Various sources confirm that in 1900, Rushworth had a brief (one year) involvement with the Goulburn Valley Football Association (GVFA), prior to becoming a regular participant from 1908. Transport difficulties put a stop to that early experiment fairly swiftly, and it was another 8 years before the club participated in the big league again. Travel to games by train then became the norm.
It might be generally thought that Rushworth Football Club permanently joined the GVFA (later the GVFL) in 1908, and stayed in that competition until 1964. However, a very good website (footypedia.com.au) throws doubt on that assertion. Alf Raglus’ centenary history of RFC and Keith Gregory’s book Murchison Football Club 1881-1981 support the information contained on the website.
The website suggests that Rushworth was a foundation member of the Waranga North-East Football League in 1913, after only five years of affiliation with the GVFA. Opponents included Euroa, Avenel, Seymour, Nagambie and Murchison. Imagine the difficulty of travelling from Rushworth to Euroa by train for a game of footy nearly 100 years ago (if indeed, that is what happened – maybe games were played at a central point). It is probably not surprising that Rushy’s association with the WNEFL only lasted two years, until the outbreak of World War 1 led to a cessation of football for the duration of the war. When the war ended, Rushworth reaffiliated with the GVFA in 1919, thus starting its first long-term association with a particular league.
It is probably at around this point that Rushworth actually became the Tigers. The earliest reference to Rushy being the Tigers on the footypedia website is in the early 1930s, although the data on the website is incomplete. Alf Raglus puts the date of the change at 1922, when former Richmond player “Frank Huggard was the mentor”.
In any case, the club showed gradual improvement through the 1920s until it played off for the 1929 flag against Shepparton. This match ushered in the golden era of the club – the early 1930s – when it dominated the GVFA competition.
