Edward Larkin - Rugby League Administrator

Rugby League Administrator

Larkin knew and sympathised with a number of the senior rugby union players who in 1906 and 1907 became louder in their discontent with the administration of the New South Wales Rugby Union, over rejection of compensation payments for injuries and lost wages. The breakaway in Australia took place in 1908, as it had earlier in 1895 with the Northern Union in Northern England. A gifted public speaker, Larkin had continued to develop a strong sense of social justice during his years in the police force. After the financial failure of the 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and claims of mismanagement by the League's founding fathers James Joseph Giltinan, cricketer Victor Trumper and Labor politician Henry Hoyle, the pioneer code looked to be in jeopardy before it had barely begun.

In June 1909 Larkin left the police force and was appointed the first full-time secretary of the almost bankrupt New South Wales Rugby League. He was an excellent organizer and had success in promoting the new game evidenced by the crowd of 42,000 who filled the Agricultural Oval in June 1910 to see the Australia v Great Britain Test. During his administration which lasted till 1913, he convinced the Catholic education hierarchy and the Marist Brothers in particular to adopt rugby league as their winter sporting game. The code benefits from this legacy to this day in New South Wales and Queensland.