There are few people in the long and esteemed history of Goulburn Rugby about whom it could eb said “Without him, there’d be no Goulburn Rugby.”

There’s a small handful whose impact has been so significant that without them the club might have fallen over.

But without Val Riley… the man who brought his experience and love of rugby to Goulburn, who organised and chaired the inaugural meeting that created the club, who played a prominent role in its early years and who represented Goulburn as a voting member at the meeting in Sydney that created the Southern Rugby Union (now called NSW Rugby Football Union), the Goulburn Rugby Club we have today would not exist.

While not Goulburn born, we can sort of adopt him as a Southern Highlands neighbour, the same way Australia has adopted Crowded House and (when he’s not playing up), Russell Crowe. Born in 1951, the fourth of 14 children to James John Riley and Christina Eliza Passmore Riley nee Blomfield, Val grew up a Bowral boy before going to Sydney University to gain qualifications as a surveyor. There he was immersed in the religion that is rugby.

He met and became firm friends with Richard Arnold (who played a significant role in getting rugby started in Australia) and Richard’s brother William, known as Monty (who met his wife Helena de Lauret of Goulburn through Riley). The brothers were true evangelists of rugby, not only playing rugby for Sydney University, but founding the Wallaroo Club in 1870.

Val took to rugby like a duck to water, and captained the University team against Wallaroos in June 1972, just a month short of calling for the formation of a club in Goulburn. He moved to Goulburn with his father that year to set up a surveying service with his dad. But surveying wasn’t all he had on his mind.  As later recorded in the Goulburn Herald, when Riley came to town he felt “… determined to establish a club, and after much talk had done so.”

At just 22 years of age, Riley called for a meeting to be held at Payten’s Commercial Hotel (one the corner of Sloane and Market Streets, just half a block from the building that would later become the licenced premises of the Goulburn Rugby Club) and on 22 July, 1872, the very first meeting of the Goulburn Rugby Club (initially called the Goulburn Foot-Ball Club) took place. Ironically, or maybe coincidentally, exactly seven years earlier to the day (22 July 1865) interest in forming a Goulburn Rugby Club was touted when the idea was floated in the Goulburn Herald, but it appears that earlier attempt died for the want of a seconder.

Riley chaired the 1872 meeting, was appointed secretary alongside a Mr E Allman as treasurer, and two days later a full executive committee was formed.

Just a few short weeks later, the club’s first game was played at Blackshaw’s Paddock, now the lower end of Eastgrove. Shortly after 3pm (in the now most common first grade timeslot) A Donaldson and Riley himself picked sides and three games were played over a two hour session. The next match was a week later, played in high wind, sleet and snow (so Goulburn hasn’t changed a lot in 150 plus years) and Riley even scored a try.

But, while the club now existed, matches were few and far between. Having a rugby club in a regional or remote area was a lot like having the only telephone in the world. Who can you call?

On 20 September 1873, a game was played against the Garoorigang School, at which clubman Stuart Belcher, who went on the be the first country player picked for NSW, was a teacher. It was the first recorded rugby match between two clubs outside of Sydney. Another match against the Wallaroos Club, featuring his old friends the Arnold brothers, was scheduled for Oct 4 1873 but fell through.

Not content with spreading the gospel of rugby to Goulburn, Riley’s work as a surveyor took him far and wide across Southern NSW and he was able to assist the establishment of rugby in such far flung centres of the realm as Bungendore, Monaro, Yass, Gundaroo, Captain’s Flat, Ginnanderra, Sutton, Bibbenluke, Bombala and Nimmitabel.

In 1874, still full of the love of the game and a desire to see it grow, Richard Arnold called in Riley (among others) to assist in formation of a Union of the existing club’s from Sydney and surrounding regional areas, and Riley gladly answered the call. On 5 June 1874, in a preliminary meeting, Arnold moved that a new Union be found called the Southern Union and the motion was passed. A few weeks later, on Monty Arnold proposed the rules of play for the Union, which Riley seconded and which were accepted.

Over 25 and 26 July further meetings took place before the first “official” meeting on 28 July 1874.  Present this time were representatives from ten of the original clubs… Goulburn, Wallaroos, Sydney University, Waratahs, Balmain, Mudgee, Victoria, The King’s School, Newington College and Camden College. St Leonards, Bathurst and Maitland. Thanks again to Riley, Goulburn is a foundation member of Australia’s first formal Rugby Union.

The formation of the Southern Rugby Union seemed to fire up interest and more regular games. On 11 July 1874, The Goulburn Rugby Club played its first matcha against St Patrick’s College, with Goulburn winning by three tries and a goal. The following weekend Goulburn hosted the Wallaroos club featuring both Arnold brothers and captained by Richard. And so it goes.

Much more about Riley is not at readily hand. How long he stayed with the Goulburn Rugby Club, when he left Goulburn, if he continued playing rugby after he left… these are questions for another time, and possibly someone else’s questions to answer.

Unequivocally, however, Valentine Blomfield Riley is the father of Goulburn Rugby. He called for and chaired the first meeting and used his relationship with Australian Rugby’s powerhouse brothers the Arnold’s to advance he Goulburn cause , and that’s before he played a significant role in spreading the word of rugby like a colonial Johnny Appleseed across Southern NSW, and before he played a lead role in the foundation of what is now called the NSW Rugby Union.

In 2022, as part of the Club’s 150th anniversary celebrations, the hill on the western end of Klem Oval and just below the scoreboard on Poidevin Oval, was named the Valentine Blomfield Riley Hill in honour of his instigating role in the existence Dirty Reds.

He passed away in Bowral on 24 May 1917 at the age of 1966. Vale Valentine.