Annandale

Annandale were an Australian rugby league football club which played in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership from 1910 to 1920. Based in Annandale, New South Wales and nicknamed "The Dales", the club's colours were red and gold. The club was never able to finish higher than fifth in their eleven-year history and won just one match in their final three seasons. At the insistence of South Sydney this, combined with the industrialisation of the area led to their omission from the competition for further seasons at the end of 1920. All these events are often attributed to the fact that fewer players were eligible to play under the residency rules in place at the time (Glebe would also later fall victim, in part, to this phenomenon). History Annandale were initially a second grade feeder club for Glebe in the Metropolitan Rugby Union competition. Glebe would later join the NSWRL competition along with the Newtown, Balmain and South Sydney clubs. The Metropolitan Rugby Union board later expelled and banned the Annandale players who competed in the exhibition game which gave way to Annandale switching from rugby union to rugby league. Annandale began their first season with a very poor start, losing their first four games straight which as it turned out sent them immediately out of the race for the premiership. They did, however, recover well and finished with five wins, one draw and eight losses. The first of these wins came in round 5 against a Western Suburbs side that had won just 3 out of 23 matches in their three-year history. At the end of the season, Annandale finished sixth out of the eight teams.