Darren Lockyer: "It's a special privilege to be involved [with the All Golds] when I see this team is honouring Dally Messenger, who was the man at the forefront of starting rugby league in not just Australia but also New Zealand." Sunday News (NZ)

Andrew Johns: "When you sit back and think of it, it's a 100-year anniversary and there's no bigger name in rugby league history than Dally Messenger." Sydney Morning Herald

SOME MESSENGER FACT-BITES

Dally spent a part of his teenage years in South Melbourne, where he learnt to play Australian Rules. He attended the Albert Park Public School - the same school that produced Roy Cazaly barely a decade later.

Dally's father and grandfather were both very successful professional scullers. His grandfather was also the royal bargemaster to Queen Victoria, and built a boat for the famous explorer, Henry Morton Stanley ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"), for one of his expeditions to Africa.

No less than five UK soccer clubs attempted to sign Dally during the Kangaroos tour of England in 1908, offering him up to £1,500 for just one season.

In just two seasons of rugby union, Messenger played 13 times for the NSW Waratahs. In a match against NZ in 1907, his presence attracted a SCG crowd of 52,000 - approximately 10% of the Sydney population. A century later, it remains an attendance record that is yet to be surpassed by the Waratahs. It was also 10,000 more than the largest Melbourne Australian Rules crowd at that time.

Before taking up rugby, Messenger was a successful rower and swimmer, and even contemplated a career as a professional boxer.

Renown for his kicking skills, Messenger successfully landed goal kicks from beyond the half-way line, with his longest kicks travelling well over 60 metres. His greatest appeal to crowds though was his ability to produce the unexpected thrilling play in attack, often hurdling over the heads of tacklers.

Messenger's first rugby league games were for the New Zealand "All Golds" - a team he joined for their tour of England and Wales in 1907/08.

In a cricket game at the SCG in 1910, Messenger belted the ball onto the roof of the Members' Pavilion - it just missed the face of the famous clock tower. In the history of the ground, only two other batsmen have come closer to hitting the clock.

Dally scored 75 points for the NSW Blues against Queensland in three-match inter-state series of 1911.

Messenger was only 171cms tall - making him shorter than NRL star Matt Bowen and the Wallabies George Gregan. Yet he was not considered a short man - in the first Kangaroos team, only one player was six foot tall, and a third of the team were shorter than Dally.

Messenger was involved in negotiations between the VFL and NSWRL to merge Australian Rules with rugby league in 1908 - the hybrid game was to be called "Australeague".

Both of Dally's younger brothers chose to play Australian rules instead of rugby. Rumours persist that Dally played for the East Sydney club in 1903 (where Victor Trumper was the secretary) before deciding to seriously take up rugby two seasons later.

In rugby league, Messenger played representative football for NSW, Queensland, Australia, New Zealand and Australasia.

Messenger is the only Australian to have performed the haka (NZ "All Golds") and the Kangaroos' Aboriginal war cry.

Had Messenger chosen to play Australian rules and forsaken both rugby codes, the result would almost certainly have seen Australian rules take over NSW and Queensland football.