“WINGHAM Tigers are the greatest, we’re the greatest of them all...’’
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So starts the Wingham Tigers Rugby League Club song, belted out by players, officials and supporters at the conclusion of Group Three games.
This year the club marks the 70th year of becoming the Tigers. This will be acknowledged on the club’s jumpers in all grades.
Harry Smith, the most influential captain-coach and then coach to join the club in the post-war era, was responsible for Wingham changing from the two-blue strip worn in the years before World War II to the black and gold jumper.
A school teacher, Smith was transferred to the area and appointed Wingham’s captain-coach in 1948.
“The club was broke,’’ Wingham treasurer Craig Martin explained.
“They couldn’t afford to buy jumpers.’’
Smith had played minor grades with the Balmain Tigers and retained strong links with the club.
“He was able to get a set of jumpers from Balmain,’’ Craig said.
“So the club switched from the two-blue jumpers to black and gold and became known as the Tigers.’’
Harry was a halfback, who, in modern day terms, was a great game manager.
“He was a very tactical player as well as being a strong defender. He could read a game very well,'' Alan Skinner noted before Harry was inducted into the Group Three hall of fame two years ago.
Harry built the Tigers into a powerhouse in the early 1950s, when the club won three premierships. After retiring as a player he guided Wingham to the then Group 18 premiership in 1961.
‘Skin’ said he had his detractors. Harry was known as a strict disciplinarian and this didn't always sit well. The results, he added, remain Harry's legacy.
‘Skin’ said Harry was very set on the way he wanted his teams to play.
"You'd get a kick up the bum if you didn't toe the line,'' he said.
The 2017 Wingham Tigers began their season at Tuncurry last Sunday.
They’ll play their first home game this Sunday at the Wingham Sporting Complex against last year’s grand finalists, Port Macquarie. League tag kicks off at 11.30 with the first grade starting at 3.15.
Craig Martin said the club will wind back time this year when the Tigers play the annual fixture for charity against the Old Bar Pirates at Wingham on Saturday, July 22.
“As a one-off our first grade will wear the two-blue jumpers,’’ he said.