One-hundred-and-one years to the day after 15-year-old Maggie Moloney wowed the crowd at Sydney Showground watching the world’s first women’s rugby league game in September 1921, a mural honouring her was officially launched at the corner of James and Morehead Streets, close to her childhood home.
Her granddaughter Maureen said: “Her interest in football came from kicking a footie in the streets with her big brother Bryan who played for South Sydney. She grew up knowing all the rules and was so excited when she discovered that there was going to be a women’s game.”
In the mural on the back wall of the St Vincent de Paul Community Centre, the artist Sharon Billinge has captured Maggie from a very worn and creased photo believed to have been taken moments after the match in which she scored four tries in front of a 30,000-strong crowd that the 1921 press reported had “come to jeer [but] stayed to cheer”.
The artist has also included a Dally M branded football in the mural. NSWRL authorities had issued a ban on the women’s match, but its first star, Dally Messenger defied the ban and used the women’s game to launch the football bearing his nickname with a half-time kicking exhibition.
Among the 30 members of the Moloney family who attended the opening was her eldest granddaughter Margaret Heard who bears a striking likeness to Maggie in the mural. She recalls the weekend visits Maggie made to their home as they grew up in Seven Hills. “Nan used to sleep in one of our beds in the big room she had built on the back of the house for us four girls to sleep in, and she would tell us stories at night.” Maureen agreed, “She just loved running, high jumping and athletics.”
Maggie lived until 1971 and throughout her life was always interested in sport. She was a major Rabbitohs supporter and loved the Seals Club at Maroubra Beach where she lived as an adult.
Kath Haines, a rugby league historian who lives in Redfern, collaborated on the mural project with 107 Projects and the City of Sydney. She noted that “Maggie Moloney’s story isn’t well known but she was a true groundbreaker and I love that her hidden story can reveal history on a wall in Redfern so close to where she starred as a 15 year old. As the women’s league only survived until 1923, she didn’t have a continuing career, but Maggie is very much a trail blazer as Dally Messenger was for the men’s game. It would be fitting if the NRLW medal awarded to its Player of the Year were named the ‘Maggie M’ after Maggie Moloney.”
