Balmain Tigers
The Balmain Tigers are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in the history of the premiership, with eleven titles. In 1999 they formed a joint venture club with the Western Suburbs Magpies club to form the Wests Tigers for competition in the National Rugby League. They no longer field any senior teams in the lower divisions. At the time of the joint venture only South Sydney Rabbitohs and the St George Dragons had won more titles than the Tigers.
The club's home grounds are at present Leichhardt Oval, in Lilyfield, and T.G Milner Sportsground, in Marsfield.
History
Foundation club
In 1908, Australia's first season of rugby league began in Sydney and the Balmain club was one of nine foundation clubs. One of the club's founders was future Premier of New South Wales John Storey. Their home ground was Birchgrove Park. Balmain reached their first Grand Final in only the second year in the competition against the previous year's champions, South Sydney, but would protest as the match was scheduled as a warm-up for a Kangaroos vs. Wallabies game at Souths' home ground. Even though both teams agreed to boycott the match, Souths turned up and were officially awarded the Premiership when they kicked off to an empty half of the field.The distinctive black and gold colours of their 1908 thin striped jerseys led their fans to quickly nickname them "The Tigers". Though it is claimed they were also known as "The Watersiders" in the early days, this appears a moniker that was used by newspaper journalists rather than Balmain supporters and fans.
It seemed to be used to refer not only to most Balmain sporting teams, but also to Balmain residents in general. The following boxing quote is a good example, taken from "Sydney Sportsman" 11 Dec, 1901. "On Xmas Eve, Cam Brookes and Ike Stewart, heavyweights, meet at the Golden Gate, Brookes is another Balmain boy, and the watersiders are sure to follow him to town in shoals." As late as the 1930s some journalists were still using both "Tigers" and "Watersiders" in the same article.
One of the earliest newspaper references to Balmain & Tigers appears in "The Arrow" 12 August 1911. The journalist "Gulliver" in his "Football Notes" column reports; "W.G.B. writes: "Who said Balmain weren't rough? Here is an essay on "The Tiger" written by an eight year old boy at one of the local schools.:- The tiger has large padded feet so that he can steal softly upon his prey...The tiger is like the Balmain footballers, because he has black and yellow stripes. He is very wild, but not so wild as the Balmain footballers."
After a string of poor years, the Tigers managed a strong turn-around to become a dominant force in the Australian Rugby League with the club's first, second and third Premierships coming in successive years dominating the 1915, 1916 and 1917 seasons. Tigers dominance continued winning the 1919 and 1920 seasons comfortably. When they won the 1924 premiership this would be the last success for Balmain for over a decade to come.
Golden era
It would not be until 1939 the Tigers won back the Premiership smashing Souths 33–4. The weekend of the Final will also be remembered for the invasion of Poland by Germany which led to England and Australia going to War.Post-World War II marked a golden era for Balmain with the Tigers reaching five consecutive Grand Finals winning three of them. In the 1944 Grand Final, the Tigers beat the strong favourites Newtown 19–16. Balmain reached the Grand Final again in 1945 but fell at the last hurdle against Easts 22-18. The loss was not long remembered as the Tigers went on to take out the next two seasons, beating St George 13–12 in 1946, and Canterbury 13–9 in 1947. On the hunt for a third successive title, they lost to Wests in 1948.
1960s–1970s
The Tigers would appear in several Grand Final matches throughout the 1950s and 1960s but were just another victim to the mighty St. George Dragons eleven-year streak of Premiership wins in this period, losing in 1956, 1964 and 1966. When the Tigers did take out the competition in the 1969 NSWRFL season it was a classy 11–2 defeat of favourites Souths who boasted 11 internationals, this would signal the last time Balmain would ever win a Grand Final. The side was captained by Peter Provan, brother of Norm, and coached by Leo Nosworthy.The 1970s were not a great era for the Tigers. The wooden spoon had not been in Balmain since 1911, but it returned in club history when the Tigers won only 4 games and had 2 draws in 1974 following several poor years. That period between 1911 and 1974 remains the longest wooden spoon drought for any team. In 1976, things looked more hopeful when Balmain began the year with an undefeated run through the pre-season "Wills Cup" competition. The side also won the 1976 Amco Cup knockout tournament in front of a then-record crowd of 21,600, beating North Sydney. The Tigers won eight straight games and led the competition, but a midseason slump left the Tigers in the same position as in 1975 and they failed to make the finals.
1980s–1990s
The Tigers consistently made the finals series in the 1980s reaching the play-offs in 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989.On 4 August 1985 a crowd of 21,707 set a new ground record for Leichhardt Oval.
In 1986, one of Balmain's players, Great Britain captain Garry Schofield topped the try-scorers list for the season. The 1988 Great Britain Lions tour captain Ellery Hanley was signed by the Balmain Tigers to play the remaining rounds of the 1988 NSWRFL season for them once his representative commitments were fulfilled. The Tigers reached the 1988 Grand Final, the first time since the 1969 success, winning a lot of fans along the way with a number of 'backs to the wall' performances winning four consecutive sudden death matches in just 3 weeks. The top five teams out of the premiership table went on to the final series, and this was the first time since 1979 that a team in fifth position had progressed to the Grand Final. In 1988 the Tigers were deemed certain to miss the finals with 8 games left in the regular season. The Tigers remarkably only lost a single game from that point onwards reaching the Grand Final against Canterbury, only to be denied the trophy in a controversial 24–12 loss. Canterbury player, Terry Lamb, is still remembered by fans for knocking out the legendary Ellery Hanley with a high shot in back play midway through the first half. The Tigers were leading the game at the time.
The side would again make the Grand Final in 1989 but this time as favourites. In a controversial affair, the side lost in extra time against the Canberra Raiders after being ahead 12–2 at half time.
After the heartbreak of the 1989 Grand Final, the Tigers never regained their dominating form and went through a rebuilding phase following the retirement of star players Wayne Pearce, Garry Jack, Steve Roach and David Brooks who had all played over 100 games for the club over a period of 10 years or more. The stars were missed as Balmain finished second-last in 1993 and got the wooden spoon in 1994.
The departure of coach Warren Ryan at the end of 1990 was a key turning point for the club. Balmain hired the famous former Wallabies coach-come-radio announcer Alan Jones as a coach in 1991. As Paul Sironen admitted years later in his autobiography, the 'running rugby' style of Jones was too simplistic for the structured defensive patterns which had developed in rugby league during the 1980s. Jones also began a controversial clear-out of some of the other Tigers stars who had not retired, notably the Kiwi international Gary Freeman. By the time Jones was sacked as coach at the end of 1993, incoming coach Wayne Pearce inherited a massive problem which was only getting worse.
In drastic action, Balmain released 21 players at the end of 1994 and moved to Parramatta Stadium as the 'Sydney Tigers'. The Tigers stayed at Parramatta Stadium for two seasons before heading back to Leichhardt Oval. The Tigers only averaged 6,565 people attending home games at Parramatta Stadium in what was regarded as a failed experiment.
At the end of the 1996 ARL season, the League's chief executive John Quayle resigned and was replaced by Balmain president Neil Whittaker.
Joint Venture
Although things picked up for the club in following years, the Australian Rugby League/Super League war would spell trouble for the club. 1999 was a tumultuous year for the Balmain Tigers. The season began with a dark cloud hanging over the 17 clubs. The Super League/ARL compromise had left 1999 as the last season before the 14 team NRL competition began and with it came the much talked about criteria. On-field Balmain was struggling with a savage injury toll that forced the Tigers to use over 40 players throughout the season.In July 1999, the option of forming a joint venture with fellow foundation club, the Western Suburbs Magpies was put to the Football Club members. The members ultimately voted in favour of a joint venture. As it turned out Balmain was in the top 14 clubs under the criteria but would have continued to struggle to be financially competitive with bigger clubs. The decision to enter a joint venture saw a crowd of 15,240 turn-out in atrocious conditions to watch the Tigers play their last home game in first grade at Leichhardt Oval as the Balmain Tigers.
Balmain's final game in the top grade as a sole entity was in Round 26 1999 against the Canberra Raiders at Bruce Stadium which ended in a 42–14 defeat. At the time of the club's exit, Balmain were the third most successful club in the competition's history with eleven premierships. Only St. George and South Sydney had won more premierships.
The new entity, Wests Tigers, made it to the 2005 NRL Grand Final and defeated the North Queensland Cowboys 30–16.