City versus Country: A match almost as old as rugby league itself

Next month will see the curtain drawn on a fixture that's been a part of rugby league since the 1920s. We take a look back at City versus Country, a match that's almost as old as the game itself.

Andrew Fifita of City (centre) is tackled by Jack Bird of Country Source: AAP

While there are some records of City-Country matches going back as far as the late 19th Century, it wasn't until the 1920s that the fixture gained momentum.

Officials at the NSWRL realised they could take advantage of the huge crowds flowing through the gates at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, which would attract visitors from across the state.

Thousands would flock to the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the stars of the City league battle it out against the best from the bush.

And Country Firsts teams of the era were no pushovers. Good footballers could often pick up decent contracts captain-coaching country towns. The best of these players were then picked to play the City Firsts.

"From the 1920s, '30s, '40s, right up to the end of the '50s it was a viable way to get chosen into those New South Wales and Australian test teams," rugby league writer Alan Whiticker said.

While Country continued to churn out talented players well into the '60s and beyond, most were lured into Sydney on contracts fuelled by poker machine profits.

This meant they were ineligible for the Country team, leaving Country with the best of the rest.

"They could have been farmers or people that worked in foundries in the country or forestry. They were really powerful in their arms and whilst they mightn't have been to the gym like we did they had their own manual way of training," said South Sydney legend Bob McCarthy, who played six times for City Firsts between 1969 and 1975.

But the rivalry continued, McCarthy himself part of the 1975 City Firsts team - featuring the likes of Bob Fulton, Graeme Langlands, Steve Rogers, Tom Raudonikis, Ron Coote and Arthur Beetson - that went down 19-9 to a Country Firsts outfit featuring John Ballesty, Mick Cronin and Terry Fahey.

The ledger shows Country Firsts were overwhelmingly dominated by their City Firsts counterparts, 22 wins to City's 67.

But pride in the jersey was evident in every performance.

"I remember sitting there watching it as a kid. It was a dream to play in one of those clashes," Canterbury Bulldogs legend Andrew Ryan said.

Ryan played six matches for Country and captained the team in his home town of Dubbo.

But the dream is now over.

The risk of player injury and the busy NRL schedule proving the death knell of City-Country.

Head office now prefers NRL clubs to play the odd match in the bush.

"I'd be really disappointed if that didn't happen in the future, if that didn't continue to happen, if the NRL didn't have games out in those regional areas because like talking about growing up in Dubbo, it was everything to us," Ryan said.

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