Unquestionably, the most valuable icon and relic of Rugby League.
The Messenger family wishes it known that they have appraoched the NRL and all relevant bodies, including Eastern Suburbs Rugby league Club, who won the Shield, and they are not prepared to pay the clearly moderate price requested.
The Shield is therefore to be sold to the first person who pays the sum requested.
The Story of the RAS Shield
In 1907, in NSW, a group broke away from the Rugby Union Football code to form Rugby League. The question at issue was reimbursement for players who lost work days because of injuries. Rugby Union officialdom refused to pay up on the grounds that such reimbursement would infringe the players' amateur status. Rugby League was founded to redress this deprivation. Though few players were paid, the new code was dubbed "professional" from the beginning.
To consolidate the break, the original organisers made a bold move. They approached the star player of Rugby Union, Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger. Messenger, who in Rugby Union was drawing crowds of 50,000 when the population of Sydney was not half a million, and indisputably a sporting genius in a number of fields, consulted his family - and decided to support the injured players.
Rugby league ws formed in August 1907.
.
He captained the first match in Ceylon, and led the First Kangaroos
in the 1908-9 tour of Great Britain and, in the first 6 seasons
of the NSW Rugby League, drew the crowds and consolidated the
code.
This first competition's main ground was leased to the code by the Royal Agricultural Society, who donated the Shield you are now offered. Its intrinsic value is considerable. Its artistry is moulded from gold, silver and bronze. As the original icon of Rugby League, its historical value is unassessable.
Such was Dally Messenger's contribution to the spectator sport that in an unprecedented gesture, Eastern Suburbs Rugby League Club, who, after three wins, were entitled to keep the Shield in perpetuity, gave it to Messenger. (See 1914 Newspaper Cutting which is enclosed)
Dally Messenger was not a mercenary person in any sense of the word. He was feted, dined and accommodated by the Rugby League code until the last years of his life, when support was withdrawn. The one possession he clung to all his life was the Shield.
The Messenger family loaned the Shield to the Sydney Hall of Champions, who asked the family could they temporarily accede to a request from the NSW Rugby League to borrow the Shield for an exhibition. When the Messenger family went to "borrow" the Shield back for a family reunion the League refused to hand it over.
Dally Messenger III, grandson of the original "Dally", asked Mark Elliott of Minter Ellison, solicitors, to take the necessary legal steps to recover the Shield.
In the hands of Minter Ellison's Mark Elliott and David Grant
the case, with a series of letters and phone calls finally proceeded
to the preparation of the writ. As the writ had to be issued in
Sydney the task was delegated to Andrew Ireland of Townsend &
Company. Andrew Ireland, a Messenger family member, put the final
bit of pressure on the NSW Rugby League who finally relented and
handed the Shield over in April 1991.
Article -click to read.
Back on
the market - rugby league's Holy Grail
Written by Ian Heads for the Sporting Collector Magazine September 2001
The beautiful silver and oak shield that is Australian rugby league's greatest treasure is to be offered for public sale. The Melbourne-based man who carries the bears the game's most famous name - Dally Messenger (the third) - has announced exclusively for The Sporting Collector that the game's first trophy, the Royal Agricultural Society Shield, will be offered publicly for sale in the near future - . . . . .
Contact Ken Messenger at Sydney Australia on 02 9482 2754 (61-2-9482-2754)
Dally Messenger III at dallym@netspace.net.au or 0411 717 303 (Between June 4 and July 20, 2004 I will be in USA) email me to call you.
Letter to the Reader
From Ken and Dally Messenger
Dear devotee of Rugby League,
The above mentioned Shield was
presented to our grandfather, the renowned Herbert Henry "Dally"
Messenger in April 1914, as a "tribute to his captaincy"
of Eastern Suburbs Rugby League club.
The Shield has had an interesting history. Dally Messenger clung
to it all his life. He died penniless - except for the Shield.
The Shield remained in the possession of my family except for
a short time when it was loaned to the NSW Rugby League - who
only returned it after protracted legal negotiations.
The Messenger Family believes that the Shield should be on exhibition
somewhere. It is not proper or practical that this priceless and
unquestionably most significant icon of Rugby League in Australia
should be shut away in a vault. (The precious metals and craftsmanship
in the Shield make it extremely valuable in its own right, apart
from its historical significance.)
We have decided to sell it on the assumption that whoever buys
it, recognises its value, and will honour it and, hopefully, share
it by exhibiting it.
A Victoria Cross, of which there are many, recently sold at auction
for $150,000. An early Melbourne Cup went for about the same price.
The Nancy Wake medals sold in May 94' for $165,000. This was an
excellent indicator of how Australians, and indeed sports fans
everywhere, are starting to value their heritage. There is
only one RAS Shield for which we are currently seeking a purchaser..