The Tom Brock Lecture is an annual scholarly lecture organised by the Australian Society for Sports History at the bequest of Australian sports historian Tom Brock. [1] The topic of the lecture is the history of rugby league football. It has been given by leading writers and academics every year since 1999, at the New South Wales Rugby League's headquarters at Phillip Street in the Sydney CBD.
David Rowe, an academic, caused some controversy when he used his 2006 lecture to question football's prospects in the future following negative off-field media coverage. [2] Shane Webcke was set to become the first player to give the lecture when he was invited to do so in 2007, [2] but this did not eventuate.
In 2010, the Australian Society for Sports History and the Tom Brock Bequest Committee published Tales From Coathanger City: Ten Years of Tom Brock Lectures. [3] The book includes the Tom Brock lectures delivered from 1999 to 2008, an essay considering 10 years of lectures and study of the game, a biography of Tom Brock and some information on the Bequest Committee. [3]
Allan Jeffrey "Alfie" Langer AM is an Australian former multi-award-winning rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and worked as an assistant coach for the Australian national team, the Queensland Maroons and the Brisbane Broncos.
Rugby league in Australia has been one of Australia's most popular sports since it started being played there in 1908. It is the dominant winter football code in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. In 2022, it was the most watched sport on Australian television with an aggregate audience of 137.3 million viewers. The premier club competition is the National Rugby League (NRL), which features ten teams from New South Wales, four teams from Queensland, and one team each from Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The premier representative competition is the annual Rugby league State of Origin featuring two sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons is often referred to as "Australian sport's greatest rivalry", it is one of Australia's premier sporting events, attracting huge interest and television audiences.
Harold Wagstaff, also known by the nickname of "Waggy", was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s. He played as a centre and was nicknamed the Prince of Centres. A captain of Great Britain, he also played representative rugby league for England, and Yorkshire. Wagstaff has been inducted into the Rugby Football League Hall of Fame, and the Huddersfield Giants Hall of Fame.
Shane Webcke is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer, who spent his entire club career playing for the Brisbane Broncos. Webcke represented Queensland in the State of Origin 21 times and also captained the side. He made 26 test appearances for Australia. His position was prop forward and at his peak he was renowned as the best front rower in the world. Alongside Glenn Lazarus and Arthur Beetson, Webcke is considered by many to have been one of the finest post-war front-rowers to play the game.
Frank Puletua is a former Samoa international rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. A second-row, he played his club football in the National Rugby League for Australian clubs the Penrith Panthers and the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
This article contains information on rugby league played in 2006. The season commenced with the World Club Challenge in England in February and concluded with the Tri-Nations Final in Australia in November.
Roy Masters AM is an Australian sports journalist and former rugby league football coach. He is a sports columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald. He was a school teacher with an interest in team psychology who enjoyed some success as a schoolboy coach before embarking on a professional coaching career in the NSWRFL Premiership.
Rex Peers "Moose" Mossop was an Australian rugby union and rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s – a dual-code international, and an Australian television personality from 1964 until 1991.
James Joseph Giltinan (1866–1950) was an Australian entrepreneur who helped to introduce the sport of rugby league football to Australia. The J. J. Giltinan Shield, which is awarded annually to the National Rugby League minor premiers, was named after him.
Tony Collins is a British social historian specialising in the history of sport.
The year 2005 in rugby league football centered on Australasia's 2005 NRL season and Super League X.
The year 2004 in rugby league football centered on Australasia's 2004 NRL season and Super League IX.
Harold "Mick" Crocker was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. An Australia national and Queensland state representative back-row forward, he played his club career in Brisbane with Souths and in Sydney with Parramatta.
Andrew Moore is an Australian historian and academic, a specialist in Australian right-wing politics. He has taught at the University of Sydney, The University of New South Wales, England's University of Lincoln and the University of Western Sydney. His areas of expertise include Twentieth Century Australian History, Irish-Australian history and social history of sport, especially rugby league football. Moore is a leading expert on both the New Guard and the Old Guard.
The 1921–22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain was the third ever Kangaroo tour. Again an Australasian side rather than an Australian team alone travelled to Great Britain to contest the Ashes. Coached by Arthur Hennessy and captained by Les Cubitt, the Kangaroos travelled on the RMS Tahiti to England for best-of-three series of Test matches against Great Britain for the Ashes. The tour took place during the 1921–22 Northern Rugby Football Union season and also featured matches against several of the clubs in that competition as well as other representative teams. The tour also involved some degree of player misbehaviour, with one young footballer almost sent home from San Francisco because of all the broken glasses following a drinking session on board the team's ship.
Edwin Stanley "Nigger" Brown (1898–1972) was an Australian rugby league player who played in the 1910s and 1920s. A Queensland state and Australian international representative centre, he played club rugby in Toowoomba for Newtown.
James Devereux (1887–1934), also known by the nickname of "Muscles", was a pioneering Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s. A New South Wales state and Australia national representative three-quarter back, he played in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership from its first season in 1908 for the North Sydney club, before playing several seasons in England will Hull FC. He later returned to Australia and coached North Sydney.
Peter Moir (1882-1921) was an Australian rugby footballer of the early 1900s who was a key figure in the foundation of rugby league in Australia. He was one of Australia's first national representative players appearing in the inaugural professional series against New Zealand in 1907 and making the 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain. In 1907 he played for New South Wales in the very first rugby match run by the newly created 'New South Wales Rugby Football League' which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.
Henry 'Harry' Bolewski was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach of the early 20th century. A Queensland state and Australia national representative goal-kicking back-line player, he played his club football in Brisbane and Sydney. Bolewski later coached in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership for Sydney's Western Suburbs club. He was also the younger brother of prominent rugby league footballers, Alex Bolewski and Mick Bolewski.
Michael Patrick Bolewski was a pioneering Australian international representative rugby league footballer who played in the 1900s and 1910s. He, along with his three brothers, Henry, Alec and Walter, became a pioneering Queensland representative player as well.