Hay Magpies

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The Hay Magpies is a rugby league football club based in the town of Hay, in the western Riverina of New South Wales, Australia.  The club currently plays in the South West Riverina competition known as Group 17, governed by the Country Rugby League (CRL).  The team colours are black and white and the club is named after the ubiquitous Australian Magpie.  The Hay Magpies have a proud tradition; they have been the most successful team in the history of Group 17, winning 12 premierships.  From 2007 the Magpies' lower grade teams will be a part of the Group 20 competition (see details below).

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[edit] History of Rugby League in Hay

Rugby League was first played in Hay during 1931, a tentative beginning in a township where the dominate football code was Australian Rules.  It wasn't until 1936 that Hay Rugby League Club was officially formed and matches scheduled on a more regular basis.  The core advocates of the new club were the young school-teacher Sam Willis, three publicans ‘Silver’ Sullivan, Dan Sutherland and Jim Dixon, and a road-contractor, Bill Jackson.  Dan Sutherland was elected first president.  The colours of maroon and white were chosen for Hay’s uniform (from Willis' old school team, Fort Street Boy's High).  Jim Dixon and another avid League supporter, Frank Walker, donated ornate silver trophies for an inter-town competition between Hay and the surrounding townships of Hillston, Merriwagga and Goolgowi.  The same trophies later became objects of contestation in the Group 17 competition.

Senior rugby league was suspended in the district during World War II.  In 1947 district clubs reformed into what was known as the Western Zone competition, comprising Hay, Darlington Point, Goolgowi, Carrathool and two teams from Hillston ('Town' and 'Country').  Hay won the premiership in 1950 under the coaching of ‘Johnno’ Johnston; playing in black and white jerseys they had a hard-fought 7-5 win over their arch-rivals Goolgowi.

In 1954 the CRL reshuffled the boundaries and formed the Group 17 competition comprising the Western Zone teams plus Ivanhoe, Deniliquin, Barellan and Coleambally.  In 1959 Hay won their first Group 17 title under the coaching of Laurie Foley.  The win was the first of a hat-trick of premierships for the Magpies and the beginning of the club's ‘golden’ era.[1]

[edit] Group 17 first-grade premierships

  • 1959 – Hay vs. Goolgowi (score: 7-5); coached by Laurie Foley.
  • 1960 – Hay vs. Darlington Point; coached by Billy Poole.
  • 1961 – Hay vs. Goolgowi; coached by Billy Poole.
  • 1964 – Hay vs. ?? ; coached by Murray Hodge.
  • 1966 – Hay vs. ?? ; coached by Geoff Snowden.
  • 1967 – Hay vs. Coleambally (score: 17-9); coached by Geoff Snowden.
  • 1972 – Hay vs. ??.
  • 1975 – Hay vs. Goolgowi (score: 25-11); coached by Michael Johnstone.
  •  ??

[edit] The shift to Group 20

The strength of the Hay Magpies club had traditionally been underpinned by strong junior teams.  Concerns for the club’s future were raised in recent years due to the Group 17 competition lacking a junior competition.  Talented junior players were compelled to give up rugby league or switch clubs.  During 2006 the Hay Magpies formally applied to enter the Group 20 competition by a transitional process.  The shift from Group 17 to Group 20 was considered “essential to keep Hay’s talented juniors in the sport”.

At the Group 20 annual general meeting in November 2006 the proposal to include the Hay Magpies was approved by a 19-6 vote, making Group 20 a nine-team competition.  The proposal involved a transitional arrangement whereby the Magpies' reserve grade and under 16s sides entered Group 20 in 2007, with the eventual inclusion of the first-grade side by 2010.  Hay’s inclusion into the Group 20 competition received approval from most of the Group 20 clubs, except West Wyalong who compared the “ease of Hay’s swap from Group 17 to Group 20” with their own thwarted attempts to transfer from Group 20 to the Group 9 competition.  The Hay club president Don Payne said the decision was imperative in assuring the future of the Magpies.  “In three to four years the Hay Magpies would have folded but now Group 20 has opened the gate for the club,” Payne said; he added that local supporters of rugby league were in favour of the proposal.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Anderson, John, ‘The Magpies - tall tales and top football’, Rugby League Week, 26 March 1977.
  2. ^ Area News: Gilroy, Will, ‘Hay wins vote’, 8 November 2006; ‘Majority of clubs welcome Magpies’, 10 November 2006.
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