About The Seagulls

THROUGH THE YEARS…

Wynnum Manly were admitted to the Brisbane District Rugby League Competition in 1951 joining Valleys, Norths, Souths, Easts, Wests and Past Brothers. However, this wasn’t the first time a rugby league team from Wynnum had competed in the Brisbane Competition.   Way back in 1914 the original Wynnum District Football Team was formed to complete in the Queensland Rugby League Competition.

In that year. Ironically, this team came into existence because of the advent of Electorate Football.  Electorate Football was the first attempt to set up a regular club competition in Brisbane based along district lines. The teams were actually drawn from Wards, hence the name Electorate football.  This team was bolstered by the inclusion of Bundaberg brothers Mick and Henry Bowleski, 2 of the early stars of rugby league in Queensland.  Mick was one of 4 Queenslanders to tour England with the 1908-09 Kangaroos and the first Queenslander to play professional rugby league (in England with the Leigh club).  Henry made his one and only test appearance that year against the touring British Team giving this short lived club the distinction of having an international representative.

Although they started the season strongly, the club faded badly in the second half of the year to miss out on a place in the semi finals.  Sadly, Wynnum did not reappear in the competition the following year. A team from Bulimba appeared in their place and some of the players who turned out for Wynnum in 1914 played for them.  No doubt the First World War which started at the end of the 1914 season also took its toll on player numbers.

On the 2nd of February 1931 the short lived Wynnum District Rugby Union Club disbanded and its members hastily formed a new club (the Wynnum District Rugby League Club) and affiliated with the Brisbane Rugby League.  Playing in an all black strip, the club was based in the heart of the district at Kitchener Park and included players such as Glen (Paddy) Crouch and Bill Patten.

Glen Crouch was a top centre who had previously played for Cooparoo. He toured New Zealand with the 1925 Queensland side, rated by many as the finest team to ever visit the Shaky Isles.  The Crouch family has a long association with sport in the Wynnum district with Paddy’s brother Bob also playing in the team and his son, Glen Junior, playing for Wynnum-Manly in the 1950s.

Bill Patten, originally from Ipswich was a top winger who was a regular in Queensland sides throughout the 1920s and played two test matches for Australia. In those days the Brisbane competition was club oriented and featured teams such as Carltons, Grammers and University. The club-oriented competition had always struggled to gain support from the public and the BRL had for some time been attempting to establish district teams that represented the various geographic parts of Brisbane.

When District Football was finally established in 1933, this short-lived incarnation of Wynnum merged with Cooparoo to form Eastern Suburbs. Some of Wynnum’s players and committee members joined the merged entity. Others continued playing the Wynnum District Competition.  Teams in the old Wynnum District League included Manly, Waterloo, Dunwich, Fisherman, Hemmant and Wynnum Central. These teams formed a Wynnum representative side that competed for the Geraghty Cup. Their opponents in these contests included Redcliffe, Beaudesert, Logan & Albert Shire and South Coast. Indeed it was Wynnum’s dominance of the Geraghty Cup in 1950 that paved the way for their introduction into the Brisbane Competition as Wynnum-Manly in 1951.

Wynnum-Manly (the 1951 vintage) trained and played their home games at Kitchener Park.  Not being an enclosed ground, club officials were forced to rope-off the area immediately around the playing field with hessian screens so they could charge admission. Facilities for players and patrons were minimal so spectators typically stood along the sidelines to watch play.

Though it is for the most part long forgotten, Wynnum-Manly’s original colours were actually Green and Gold. In 1957 the Australian Rugby League forced the colours to be changed as they clashed with those of the national team. It was then that Wynnum-Manly adopted the now familiar Green and Red.