Born in Cooks Hill on May 3, 1879, Patrick Bernard Walsh
attended Newcastle Superior Public School where he received medals for running
and in 1895 he received a medal for the best cricket all-rounder.
The following year he left school aged 17, to work as a
railway porter. He joined the Norwoods Rugby Union club and was an integral
member of their undefeated side who also avoided conceding a point during the
1896 season.
In 1897 Walsh and his team-mates were presented with medals
to commemorate their previous season’s feats. While he was walking along a city
wharf, the medal fell off his waistcoat chain. He returned half an hour later
to find his medal had been crushed by a cart and the gold inlay was missing.
Walsh kept the damaged medal remnants which remained one of his prized
possessions.
In 1898 a residential system was introduced forcing players
to join the team representing the district where they lived. Walsh and other
players from the Norwoods and Carlton clubs formed the Newcastle Central team
for the 1899 season, who won the premiership that year. Walsh would go on to
win another four premierships with the club.
In 1899 he was selected to represent Northern Districts
against the touring British side that contained the player Blair Swannell, whom
Walsh would have several clashes with in his career.
Walsh again represented the Northern Districts in 1900 and in
September of 1902, was instrumental in their 18-6 victory against the more
fancied Sydney Metropolis side.
In 1903 Walsh moved to the Carlton Club where he was soon
regarded as one of the premier forwards in New South Wales. He was selected in
the Combined Country side that played Sydney Metropolis and the touring New
Zealanders, before earning his first cap for NSW when selected to play against
Queensland in the interstate series.
On July 2, 1904, Pat Walsh made his debut for the Wallabies
against Great Britain. Despite his own good performance, the Wallabies went
down 17-0. Joining him in the Australian team that day were future Rugby League
pioneers Alec Burdon and Dinny Lutge. Walsh's opponent in the British side was
Blair Swannell.
After the test, Walsh lined up for the Northern Districts
against the British. During the game he had a collision with British winger
Fred Jowett, causing the winger to retire from the match with concussion. The
tourists went after Walsh, but he held his own.
During this game it was alleged that British player Denys
Dobson swore at referee Harry Dolan. Dobson was immediately sent from the
field. England's captain David Bedell-Sivwright was incensed at the decision
and ordered his team to leave the field in protest, before soon returning.
Walsh was one of five Northern Districts players that supported the referee's
decision at an ensuing investigation into the “Dobson incident” by the NSWRU,
who surprisingly sided with the English players, claiming the referee had heard
wrong. This would prove to be a catastrophic decision by the NSWRU.
Walsh played in the second test at Brisbane but the British
were again too strong, running out victors 17-3. Blair Swannell flattened Walsh
in what appeared to be a personal vendetta.
The Wallabies lost 16-0 in the third test, where Walsh was
one of the few shining lights for the Australians.
Walsh and the British squared off one last time when NSW
played the tourists in their last tour match. The game was dominated by very
heavy forwards clashes, most involving Walsh.
He retained his place in the state side for the first interstate
game of 1905 and was considered one of the best three players in the losing NSW
side on the day.
The next week Walsh played a starring role, leading NSW to
victory against Queensland. The praise for his performance was great and
unanimous, with commentators stating: “Walsh played grandly”, “Walsh played a
brilliant game” and opinions suggesting he was one of Australia's best
forwards.
However, it was oddly deemed not good enough to see him
retain his place in the state side for the upcoming match against the touring
New Zealanders. Walsh was replaced by Blair Swannell, the British tourist who
was now playing for North Sydney.
His omission to this day is one of the most baffling made in
either Rugby code in Australia. The Referee reported that “Walsh's exclusion is
simply a Chinese puzzle” after state selectors suggested that Pat Walsh's form
had dropped in his last two games.
After the third interstate game, the NSW squad was selected
for an end-of-season tour of New Zealand. Walsh was again omitted.
He then captained the Newcastle side to a convincing 30-0
victory, putting in a best-on-field display, scoring three tries. The NSWRU
still refused to select him. The Arrow reported:
“If the Australian team to visit New Zealand included Walsh,
one would have no fear as to the forwards holding their own against anything in
New Zealand. There is no better forward in Australia than Walsh, probably no
one quite as good. In the Newcastle district, the “Dobson incident” inquiry is
thought to have in some way prejudiced Walsh's chances of being selected. It is
clear that the Newcastle forward has not been omitted on the ground of his
ability not being good enough.”
Walsh played for Carlton in the Grand Final against
Newcastle. Carlton had lost to Newcastle three times during the year, each time
they were missing Walsh who was on representative duty.
Ten minutes before full-time, with Carlton holding a 2-0
lead, Walsh gathered the ball and ran twenty yards to score between the posts.
Carlton won 9-0.
Pat Walsh then travelled to South Africa and participated in
an expatriate Australian Rules competition in Johannesburg to maintain his
fitness. He became vice-captain of the Commonwealth Football Team, who in
November of 1905 won the Australian Football League Premiership.
Walsh returned to Newcastle early in 1906 where he learnt
that the Northern Districts Rugby Union had lodged a protest with the NSWRU
regarding his omission from the Australian touring team in 1905, however there
was no resolution.
In April 1906, Walsh suddenly departed for New Zealand. Walsh
admired the quality of football that the 1903 New Zealand tourists played and
wanted to play among who he regarded as the best players in the world.
Upon arriving in Auckland, he was signed by the Parnell club
and quickly earned selection in the Auckland Province representative team that
toured New Zealand's South Island, a feat he repeated in 1907.
Many believed he should have been selected in the New Zealand
All Golds squad that was to tour Australia and England, with one commentator
stating “Walsh stood out as being the best player in the senior grade
competition.”
In 1908, the Auckland press proclaimed Walsh was the best
forward in New Zealand. He was expected to be named in a representative side to
face the touring British side; however he was again oddly omitted.
Around this time, Walsh received a cable from James Giltinan
in Sydney, who asked Walsh to join the newly formed Rugby League competition,
where he could be selected in an end-of-season tour to England. He accepted the
offer as he saw it as his last chance to visit England.
He was greeted at Sydney wharf on the Saturday morning of
July 18 by NSWRL secretary Henry Hoyle, who took Walsh to the Royal
Agricultural Showground. Walsh was given an hour to learn the new game before
lining up for Queensland against NSW. Queensland lost 12-3 in Walsh's first
game of Rugby League.
He played the last two games of the season for Newcastle, who
wore the red and white striped jumpers of the Carlton club, as a tribute to
Walsh.
Walsh was a late inclusion in Giltinan's squad to tour
England but was unable to get a ticket with the rest of the squad, so he had to
board the SS Salamis instead. It was revealed he had brought a kangaroo with
him as a mascot, which he hoped but failed to train to lead the team out
carrying the ball. The kangaroo died after the tours completion, on the day
before the players left England to return home.
Once in England, Walsh was selected in the Kangaroo's side to
play Salford. He started the game very strongly but was moved to the backs
later in the game which met with little success.
The 11th game of the tour saw Australia face
Northern Union champions Hunslet, whose forward pack contained the formidable
“terrible six” and was led by champion Albert Goldthorpe. Walsh was a star
performer, helping Australia to an impressive 12-11 victory.
Walsh played in all three of Australia's test matches against
England. The first test was a 22 all draw, the second, a 15-5 victory to the
English who also won the third test 6-5. Walsh played in 29 of the exhausting
45 game tour, including an impressive performance in an exhibition match in
Glasgow where he scored “a skilful dribbling try.”
While on tour, he became the first Australian player
approached by an English club and accepted an offer from Huddersfield, whom he
would play 6 games for at the end of their 1908-09 season, after the Kangaroo
tour concluded.
Kangaroo tour manager James Giltinan stated at the time that
Walsh was “the finest forward in the Northern Union.”
In the 1909-10 season, Walsh suffered a knee injury in a game
against Hull on a frozen field at Craven Park. Huddersfield paid for him to
travel to London to have an innovative and rarely performed operation on his
knee.
His first game back was against Hull Kingston Rovers at
Fartown where he managed to get through the first half, displaying his
trademark unrelenting defence, but just before full time he re-injured the
knee.
Walsh then travelled to Liverpool where he had the damaged
cartilage successfully removed. He revealed years later “The club regarded me
as something of a guinea pig. When my operation proved successful, they sent
three other players along to have their cartilages removed. They'd been on the
crock list and weren't game to have the operation. I had it only because I knew
that if I didn't take the risk with a surgeon in England, there was no one in
Australia who could help me.”
He played 7 games for Huddersfield in the 1910-11 season
before returning to Australia with his future wife Rebecca Eve, a lady he met
while she was playing piano at post-match functions during the Kangaroo tour.
Upon his arrival in 1911, Pat Walsh joined the Newcastle Central team and three
weeks later captained the Northern Districts team on their tour to Queensland,
winning all three of their games.
Walsh moved to Queensland, first working in a Brisbane Post
Office, then with the railways at Townsville where he briefly coached a local
side.
Early in 1915, Pat and Rebecca married before the outbreak of
war. Walsh enlisted with the 12th Light Horse Regiment and was
promoted to Corporal two months later before being transferred to a railway
construction unit. His younger brother Clem, also enlisted for service and was
promoted to Major and later earned a Military Cross.
Pat suffered a number of illnesses while on duty; one caused
paralysis in his legs which saw him require metal callipers on his legs and
crutches to get around.
During the great depression, Pat would sit on his front
veranda and talk to passers-by, offering them into the house for meals if they
were hungry, much to the dismay of his wife. Pat's brother Clem would often
take him sailing around Newcastle.
In 1922, his son John Patrick Walsh was born. John became a
Rugby Union player for the Newcastle Wanderers, earning selection in a
Newcastle representative side, but his career was unable to reach the lofty
heights of his father. John later became secretary of the club.
Pat Walsh passed away on May 22, 1953, 3 weeks after his 74th
birthday.
While at Huddersfield he was described as “a grim, gaunt
forward, with a deadly embrace, tackles with scrupulous fairness and
proportionate effectiveness.”
James Giltinan succinctly described Walsh as “a
generous-hearted, able forward and a sterling character.”
His mistreatment fuelled a simmering groundswell of animosity
by some players against the Rugby Union which eventually led to the birth of
Rugby League in Australia. Despite this mistreatment, he never complained. He
became a successful player in three football codes across three different
countries.
A true legend.
********This article appeared in Rugby League Review Magazine************
