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1935 Australian RL Jersey - RARE Green & Gold Butcher Hoops!
Listing # 866

A rare Australian Rugby League jersey.

With the Kangaroos’ history being well documented (i.e. Specifically Rugby League Tours to the UK) The tour to New Zealand of 1935 has not received much serious examination. The 1935 Australia side played 3 Tests and 3 tour games, winning the Test series 2 Tests to 1.

This “butcher stripe” jersey is green and gold. It was made by David Jones and features a while cloth patch on the back and a red number. This is number 12. Fred Gilbert from the Valleys club in Toowoomba wore # 12 on this tour. He first toured with the 1933-34 Kangaroos and played 4 matches on that tour. On the 1935 tour to New Zealand he just played in the tour games and finally made his Test debut in 1936 against the visiting English. A Kangaroo tourist again in 1937-38 series he played 16 games including three Tests. Overall he played 20 matches for Queensland 1932-39 and 4 Tests for Australia.

Australia’s sporting colours and symbols were in a state of flux in the decade following the universal move from maroon and blue to green and gold in 1928 for Rugby League and 1929 for Rugby Union. The choice of bottle green, inspired by the cricketers of 1899 presented some dilemmas for the League and Union administrators of the 1930s. With the Springboks wearing a similar colour to the Australian Wallabies, they abandoned the dark green jersey in 1933, and again in 1937 when the home side wore a predominately white Strip. Surprisingly he following year the Wallabies changed again for the series against the All Blacks and wore a mostly gold uniform.

Rugby League confronted this “clash of colours” dilemma for this 1935 tour of the Dominion…Sean Fagan uncovered this snippet from an ARL meeting (and he thanks Alan Shields) in The Sydney Morning Herald of 23rd August 1935 (a few weeks before the tour):

…..”A distinctive Jersey will be provided for the team with half inch stripes of blue gold green and red it being considered by the Board that a bottle green jersey would be too close to the all black of New Zealand to be distinguishable should it get wet or dirty. Stockings [socks] will be of similar colours and white trousers [shorts] will be worn".

Sean concluded, “my suspicion is that the four coloured (and gaudy?) jersey design was too elaborate to be made in time for the tour, and the team played in green and gold. This was a supposition as he believed, until this jersey surfaced that, no jersey from the tour is known to still exist, nor any colour photographs”.

While the green and gold was dominant, it appears that the red number (which seemed an unusual addition to a national jersey) may have been inspired by the ARL meeting…The style of this jersey was used just once more, in the 1963 series against South Africa in Australia. (when again the dark jerseys clashed – the dark green of Australia and South Africa) though in 1963 the Aussies colours reverted to blue & maroon.

No jersey from this 1935 series has ever been sold in a public forum and just a few are still in the hand of players’ families. Assessment: The jersey has numerous moth holes, minor repair marks and staining around the collar and number patch. The jersey colour remains vivid and in good condition.

Offered; Wemyss Auction Olympic and Sporting Memorabilia 25/3/2000 Lot 217. Estimates then were $6,000/$8,000.

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