Maher Cup

The Maher Cup was an Australian rugby league (originally rugby union) challenge cup contested between towns of the South West Slopes and northern Riverina areas of New South Wales between 1920 and 1971. The main teams involved were Cootamundra, Tumut, Gundagai, Temora, West Wyalong, Young, Harden-Murrumburrah, Junee, Barmedman, Cowra, Grenfell and Boorowa.

For more than four decades it remained a particular focus of attention and conversation in these small communities, fostering intense local rivalries. It is considered to be the most significant of the regional rugby league challenge cups played in Australia, as well as a sporting and social phenomenon. In parts of New South Wales the Maher Cup "...was to Rugby League what the Melbourne Cup was to racing". According to the Tumut and Adelong Times in 1931:

A battered, lidless trophy! If you saw it in a second-hand goods shop you wouldn't give 5/- for it. Yet it represents the ambition and the dreams of every football club in Group 9, where Rugby League is a religion, and the Maher Cup its idol. Weekly tens of thousands follow the grim battles that are waged for its possession. Interest in the matches is State-wide, but in the South, even the kindergarten kids are gripped with its mysterious fascination.

Matches were usually rugged affairs with protests and disputes common. Games were played during floods, snow and other adverse weather conditions. Gambling was an essential element of Maher Cup culture. The winning team would have the right to contest all subsequent challenges on their home ground and (in the early years) would retain the gate takings.

When the Cup was newly captured celebrations would normally commence as the team returned home. In the 1920s and 1930s these trips were usually by special train, returning with horn sounding, and carriages full of noisy supporters. Typically the town band would leading a cavalcade of revellers carrying the cup and players to an impromptu civic reception. Often hastily organised entertainments, such as dances, followed late into the evening. Substantial financial gifts may be placed in the Cup for the benefit of these local heroes To be a Maher Cup player was to be somebody of note in the community.

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