two of the founding clubs remaining. The Deniliquin Rams and the Nathalia ‘Purples’ share the honours with the most premierships in the MFL, winning 14 apiece. In the mid 1970s the Murray League affiliated with the NSW Australian Football fraternity and played in the NSW state championships. A high profile former AFL player from the Murray League is Jerilderie’s Billy Brownless.

Four current AFL players from the Murray League are: Esava Ratugolea  from Cobram (Geelong),  Steele Sidebottom from Congupna (Collingwood), Lachie Schultz  from Moama (Fremantle) and Tom Hawkins from Finley (Geelong).

 

There has been speculation recently that the Murray League will sponsor the establishment of a new league in 2024. This initiative seems to be aimed at reducing the gap between clubs in the current MFL, whilst also achieving greater geographical harmony for the large number of football clubs in the region (see next week’s episode).

 

Matches of the round: 

Saturday 22nd July 2023

 

Moama v Deniliquin Rams

At Moama Recreation Reserve (home of the 2022 and 2023 MFL grand finals)

 

 

           

  Magpies        v        Rams

The Moama Football Club was formed in 1892, making it one of the longest standing football clubs in the Riverina. The Magpies won their first premiership in 1907 playing in the Echuca and Moama FA. The most successful period for the club was when it was a member of the Echuca Football League, where it won five flags between 1965 and 1981. The Magpies joined the Murray League in 1997 and have taken out one title in that competition, the 2010 premiership.

 

A cuurent AFL player from Moama is Lachie Schultz (Fremantle). Australian Test cricketer Todd Murphy also hails from Moama, where he played both local cricket and football. 

 

The Deniliquin Rams Football Club was formed in 1933 and initially participated in the Echuca Football League where it promptly won premierships in its first three seasons. In 1949 the Rams joined the Murray League and have taken out 14 flags, celebrating at least one premiership in every decade since. The club’s effort of winning four flags in four years (2001-2004) is its most successful era. Deniliquin has produced a number of VFL/AFL players, most notably Bob Henderson (Fitzroy), Ian Egerton (Hawthorn), Simon O’Donnell (St Kilda), Leo Barry (Sydney Swans), Sam LLoyd (Richmond, Western Bulldogs) and current Port Adelaide player Todd Marshall.

 

Moama (also known as the ‘Mowers’) are celebrating their Indigenous round with a smoking ceremony on the footy ground before the seniors match. Players will wear the club’s Indigenous jumper designed by local artists Aunty Neva Takele and Dede Atkinson. The Magpies will also have their local disability team playing against a Melbourne based team providing a great example of inclusion in sport. 

 

The last time they met: round 6 2023 Moama 13.13 (91) defeated Deni Rams 6.3 (39) at Deniliquin.

 

The match

 

The closest match of the round saw home team the ‘Mowers’ edge ahead of the Rams in the final quarter to claim a three point win.

 

Team congratulations at Moama
(source: Moama FNC on Facebook)

 

Scores

 

Moama 3.2 4.4 5.6 8.11 (59)

 

Deniliquin Rams 3.3 4.5 7.6 8.8 (56)

 

Goal kickers – Moama: Sheldon 3, Shanahan 2, Russell, Lake, Hogan

 

Deni Rams: Lauritsen 3, McCallum, Durnan, Pitts, Gallagher, Dick-O’Flaherty

 

Best – Moama: Jack Russell, Lachlan Hogan, Jake Kilmartin, Callum Harding-Davies, Kyal Atkinson, Mitchell Lake

 

Deni Rams: Cable Fitzpatrick, Zachary Lauritsen, Marcus Moorse, Jake Dick-O’Flaherty, Jayden Pitts, Tom McCallum

 

 

Rumbalara v Finley 

at Rumbalara Recreation Reserve (Shepparton)

 

Rumbalara were admitted into the Murray league in 2006 after being unsuccessful in gaining entry into the Goulburn Valley League. Rumba have won one premiership in the MFNL, their 2014 come-from-behind win against Finley. Two players from the club have gone on to play AFL football, Chris Egan (Collingwood) and Jarrod Atkinson (Essendon).

 

The Finley Football Club was formed in the late 19th Century and played in the Southern Riverina FA for most of its first 30 years, winning 10 premierships. In 1933 Finley joined the Murray League and has won seven flags, the most recent being in 1998. The Cats have been runners-up on 11 occasions. A number of VFL/AFL stars played their early football with Finley: ‘Jumpin’ Jack Hawkins (Geelong), David Murphy (Sydney Swans), Shane Crawford (Hawthorn) and current Geelong full forward Tom Hawkins being the most prominent.

 

The last time they met: round 6 2023 – Finley 17.16 (118) defeated Rumbalara 3.7 (25) at Finley.

 

      

Rumba            v              Cats

 

The match

For the fourth occasion in 2023 the undermanned Rumbalara team was defeated by more than 200 points. Finley’s full forward Tom Lang had a field day booting 19 goals as the Cats piled on the percentage at Rumba’s expense.

 

Scores

 

Finley 11.5 18.9 25.16 37.17 (239)

Rumbalara 2.2 2.2 2.2 3.4 (22)

 

Goal kickers – Finley: Lang 19, Reeves 6, Mason 4, Massingham 2, Boyd 2, Robertson, Reeves, Kirby, Clarke

Rumbalara: Jay-Mason, Armstrong, Bush

 

Best – Finley: Tom Lang, Liam Rafferty, Jack Lang, Angus Robertson, Charlie Ford, Bailey Reeves

Rumbalara: Gordan Joyce, Bailey Armstrong, Corey Doyle, Desmond Tipuamantumirri, Dylan Jay Mason, Andre Briggs

 

Around the Murray League grounds

 

Congupna 8.8 (56) defeated Cobram 6.6 (42) at Cobram

 

Echuca United 23.13 (151) defeated Tocumwal 9.8 (62) at Tocumwal

 

Nathalia 15.8 (98) defeated Numurkah 3.10 (28) at Numurkah

 

Byes – Barooga, Mulwala, Tongala

 

Next episode: at Echuca in the Goulburn Valley League

 

 

 

Read all episodes of ‘Up The Mighty Murray’ and Peter Clark’s previous series Here.

 

 

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