The link between two great Australian sports
by Frank Quealey 24 May 23:24 PDT
Tony Russell, Marjorie Too on the way to winning the 1949 Worlds © Tom Cuneo Collection
James Joseph Giltinan was one of Australia's great entrepreneurs of the early 1900s, and the man most responsible for creating a unique link between one of the most confrontational football codes in the world and the beauty of sailing on the famous waters of Sydney Harbour.
It has been a link which saw international and other leading first grade rugby league players win top honours on the water in the 18s, leading RL administrators hold similar-type positions in the Sydney 18 footer clubs, the NSW Rugby League sponsor a World 18 footer Championship on Sydney Harbour and, in recent years a National Rugby League (NRL) Premiership-winning Sydney club co-sponsor an 18ft skiff with its RL team sponsor.
Mr. Giltinan was a sports enthusiast, promoter and administrator who came to prominence in Australia in the early 1900s when he was heavily involved with the establishment of Rugby League, a breakaway from Rugby Union, aimed at finding a better deal for players and a better game, more suited to Australia's style.
In one of the great all-time coups of Australian sport, Giltinan secured the signature of Dally Messenger, the great Rugby Union player of his time, and organised a match against the visiting New Zealand professional 'All Golds' Rugby Union team which was enroute to England.
Dally Messenger (famed now as 'Dally M' award for the best player in the NRL each year) was also a regular aboard the 18s both as a skipper and crew,
Giltinan was the founder and secretary of the newly-formed NSW Rugby Football League (NSWRL) and in 1908, along with his committee, established a 9-team club competition which has grown since to become the 2025 NRL competition comprising 17 highly-professional teams from Australia and New Zealand.
At the end of the 1908 season, he took a team of platers from NSW and Queensland (following an interstate match) to tour Britain, which became the first Kangaroo (Australian) Rugby League tour.
As well as his Rugby League interests, Giltinan was an umpire in representative cricket and, in 1926, was elected President of the Sydney Flying Squadron sailing club (SFS), which conducted 18 footer racing on Sydney Harbour.
Before his election, Giltinan would have been well aware of both the SFS and 18 footers as a number of well-known Rugby League players at the time were already associated as skippers and crew in the 18s.
Two of the best known footballers who successfully combined their football and sailing careers in the early days were Charles 'Chook' Fraser and 'Wee Georgie' Robinson, who were both first grade players from the Balmain Tigers club.
'Chook' Fraser was an incredible player (Centre, Full-Back, Five-Eighth) with a magnificent record of achievements and awards.
He had played just 15 first grade matches and was only aged 18 when he was selected for the 1911-12 Kangaroo Tour of England. He played twenty one tour matches and made his Test debut at full-back against England in the first Test at Newcastle-upon-Tyne at the age of 18 years 301 days.
Fraser's age record stood until broken by Brad Fittler in 1990.
He made 10 further Test appearances between 1914 and 1920 (as captain on three occasions) and on the Kangaroo Tour of 1921-22 played seven times at Full-Back and three times at Five-Eighth. He also represented NSW ten times against Queensland or visiting international teams.
'Chook' won six Premierships for Balmain in 1915, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920 and 1924 and was selected in both Wests Tigers and Balmain Tigers Team of the Century. In 2006 he was inducted into the Australian Rugby League (ARL) Hall of Fame, then in 2008 was named in the ARL 100 Greatest Players between 1908 and 2007.
'Chook' Fraser skippered Defiance in 1932-33 and 1933-34 and crewed on several 18s during his sailing career. He later became an umpire at the NSW 18 Footers League and was awarded Life Membership of the club. His son, Jim was also an 18 footer sailor who was a crew member of the 1958 World Champion, Jantzen Girl, skippered by Len Heffernan.
The second Balmain Tigers footballer who was a member of the 1915 Premiership-winning team, and an 18 footer competitor, was the Half-Back George 'Wee Georgie' Robinson.
'Wee Georgie' won another Premiership with Balmain in 1919 and the same year built an 18 footer, named Britannia, which he raced with the SFS until 1944.
With its racing career over, Robinson installed an engine and added a cabin, and for the next 28 years Britannia was the SFS starter boat. He then became the SFS official race umpire.
Robinson's Rugby League career covered the period from 1915-1928 with Balmain. He played 85 matches, scored 24 tries and kicked 44 goals for a total of 160 points for the Tigers. He also played one match for NSW in 1919 and two for Metropolis (now City) in 1922, and was awarded Life Membership of Balmain.
When Brisbane boatbuilder A.J. 'Toby' Whereat produced a new type 18 footer, named Aberdare, it created a massive problem to existing boat owners because it was both quicker and required less crew members. Naturally, the competitors wanted one of these new, better boats but the SFS wold not register them.
Enter James J Giultinan again. He resigned from the SFS as President in 1933 and by late 1934 he chaired the first meetings of the 'breakaway' NSW 18 footers Sailing League.
He was originally the League's President but stepped down to take over the secretary's role and help drive the publicity of the new club's Sunday racing. His style attracted young businessmen into the sport and the club's racing was soon attracting huge crowds onto the club chartered spectator ferries every Sunday.
His next masterstroke was the creation of an international 18 footer championship to celebrate the Sydney 150th Anniversary in 1938. The result became the 'World's 18 footers Championship Trophy, which has always been the ultimate world championship for 18 footer racing.
In 1929, Henry 'Jersey' Flegg was elected President of the NSWRL and in 1941 Chairman of the Australian Board of Control of Rugby League. In 1938 he also became President of the Sydney Flying Squadron to create yet another link between the two sports.
Flegg was a founding member and the first captain of the Eastern Suburbs RL club in 1908 and later became a NSW and Australian selector before his elevation to President of the NSWRL. Prior to all of his Rugby League successes, 'Jersey' Flegg had been a member of Chris Webb's champion Australian crew in 1899-1900.
The World 18 footer Championship went into recess during WW2 but when racing resumed two more top Rugby League players made names for themselves at the highest level of 18 footer racing.
The first was Joe Pearce, a competitive sailor during and after his football days, who contested the 1948 World Championship regatta at Auckland, New Zealand as a member of the Top Dog crew.
Pearce was a ball-playing Second Rower for Eastern Suburbs (now known as the Roosters), who represented Australia 13 times, NSW on 32 occasions and, like his father, played 150 matches for Eastern Suburbs. He was a member of four Premiership-winning teams in 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1940 and, in 2007, he was named a member of Easts greatest ever side, their 'Team of the Century'.
He came from a family of sporting champions, including an Olympic gold medallist, and along with his father Sandy, who also played around 150 matches with Easts, became the first father and son to represent Australia in Rugby League. Unfortunately both representative careers were ended by a broken leg on a Kangaroo Tour.
The most successful Rugby League player to compete in the 18 footers was another Balmain Tigers player named Tony Russell, who sailed at both the SFS and NSW 18 Footers League, and won the 1949 World 18 footer Championship, on Sydney Harbour, as skipper of Marjorie Too.
Russell played for Balmain between 1916 and 1929, however his career was cut short when he was declared "temperamentally unfit" by Balmain selectors after he sparked the Earl Park Riot in a torrid first grade match against St George on 11 August 1928.
Tony's son, Barry Russell was also a talented 18 footer sailor who won the Australian Championship in 1960-61 as a crew member of a skiff named The Fox, and a member of Australia's 1962 Americas Cup Challenger, Gretel 1.
There were also many other players who sailed in the 18s over the years from other clubs such as Glebe, Newtown, Souths and North Sydney, but the next big link between the two leagues came in 1992 when the NSWRL sponsored the 1992 World 18 footer Championship on Sydney Harbour.
John Quayle, the General Manager of the NSWRL and CEO of the Australian Rugby League, was also a member of the NSW 18 Footers League and the man behind the sponsorship which was branded as Winfield Cup '92 World 18 Foot Skiff Championship.
The most recent link occurred in 2010, when De'Longhi was sponsor of both the South Sydney Rugby League team and an 18ft skiff at the Australian 18 Footers League. De'Longhi's management consolidated the link between the two leagues by co-sponsoring the skiff, which raced as De'Longhi-Rabbitohs, and was skippered by 18 footers League Commodore Simon Nearn.
The boat raced with the famous red and green colours of the football team and carried the famous South Sydney 'rabbit' logo on its sails.
During the joint sponsorship, South Sydney's 2014 Premiership-winning team trained in the park near the clubhouse, enjoyed a player and family function in the clubhouse and were photographed with the JJ Giltinan World 18 Footer Championship Trophy.
Although the two great Australian sports are vastly different, they each required strong, highly-competitive young men (particularly in the early years of the 20th century) and strong administrators were needed to control the inevitable disputes both on and off the water or field of play.