Back in the 1890s, Gunnedah was the champion football (rugby) team of the north.
In 1894 the Gunnedah Rugby Football Club entered the New England Rugby Football Union, winning the premiership in their white fern and navy-blue jerseys.
The following year Gunnedah again nominated for the New England Union, the players setting their caps at the Armidale Cup, contested by all the clubs in the north. The handsome silver cup was to become the property of the first club to win it three times.
Gunnedah won in 1895 and 1896 but lost to Armidale in 1897.
A concerted effort was made at the start of the 1898 season to put a powerful Gunnedah side into the field for the Armidale Cup and a series of trial matches between ‘Possibles and Probables’ took place on Wolseley Park.
The club tried to arrange practice matches against Singleton, Aberdeen and Newcastle but the New England Rugby Football Union refused Gunnedah permission to play any team outside the zone.
Gunnedah appealed unsuccessfully to the NSW Rugby Union but in a surprise turn, the Union promised to send a team from the senior competition in Sydney to Gunnedah, provided the host centre met all travel and accommodation expenses, which amounted to 60 pounds.
The city team comprised state and Australian representatives from Randwick, Parramatta, Glebe, Pirates, Wentworth and Paddington.
The team was entertained at dinner by their hosts at Delander’s Hotel and the rest of the evening, according to one report, was “spent in song and recitations”. On the Sunday morning, the Sydney men were taken on a picnic, where the majority went horse-riding, for most a new experience.
When the game was finally played, the city visitors received a rude shock – the country boys could play. Metropolitan led 18-8 at half-time but in the second half Gunnedah outscored the visitors 11-8, leaving the final score 26-19.
The visiting captain, ‘Jumbo’ Frazer, who weighed 16-stone, was full of praise for the home side. The visitors, he said, had expected a picnic but the teamwork and speed of the country players had been a revelation. He singled out the front row of Vince Newell and Jim Goode and the second row forward O’Neill and the fleet-footed full-back, Jim Curley, whose father owned the Royal Hotel.
The match against the representative side topped off the Gunnedah team’s preparation for the Armidale Cup, which was played at Wolseley Park the following Saturday, between Gunnedah and the Federal team from Armidale.
The half-time score was 8-all and the teams were locked there until the 22nd minute of the second half when Bill Jones charged down the ground and passed to Curley, who sped over for a Gunnedah try. The sure boot of Jack Sheehan added the extras to give Gunnedah a lead of 13- 8 and a try late in the game sealed the result (16-6) and gave Gunnedah permanent possession of the Armidale Cup.
In the same year the Gunnedah club instigated the formation of the Liverpool Plains Rugby Football Union and invitations were sent to other towns in the area. Though the move attracted interest, other centres placed a condition on the Gunnedah club – that it field two teams. So, the Premier Club was formed for the first season’s competition.
The first final of the new competition was played between Moree and Gunnedah at Wolseley Park, with Moree leading 9-7 until five minutes from full-time when Curley, “that l4st 2lb of speed,” flashed past the Moree players to score a try, which was converted by the reliable Sheehan.
That closed the 19th century and The Glorious Years of the Gunnedah club.