It was 1983 and a combination of factors, including a diminishing junior base (caused by the rapidly changing demographics) and a Newtown Leagues Club in financial ruin, meant the NSWRL were forced to suspend Newtown from the competition. Despite being Grand Finalists only two years earlier, the Blue Bags' were gone.
Left with a mountain of debt and restricted from playing, management would have been forgiven for cutting their losses and winding the operation down. The Jets persisted, desperate to find another way back onto the field. Born and bred in the area and a self confessed sporting tragic, club director Barry Vining(pictured) was the leader of the fight back, pouncing on an opportunity in the Campbelltown district.
"We went to Campbelltown in 1984 and set up their junior league and did everything we could to have a Newtown-Campbelltown' team enter the 1985 competition." The Jets had worked tirelessly with the management of Group 6, who controlled the Campbelltown area, particularly their president John Marsden. An agreement had been drawn up in consultation with Marsden, all the Jets needed was his signature.
The relocation to Orana Park (now Campbelltown Stadium) seemed a mere formality. "Singo (John Singleton) was at the NSW Rugby League office but John Marsden didn't show up to sign the agreement." The Campbelltown consortium had changed their minds at the 11th hour. Despite the obvious ground Newtown had made to resurrect the club, it was later discovered Marsden was concerned with Newtown's shaky financial past.
By 1985 Newtown's suspension from the NSW Rugby League had turned into permanent expulsion. After this second gut-wrenching setback the Newtown Jets appeared to be dead and buried, permanently. In fact, if it wasn't for the steel will of a few passionate â??Blue Bag' devotees, the Newtown Rugby League Club most certainly would have died. "Having Marsden renege on the Campbelltown deal left us high and dry.
From that point on, and this is the thing I am most proud of, we still met every month and still held our meetings without a club." "We paid out all of our creditors and player payments 100%. Not one creditor missed a cent he was owed." Led by Vining, along with Terry Rowney(pictured), treasurer Des O'Connor (former captain and player in 69 Newtown first grade games), secretary Frank Farrington (39 first grade games for the Jets and former professional light-heavyweight boxer), Jimmy Cobban, John Carroll and Bruce Wright, these seven men met for 6 years with a hope of reforming a team in some capacity. Vining remembers why these men refused to give in. "What kept us going was the enthusiasm of each other, saying we're not going to give in. And that's not just us, it's the whole club, it's the old Newtown."
It wasn't until 1991, some six years later, that the Newtown Jets finally assembled a team for the NSW Rugby League's Metropolitan Cup. The hard work and persistence of these men had paid off. Glen â??Bumper' Dwyer is proud of what the group achieved: "These gentlemen, particularly Vining and Rowney are right at the heart of what's kept this club alive. Many football clubs tend to remember the players; in Newtown's case it has been the off-field people who have kept the place going and some of them are still there to this day. Barry Vining is president, Terry Rowney a director and the Newtown Jets club is run out of Rowney's 'Labelcraft' company in Leichhardt."
Dwyer himself is a director and now acts as the club's media officer. Since their rebirth in 1991 the club has gone from strength to strength. They dominated the Metro Cup winning the competition in 1992, '95, '96, and '97 as well as being finalists most other years. From 1995 till 1999 Newtown acted as a feeder club to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, to which Glen Dwyer attributes much of Newtown's success during this era. "A lot of money was injected into the club from the Rabbitohs, but this association ended when the Rabbitohs were ejected from the NRL in 1999."
Oddly enough Souths' misfortunes created an opportunity for the Jets and they struck up a partnership with the Auckland Warriors. This partnership allowed Newtown to play in the NSW Premier League competition, against all the other foundation clubs like Wests, Balmain, Norths and Easts. This partnership was a success, the Jets missed the finals narrowly on points for and against and they had defeated every team in the competition.
What's more, 6 of the Warriors Grand Final team of 2002 played for the Newtown Jets in 2000, including current Kiwi internationals Clinton Toopi and Wairangi Koopu. After a year the partnership ended because the Auckland Warriors folded and became the New Zealand Warriors, a totally separate legal entity with completely different management. Without funding or player backing from an NRL club the Jets had to tough it out on their own.
In 2001, 2002 and 2003 they enjoyed little success but they were getting stronger each year. In 2004 Newtown narrowly missed the finals, an enormous effort from a club offering its players no NRL opportunity. While Vining and company can be attributed for the hard work off the field, Newtown's coach Col Murphy has been at the helm since 1994 and he played for the Jets from 1974 - 1983.
Glen Dwyer says Murphy has been a shining example of the core values of Australia's oldest Rugby League club: "He's like a touch-stone of the old Newtown. In so many ways he represents what the suburb of Newtown used to be. Newtown's ability to perform on their own attracted interest from a lot of NRL clubs. It was then announced late last year that the Newtown Jets would become the Cronulla Sharks' Premier League team.
It's no co-incidence that in 2005 the Sharks are near the top of the NRL and the Jets are up there in the Premier League, as Barry Vining attests: "The arrangement we have with the Sharks has just blossomed. The people seem to get along great together, the old traditional club and the young surfie club, we've been great together. I think we're going to keep this arrangement for a number of years" Vining knows the persistence shown by he and six others has well and truly paid off. "We now have 22 junior teams playing in the South Sydney competition this year, we also own the Parkes Leagues Club, pulling them out of receivership and the people of Parkes are so grateful for what we've done. We're also offering a second chance for Cronulla juniors over Jersey Flegg age who didn't make it; the late bloomers now have a road to the top through our Jim Beam Cup team."
"When we look back at what we've achieved since '83, we all realise you can beat the odds so long as you keep believing in yourself and what you stand for."