Celebrating the centenary of the tri-school structure for the Astley Cup in 2025, local historian, Patrick Bourke is providing Dubbo Photo News with occasional snippets of our sporting past.

“Billy Stirton was probably the first Dubbo-born rugby league player to play in the NSWRL competition,” Patrick believes.

"Not sure if he grew-up in Dubbo", he added..

Playing four seasons for Glebe between 1919–23, William Hilton Stirton was the five-eight in the Glebe outfit that came runners-up in the 1922 premiership to a red-hot Norths side that included immortal try-scoring whiz, Harold Horder.

After the clubs had played each other twice during the season — at a time when finals were optional — Norths and Glebe were tied atop the points table on 28 points each.

Instead of the “points differential” rule being implemented, a “Grand Final” was instead held to determine the premiers with the match played at the Sydney Cricket Ground on September 6 before a crowd of around 15,000

The game was not as even as the ladder at the end of regular season would have suggested, however, with Norths getting away to a 10-0 lead at half-time before going-on to demolish Glebe by 35-3 and taking their second consecutive premiership crown.

The legendary Horder, scored 20 individual points in the match. Stirton is pictured, in this footballing mag from the time in the front-row, on the left, with his legs crossed.