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by
Chris Gordon
The oldest country rugby club in Australia…
The oldest Australian rugby club outside of Sydney…
The oldest sporting club in Goulburn…
The Goulburn Rugby Union Football Club is all of those things (as best as we can tell) and much more.
The Goulburn Rugby Club prides itself on its long and illustrious history. We have played British Lions. We have played (and beaten) Sydney Premiers. We have provided the nation with numerous Wallabies, and even a Wallaby captain.
Sadly, much of our history has been lost to time, but we are always welcoming new information as it is unearthed, but here is an incomplete list of some of the key dates in Goulburn Rugby Union history.
| 22 July 1872 | Goulburn Rugby Club formed at Payten’s Commercial Hotel (near the current site of the Goulburn Soldier’s Club). |
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| 5 June 1874 | Goulburn Rugby signs up as a founding member of the Southern Union (now known as NSW Rugby Union). |
| 11 July 1874 | Goulburn Rugby plays its first ever match against St Patrick’s College Goulburn. |
| 1874 | A second club side called Southern Football Club formed in Goulburn. |
| 1875 | Goulburn Rugby Club played home and away matches against Sydney clubs Wallaroos and premiership winners Balmain. |
| 1876 | Sydney Uni sent a team to play in Goulburn |
| 22 Mar 1877 | First ever game between Goulburn and Yass (with Goulburn wearing Red and Black). |
| 1880 | Goulburn played matches against Burwood, Redfern, Oaklands, Mittagong and Combined Schools. |
| 1881 | Goulburn played Balmain, St Leonards, Combined Schools, Combined Banks, Glenheads, Yass and Victoria rep side (Goulburn won 13/8). |
| 1882 | Goulburn winger Stuart Belcher became the first country-based player selected to play for NSW. Scored a try against Qld. |
| 1885 | There were 4 Goulburn Clubs – (Goulburn, Oriental, Mercantile and St Pats) playing for the Gardiner Challenge Cup. |
| 1888 | A representative Goulburn district side played against an unofficial touring British side. |
| 14 June 1989 | A representative Goulburn district side played the first official British Lions, losing by 14-3 to the tourists. |
| 1890 | Pioneer Football Club (black and white) was formed. |
| 1892 | Ironclad Football Club formed (changed to Belmore Football Club the following year). |
| 1893 | The local union Central Southern Rugby Union (CSRU) was created as a branch of the Southern Union. |
| 1890s | Warrigals (all white), Pirates and Wallaroos (blue and gold) clubs formed. |
| 1900 | The Fusileers were formed in or before 1900. |
| 28 Sep 1900 | CSRU played against the inaugural Sydney competition premiers, the Glebe Dirty Reds (Goulburn won 26-6). |
| 1914 | After a rugby league match was played in Goulburn between two Sydney premiership sides, and there was mounting interest in have a rugby league side or competition in Goulburn, the mayor called for a meeting to decide which code would be played in Goulburn as he didn’t want the city split by the decision. The meeting voted for rugby league. |
| 1915 | In the end neither code played in 1915 due to the start of World War I. |
| 1930s | Following the war it took a while for Goulburn Rugby to get back on its legs. In the 1930s there were reports of Goulburn Rugby matches, and then in 1938 a combined Goulburn side, led by a five eighth by the surname of Poidevin, took on a Federal Capital Territory representative side (as ACTRU was then known) with Goulburn winning. |
| 1939 | Just as Goulburn Rugby was climbing out of the ashes, World War 2 began. |
| 1952 | Goulburn Rugby Union reformed. |
| 1953 | A Goulburn based Rugby competition started containing Waratahs (a police side), Centrals, St Pats and Crookwell. Braidwood joined the next year. |
| 1954 | At the end of this season, the Goulburn-based competition folded. |
| 1957 | Goulburn Rugby reformed, sponsored by the Waratah sporting club in its first year, wearing white with a sky blue vee. |
| 1958 | After complaints that Goulburn’s colours were the same as Queanbeyan's, Goulburn switched colours to a black jumper with white collar. |
| 1959 | After a break-away club called Collegians, which had ordered maroon jumpers with a white collar, failed to get off the ground, it re-merged with Goulburn and they took on the now iconic Dirty Red jumpers. The club now had two grades. |
| 1963 | The Goulburn Post began referring to the Club as “The Maroons”. |
| 1964 | First Goulburn Junior competition begins |
| 15 Aug 1965 | Thornett’s XV plays Catchpole’s XV in front of an estimated crowd of 4,000 at Seiffert Oval. |
| 25 Oct 1965 | The Club’s licenced premises, which had been operating for a few months, was incorporated under the Companies Act. |
| 1966 | Goulburn Rugby Union added a third grade to their sides. |
| 1967 | Acquisition of Crown Reserve #86639 for the Goulburn Rugby Club by legendary president John Osmond. |
| 1 Mar 1968 | Goulburn Rugby Park was gazetted for public recreation use. |
| 1970 | Goulburn Under 18s (Colts) win Goulburn's premiership This was also the year of THAT touchline incident with Terry Tilden (8 August 1970 against RMC at Seiffert Oval). |
| 1972 | The Goulburn Post refers to the Club as “the Goulburn Wolves” but the name didn’t stick |
| 3 June 1973 | Goulburn Invitational XV v Barbarians XV at Seiffert Oval. The Barbarian XV was captained by Ken Catchpole and featured players that had all played for or were currently trialling for Australia. Thousands came to watch. |
| 1974 | Club switched to to the ACT Clubs Rugby Union competition, also called the Canberra Tablelands Rugby Union. The Garpole Trophy was created. Goulburn Teachers College Rugby Club was formed. 1st grade premiership – beating Cooma 26-7. Colts premiership – beating Woden Weston 21-0. |
| 20 May 1975 | NSW Country 14 bt England 13 at Workers Arena in front of a crowd of 5,000. |
| 1975 | Terry Tilden christens the club “The Dirty Reds” and the name sticks. First ever competition match played at Rugby Park on the ground we now call Simon Poidevin Oval. 1st grade premiership – beating Bowral 13-12 2nd grade premiership – beating Woden 13-9 Colts premiership – beating Bowral 12-10. |
| 1976 | 1st grade premiership – beating Bowral 28-4 |
| 1977 | Simon Poidevin makes his seniors debut for the club. 1st grade premiership – beating Bowral 18-6 (The Fourpeat) |
| 1979 | Goulburn Rugby Club switches to the Illawarra competition |
| 1981 | GCAE Rugby Club folds. 2nd grade premiership – beating Vikings 18-10 |
| 1983 | Dumped by the Illawarra Rugby Union, Goulburn returned to the Canberra competition, including playing in John I Dent Cup |
| 1985 | After a very tough start to the season, Goulburn 1st grade was withdrawn from the John I Dent Cup |
| 1986 | Goulburn was readmitted into the Illawarra Rugby Union Fermented Reds formed |
| 26 May 1987 | GRUFC became Incorporated. |
| 1990 | Goulburn switches to the Monaro competition |
| 1992 | 3rd grade premiership – beating Canberra Uni 10-3 |
| 23 Mar 1996 | Opening of Poidevin Oval (whose development was spearheaded by Matt Klem, Scott Klem and Greg Hucker) |
| 2007 | 1st grade premiership – beating Tuggeranong 55-5. 2nd grade premiership – beating Royals 15-14. |
| 2008 | 1st grade premiership – beating Cooma 17-10 |
| 2009 | 1st grade premiership – beating ADFA 21-20 (The Threepeat) |
| 19 Mar 2011 | Opening of Poidevin Oval (whose development was spearheaded by Matt Klem, Scott Klem and Greg Hucker) |
| 2012 | 1st grade premiership – beating Yass 30-17 2nd grade premiership – beating Cooma 10-3 |
| 2013 | 2nd grade premiership – beating Cooma 22-12 |
| 2014 | 1st grade premiership – beating Cooma 69-6 |
| 2015 | 1st grade premiership – beating Hall 27-15 |
| 2016 | Remainder of two team Monaro clubs merge with ACT 3rd and 4th grade 1st grade premiership – beating Gungahlin 18-17 (The Second Threepeat) |
| 2019 | Goulburn Women’s team makes its competition debut. Women’s 10s premiership – beating Gungahlin 34-17 |
| 2020 | 1st grade premiership – beating Hall 23-14 2nd grade premiership – beating ADFA 39-12 |
| 12 Mar 2022 | Opening of Klem Oval (in honour of so many Klems over the years including the club’s longest serving president Matt Klem, his dad and long-time manager and stalwart Dave Klem, former Wallaby John Klem and Matt’s brother Scott Klem who also played a key role in the opening of Poidevin Oval). |
| 22 Oct 2022 | GRU celebrates 150th anniversary |
| 2022 | Women’s 10s premiership – beating ADFA 38-0 |
| 2024 | Women’s 10ss premiership – beating ADFA 50-29 |
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