Wentworthville Magpies
Encyclopedia
| Club name | Wentworthville Magpies |
| First Season | 1937 |
| Ground | Ringrose Park, Wentworthville |
| Coach | Robert "Rip" Taylor |
| Premierships | 10 |
The Wentworthville Magpies, colloquially known as Wenty, are a Rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
team based in the suburb of Wentworthville
Wentworthville, New South Wales
Wentworthville is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Wentworthville is located 27 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. Wentworthville is split between the local government areas of the City of...
in Sydney's Western Suburbs. Founded in 1963, the club has competed in various Sydney district competitions and, since 2003, the semi-professional NSWRL Jim Beam Cup
NSWRL Jim Beam Cup
The Bundaberg Red Cup is a semi-professional development level rugby league competition in New South Wales , Australia, run jointly by the New South Wales Rugby League and the Country Rugby League of New South Wales . The competition is run concurrently with the National Rugby League...
(now the Bundaberg Red Cup) competition in NSW, Australia. The club also now fields a club in the NSW Cup as part of a joint-venture with the Parramatta Eels
Parramatta Eels
The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, with their First Grade side playing their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League...
.
Inter-District/Second Division/Metropolitan Cup
During this period Wentworthville ("The Magpies") was the most successful club at this level of competition, competing in every grand final of the Second Division between 1964 and 1973 (winning all but the 1966 and 1972 grand finals).The club won a total of 8 premierships during the history of the Second Division (including 5 in a row between 1967 - 1971). Due to their domination of the competition 'Wenty' was widely considered the best candidate for promotion to the NSWRL Premiership when two positions were made available for the 1967 competition. Due to their proximity to Parramatta
Parramatta Eels
The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, with their First Grade side playing their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League...
, where a Premiership club was established in 1946, the Magpies were overlooked.
When the Second Division was reorganised as the Metropolitan League in 1974 the Magpies left the competition to play in the Illawarra Rugby League
Illawarra Rugby League
The Illawarra Rugby League is a rugby league competition in Wollongong, NSW. It is one of the oldest rugby league competitions in Australia, founded in 1911 with five clubs ....
competition, believing they could find greater competition on the South Coast. They failed to repeat this success in the Illawarra competition.
The club returned to the Sydney competition when it was reorganised as the Metropolitan Cup in 1990, winning premierships in 1998 and 1999.
Wills Cup
Wentworthville had one opportunity to compete against Sydney's first-grade clubs when they were invited, as champions of the 1969 Second Division, to compete in the 1970 NSWRL pre-season competition (then known as the Wills Cup). Second Division 1969 runners-up University of Sydney were also invited to participate.Wentworthville finished 12th (above Penrith Panthers
Penrith Panthers
The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership, the top rugby league football competition in Australasia. For the 2012 NRL season they will be coached by Ivan...
and University) in the competition with 1 win and 3 loses and a points differential of -21. They played games against Parramatta, University, Penrith and Western Suburbs. Their win came against local rivals Parramatta, winning 12 - 8 at Cumberland Oval
Parramatta Stadium
Parramatta Stadium is a sports stadium situated in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.The stadium is used primarily as the home ground of Australian National Rugby League club the Parramatta Eels...
but they failed to defeat fellow Second Division club, University, narrowly losing 19 - 17.
Despite a promising win against a top-flight side the experiment of inviting Second Division teams to participate in first-grade competitions was not considered a success and was never repeated.
Jim Beam Cup/Bundaberg Red Cup
The Wentworthville Magpies joined the NSWRL Jim Beam CupNSWRL Jim Beam Cup
The Bundaberg Red Cup is a semi-professional development level rugby league competition in New South Wales , Australia, run jointly by the New South Wales Rugby League and the Country Rugby League of New South Wales . The competition is run concurrently with the National Rugby League...
in its first year in 2003 and were runners-up to The Entrance Tigers in the 2003 Grand Final.. In 2009 they won the Bundaberg Red Grand Final against the Cabramatta 'Two' Blues.
NSWRL State League/Premier League
In 2007, Parramatta EelsParramatta Eels
The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, with their First Grade side playing their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League...
announced that they would form a joint-venture with the club to play in the NSWRL Premier League/State League
NSWRL Premier League
The New South Wales Cup is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales previously known as the NSWRL Premier League. It has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve grade competition. It is now the premier open age competition in the state...
. The Team includes players from both the Eels
Parramatta Eels
The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, with their First Grade side playing their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League...
and the Magpies from the Bundaberg Red Cup. The joint-venture won their first Premiership in 2008, defeating the Newtown Jets
Newtown Jets
The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSWRL Premier League competition, having left the top grade after the 1983 NSWRFL season...
in Golden Point
Golden point
The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn rugby league football matches. The term is borrowed from soccer's now defunct golden goal.-Australasia:...
Extra Time, with the match duration lasting in excess of 100 minutes.
During the 2008 season, such names as internationals Joe Galuvao, Eric Grothe, and Krisnan Inu all donned the famous black & white jersey of the Wenty club, along with fellow regular first graders Ben Smith, Tim Smith, Junior Paulo, Weller Hauraki & Todd Lowrie among others.
The new NRL season sees 2008 Magpies Justin Horo, Jeremy Latimore, James Grehan and Jonathon Wright all join the extended Eels squad, edging them closer to a maiden NRL berth.
The Magpies and Eels will once again join forces in the NSW Cup in 2009. In addition, the Magpies will also field a team in the Bundaberg Red Cup (formerly the Jim Beam Cup), with both competitions running concurrently.
Joe Galuvao - 2008 Wentworthville Magpies Player of the Year