The 1892 New South Wales Rugby Football season was the 19th season of the Sydney Rugby Premiership. This was the third competition for the Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield and the first competition for the Association Cricket Ground Cup. The football season lasted from May to September. The premiership was won for the sixth time by the Wallaroo Football Club, who had won their last premiership twelve years prior in 1880. Wallaroo defeated their greatest rivals, Sydney University A, in the final to win both the premiership and the Agricultural Society Challenge Shield. Sydney University A were also in the final for the Association Cricket Ground Cup, which was won by the Randwick Football Club. The Junior Badges saw Carlton win the final. Their opponents, The Pirates were defeated in the final for the third year in succession. The Second Junior Badges saw Sydney University 2nd defeat Ryde in the final. The Third Junior Badges was won by Surry, who defeated Grosvenor in the final.

Teams For 1892 10 teams submitted entries into the Senior Badges. Many of the clubs had competed in the Senior Badges during the last season. New to the ranks were Balmain and Wentworth. Wentworth had played the Junior Badges for a number of seasons and were the current premiers. Balmain was a new club, recently formed. Both the Arfoma and Rosedale clubs decided to focus their efforts on the Junior badges.

Rule changes

At the beginning of the new season, a committee of the Association Cricket Ground generously donated a trophy to be competed for by the senior clubs. How the competition was to be arranged was left up to the Union to decide. With the Agricultural Society Shield and the premiership to also be awarded, the Union attempted to incorporate all awards into one competition.

A round robin style preliminary round was arranged with each senior team playing against each other once. At the conclusion of the regular season, the four clubs with the best records would be drawn against each other in the semi-finals for the Association Ground Cup. The next four clubs from the regular season would be drawn to play against each other in the qualifying round for the Agricultural Society Shield. For the second week, the winners of the semi-finals would proceed to the Association Ground Cup final. The winner of the final, played on the Association Cricket Ground, will win the Cup. The losers of the semi-finals will be drawn to play against the winners of the two qualifying round games. For the third week, the winners of these two games will be drawn against the Cup finalists in the Agricultural Society Shield semi-finals. The winners of the two semi's will progress to the Shield final with the winner awarded the Shield.

As for the Premiership, all of the games contributing to the Association Ground Cup and the Agricultural Society Shield would continue to be added to the ladder. At the conclusion of these games, the team with the best record will be awarded the premiership. With this arrangement, the Premier may not be the winner of either of the two trophies.

At a meeting prior to the beginning of the premiership a motion was put forward to change the name of the union from the Southern Rugby Football Union to the New South Wales Rugby Football Union. A vote was taken which saw this change made.

Season summary The 1892 Sydney Rugby Football Season was seen as being successful in every way. The weather was everything that could have been desired, with the exception of rain during the last few weekends. Public interest was greater than had been seen during previous seasons. Gameplay had improved with an absence of heavy scrums and an adoption of more passing and kicking, thus making the game open, fast and exciting. Many games were even, with the final result in the balance right up to its conclusion.

The first round of the premiership saw both the Balmain and Sydney Clubs fail to put together a team to play their respective opponents. After this, both clubs withdrew from the competition. All future games that had been arranged against them would be declared forfeits with the opposing club receiving the points on the ladder.

From the beginning of the season, Sydney University A were seen as the winners of the Agricultural Society Shield, based upon past performances. With the club having already won the Shield twice, a third win would see them become the permanent owners of it. They were also favourites to win the new Association Ground Cup. However, after losing their first game against Wallaroo, it was seen that the team were not of the same exceptional high standard of past teams. With many of their top players no longer part of the team, the Varsity did well to become runners-up for the premiership. After the regular season matches had concluded, they found themselves playing in both trophy finals, however losing both. The season saw the re-igniting of their old rivalry with the Wallaroo club, meeting their nemesis three times during the competition. The Varsity won only one of these matches with the other two finishing in close losses for the club.

After defeating the Varsity in the first round, the Wallaroo Football Club played consistently during the season holding the pride of place on the ladder. The manner that the team defeated their long standing rivals demonstrated that they would be difficult to beat. The main strength of the team lay in its forwards, being a large pack. Their back line were not superstars, however they could hold their own on the field. Wallaroo had the fewest points scored against them across the season. The team finished the thirteen matches with eleven wins and one draw. Their only loss came at the hands of the Varsity, where they lost their best three-quarter and had to play the majority of the match with only fourteen players. Wallaroo won both the Agricultural Society Shield and the Premiership, their first victory since 1880.

The Randwick Football Club demonstrated a marked improvement in their performance during the Premiership. Their surprise win over Sydney University in the final for the Association Cricket Ground Cup raised the hopes of all. However the very next round saw them defeated by eventual premiers, Wallaroo. As a team, Randwick were one of the fastest with multiple sprinters in their pack but their forwards were too light.

Zealandia, last season's finalist, started the year strongly. Early in the premiership the team lost the services of their captain leading to their performance to fall away rapidly. The team narrowly missed the semi-finals for the Association Ground Cup and eventually bowed out in the semi-finals for the Agricultural Society Shield.

New to the Senior Badges, the Wentworth club held their own against the older teams. The reigning Junior Champions finished third after the regular season games, making the semi-finals for the Association Ground Cup. Unfortunately they were eliminated from the competition and lost their Qualifying round match against Zealandia. It was hoped that their success in the premiership would encourage other teams to make the step up into the Senior Badges.

Parramatta were a club that never quite reached their potential. As a team they contained many star players and it was believed that they should have finished higher on the ladder at the end of the season. With Fred Belbridge as captain, it was hoped that the performance of the club would improve in the future.

Following a successful 1891 season, Strathfield experienced a decline in 1892 after several players lest the club or stopped playing football. The team recorded only one victory during the season, against the last-placed University B team.

With as many as four teams spread across the Senior Badges and the Second Junior Badges, the Sydney University B team was seen to have lost the services of many players who played in the lower grades. It was believed that, if these players had chosen to through in their lot with them, the B team would not have finished at the bottom of the ladder.

Ladder

1892 Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield

TeamPldWDLPFPAPDPts1 Wallaroo1311118648+38462 Sydney University A13100320777+130403 Randwick127238958+31324 Zealandia128048362+21325Wentworth116144749-2266 Parramatta115066897-29207 Strathfield103073789-52128 Sydney University B1020815152-13789 Balmain0000000010 Sydney00000000

Ladder progression

TeamRegular SeasonFinals123456789W1W2W3W41 Wallaroo4610141822263034343842462 Sydney University A048121620242832363640403 Randwick46101414181822242832324 Zealandia48121216162020242832325Wentworth48812162024242626266 Parramatta44448812161620207 Strathfield04488881212128 Sydney University B00000444889 Balmain00000000010 Sydney000000000

Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round. Numbers highlighted in green indicates the team finished in the top four on the ladder in that round. Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round. Bold numbers indicate the team had a forfeit for that round.

Finals

Week 1, 13 August Association Cricket Ground Cup semi-finals The semi-finals for the Cup were drawn through ballot with Wallaroo playing against old rivals Sydney University A, and Randwick taking on new comers Wentworth. Both games were scheduled to play on the Association Cricket Ground one after the other. In the first game, Wallaroo lost the services of their three-quarter, Strange, just before half-time. Even though Wallaroo now played with 14 men, a big handicap against the Varsity, the match remained pretty close. It was during the last twenty minutes of the match that University took command of the game and the scoreline blew out. The Randwick-Wentworth match proved to be a fast and exciting game. Wentworth began the match strong, but Randwick held their resolve. Eventually, Randwick took charge of the game and played what was considered to be their best performance up to that point. Wentworth were given a demonstration of effective passing and game play. The win saw Randwick progress to play against University in the Cup final.

Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield qualifying round The two qualifying round matches were played together on the Agricultural Society Ground. The draw saw Strathfield play Parramatta and Zealandia against Sydney University B. Poor crowd attendance at the ground saw a stubborn contest between two depleted teams in Strathfield and Parramatta. Parramatta managed to score a narrow victory to move on to the next week of the finals. A fast game was witnessed between Zealandia and University B, the play quickly moving from one end of the ground to the other. Despite the scoreline, the match was seen to be even between the two teams. Zealandia managed to win the match. With these two results, Strathfield and University B were eliminated from the competition.

Week 2, 20 August Association Cricket Ground Cup final Miserable weather in the days leading up to the Cup final and consistent rain during the game, saw the condition of the ground being very greasy. Considering the poor weather, a large crowd turned out for the match and grew with enthusiasm as the game progressed. Prior to the match beginning, it was the opinion of many that Sydney University A would win the match against Randwick. University drew first blood with James Moulton scoring a skilful try during the first ten minutes of the match. The wet and heavy ball made kicking goals difficult, however many in the crowd believed the Varsity were now certain for victory. Randwick held their own over the next ten minutes of the game and were rewarded with Allan Scott scoring a try to even the match. Once again, the heavy ball denied Randwick a goal. The game remained close with the scores level at half time.