New jerseys confirmed, Harry is back!

[Leroy_The_Tigers_Fan]

I hope the Meriton sponsorship logo holds up better on the NRL jumper in 2011 than the logo on last years NYC jersey, looked like they had played in the jumper for a couple of seasons and the logo washed out.

 

[towntiger]

I just saw this on the net. Now that is a big sponsorship. Would that be the biggest in NRL?

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/record_meriton_shirt_deal_for_wests_tigers

Record Meriton shirt deal for Wests Tigers
10 December 2010 | Posted in Sponsorship, Rugby, Oceania | By Eoin Connolly

Contract Details
Length of contract: 2 years
Annualised value: US$1.25 million
Overall value: US$2.5 million

Meriton Apartments will be the main sponsor of Australian National Rugby League (NRL) team Wests Tigers for the next two years.

The inaugural major sponsors of the club in the 2000 NRL season, Merriton Apartments will have front-of-shirt branding among other rights. Likely to be worth around US$1.25 million a year, the club record deal has also developed from Meriton's recent support of the Tigers' youth teams.

Wests Tigers chief executive Stephen Humphreys said: "In such a competitive environment, we feel privileged that Meriton has assessed Wests Tigers as one of the leading sporting brands in Australia."

Harry Triguboff, chief executive of Meriton, added: "In the past few years we have looked with pride at the Wests Tigers U20s team wearing the Meriton logo and it seems only right as some of these players move into the NRL team for us to move up with them. I personally cannot wait to watch the boys run out on to field in 2011 wearing the great new Wests Tigers strip and the Meriton ‘M’. I am sure this will prove to be a most fruitful partnership."

 

[Mrs_T]

Will Meriton still be sponsoring the under 20's team for 2011?

 

[PrattenParkMagpie]

Many look at the WT colours as gold and black, the white is lost for many and by having a predominantly white jersey the club can better get across that the colours of the Wests Tigers are gold, black and white, to highlight the Wests Tigers identity they had to get away from having a predominantly gold (orange) jersey and a predominantly black jersey as these two colours are still perceived as being Balmain by some, and using white as the dominant colour on one does this.

I never quite understood the view (and arguments) of some that it was the 'gold' colour and not the 'orange' colour for the Wests Tigers. I always saw it as orange/black (Balmain Tigers) and white/black (Western Suburbs Magpies); hence orange/black/white (Wests Tigers). Humphreys is quoted as saying its 'orange'… “With this in mind, our 2011 jerseys are bold and highlight the properties that we do not share with any other club – the tiger pattern and the colour orange”. That will probably ignite the argument again...

Anyway, the jersey designs are growing on me as well; however I actually prefer the orange that was on the 'leaked jerseys' better. It seemed lighter and suited it well; whereas the orange they have gone for appears to be (dare i say it) a dark fluoro orange...

Just a bit of history on the Balmain and Western Suburbs colours, the original Balmain colours of gold and black didn’t originated from the tiger but from a particular variety of wattle tree that were abundant in the area at the time, the gold from the wattle flowers and the black from the foliage (yes the leaves are actually a dark green but they appeared to the eye as a shade of black from a distance), hence why their colours were referred to as gold (of the Wattle) rather than Orange (of the Tiger).. most clubs didnt start adopting official animal logos and mascots until around the late 20’s / early 30's.

Western Suburbs were known by a variety of different names before they adopted the Magpie sometime around 1930, some of their early names were the Cherry Pickers and later for a time the Fruit Pickers, Ashfield and surrounding areas were primarily an orchard and fruit growing region in the early 1900’s and many of the players were actually fruit pickers and their colours of Black and White were adopted from the Ashfield 2nd Division Rugby side where many of the clubs original players came from.

Balmain I think were known as the Harboursiders, North Sydney the Shoremen and St George were the Blood and Bandages in their early years before they became the Dragons (their jersey had red and white horizontal hoops, hence the blood and bandages), the short lived Cumberland side who many believe were an early Parramatta side were in fact located in the Burwood-Homebush area and formed from players from the Western Suburbs Rugby Union side who had refused to affiliate with the newly formed Western Suburbs Rugby League club at the time (hence why Wests chose the Black and White colours of the Ashfield Rugby side instead of the bottle green colours of the Wests RU club), Cumberland chose the colours of Blue and Gold that Parramatta later adopted as theirs in 1947 (however that is the only similarity between the two sides), Cumberland merged with Wests in 1909 and were known as the Fruit Pickers in their only season,

if history hadn’t happened the way it did in 1908/09 Wests Tigers might be wearing Orange, Black and Bottle Green…

 

[Kul]

Many look at the WT colours as gold and black, the white is lost for many and by having a predominantly white jersey the club can better get across that the colours of the Wests Tigers are gold, black and white, to highlight the Wests Tigers identity they had to get away from having a predominantly gold (orange) jersey and a predominantly black jersey as these two colours are still perceived as being Balmain by some, and using white as the dominant colour on one does this.

I never quite understood the view (and arguments) of some that it was the 'gold' colour and not the 'orange' colour for the Wests Tigers. I always saw it as orange/black (Balmain Tigers) and white/black (Western Suburbs Magpies); hence orange/black/white (Wests Tigers). Humphreys is quoted as saying its 'orange'… “With this in mind, our 2011 jerseys are bold and highlight the properties that we do not share with any other club – the tiger pattern and the colour orange”. That will probably ignite the argument again...

Anyway, the jersey designs are growing on me as well; however I actually prefer the orange that was on the 'leaked jerseys' better. It seemed lighter and suited it well; whereas the orange they have gone for appears to be (dare i say it) a dark fluoro orange...

Just a bit of history on the Balmain and Western Suburbs colours, the original Balmain colours of gold and black didn’t originated from the tiger but from a particular variety of wattle tree that were abundant in the area at the time, the gold from the wattle flowers and the black from the foliage (yes the leaves are actually a dark green but they appeared to the eye as a shade of black from a distance), hence why their colours were referred to as gold (of the Wattle) rather than Orange (of the Tiger).. most clubs didnt start adopting official animal logos and mascots until around the late 20’s / early 30's.

Western Suburbs were known by a variety of different names before they adopted the Magpie sometime around 1930, some of their early names were the Cherry Pickers and later for a time the Fruit Pickers, Ashfield and surrounding areas were primarily an orchard and fruit growing region in the early 1900’s and many of the players were actually fruit pickers and their colours of Black and White were adopted from the Ashfield 2nd Division Rugby side where many of the clubs original players came from.

Balmain I think were known as the Harboursiders, North Sydney the Shoremen and St George were the Blood and Bandages in their early years before they became the Dragons (their jersey had red and white horizontal hoops, hence the blood and bandages), the short lived Cumberland side who many believe were an early Parramatta side were in fact located in the Burwood-Homebush area and formed from players from the Western Suburbs Rugby Union side who had refused to affiliate with the newly formed Western Suburbs Rugby League club at the time (hence why Wests chose the Black and White colours of the Ashfield Rugby side instead of the bottle green colours of the Wests RU club), Cumberland chose the colours of Blue and Gold that Parramatta later adopted as theirs in 1947 (however that is the only similarity between the two sides), Cumberland merged with Wests in 1909 and were known as the Fruit Pickers in their only season,

if history hadn’t happened the way it did in 1908/09 Wests Tigers might be wearing Orange, Black and Bottle Green…

Blackwattle, hence Blackwattle Bayhttp://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=blackwattle+bay&sll=-33.873569,151.188076&sspn=0.017495,0.02547≷=au&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Blackwattle+Bay≪=-33.873658,151.189127&spn=0.03499,0.050941&z=15

it's not exactly 'black' though
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Acacia_mearnsii_blossoms.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the other theory (although they may be a result of eachother) is that the colours were first used by the Balmain Rowing Club (and still are today. Their rowing gear is the same as our Balmain heritage strip) who used the shirt pattern of a world champion rower from the area years before.
Then again, their own website says that the colours were taken from the Union club (which eventually became the league club)

The famous black and gold colours of the district were adopted by the Balmain club in its first year of existence. Oral history suggests that the hooped racing Singlet (still worn today) was taken from the Balmain Rugby Union team while the origin of the colours lies not with the tiger but rather with the bark and flowers of the Black Wattle trees which grew in the district.

who knows…

 

[LukeH]

Nice little bit of reading. It's interesting to see where the clubs and colours originate from. Thanks for posting that.

 

[prattenpark]

**ps. the white jersey brings back memories of the 70's to me, when wests would occasionally don the white jersey with black V**.

Wests wore the white with black V as their alternate throughout most of the 80s & 90s as well (along with those LG ones that had a trianglular patch of horizontal stripes on one side of the abdomen in conjunction with the V above)!

Yeah, I know. But, whenever I see the white jersey I get this mental image of Dallas Donelly running around in one in the late 70's. Just didn't seem right to me at the time. He was much more fearsome in black and white.

 

[Knuckles]

My recollection of Wests using the white strip was in the pre-season WD & HO Wills competition in the late 70's. Games were played mainly at night time and the lighting at Lidcombe Oval wasn't good hence the wearing of the white jumper.

It was also used in hot weather early in the season and occasionally when we were in the semi finals in September.

 

[Citizen_Tiger]

The Balmain Rugby Union Club was founded in 1873\. The Balmain Rugby League Club adopted their colours of black and gold, represented by horizontal stripes, in 1908\. The Rugby League Club chose a logo of a football, with a Tiger one one side and a Kangaroo on the other. How the Union club came to use the colours in the first place is a matter of conjecture, although a publication by Sydney University (Australia's oldest Rugby Club - Founded 1863) suggests that some of Balmain Rugby's early benefactors were wealthy English immigrants, who had arrived in NSW via India, where many had made their fortunes. Having seen the magnificence of the Tiger first hand, they thought it natural to adopt it's colours for their Rugby team.

That's all quite plausible and logical, methinks that the appearance of Blackwattle Bay at sunset or a singlet worn by a local rower might just be convenient local myths, designed to put distance between the codes

The Club gravitated to an orange version of the jersey in either 1967 or 68', after some difficult issues with the existing gold, which was proving not to be particularly colourfast. The jersies in those days were 100% cotton and had to be heavily laundered sometimes, in order to shift dirt and mud. I believe the Club changed suppliers and to insure themselves in case of problems re-occurring, chose a shade of gold that was somewhat darker.

 

[innsaneink]

My recollection of Wests using the white strip was in the pre-season WD & HO Wills competition in the late 70's. Games were played mainly at night time and the lighting at Lidcombe Oval wasn't good hence the wearing of the white jumper.

It was also used in hot weather early in the season and occasionally when we were in the semi finals in September.

One of if not the first tru alternate jerseys produced….was really only Wests Manly & Parra had true reversed alternates- dunno whos was first.
I remember as a kid first time I saw them in em was amazing, wanted one so bad - never got one

 

[redemption]

The Balmain Rugby Union Club was founded in 1873\. The Balmain Rugby League Club adopted their colours of black and gold, represented by horizontal stripes, in 1908\. The Rugby League Club chose a logo of a football, with a Tiger one one side and a Kangaroo on the other. How the Union club came to use the colours in the first place is a matter of conjecture, although a publication by Sydney University (Australia's oldest Rugby Club - Founded 1863) suggests that some of Balmain Rugby's early benefactors were wealthy English immigrants, who had arrived in NSW via India, where many had made their fortunes. Having seen the magnificence of the Tiger first hand, they thought it natural to adopt it's colours for their Rugby team.

That's all quite plausible and logical, methinks that the appearance of Blackwattle Bay at sunset or a singlet worn by a local rower might just be convenient local myths, designed to put distance between the codes

The Club gravitated to an orange version of the jersey in either 1967 or 68', after some difficult issues with the existing gold, which was proving not to be particularly colourfast. **The jersies in those days were 100% cotton** and had to be heavily laundered sometimes, in order to shift dirt and mud. I believe the Club changed suppliers and to insure themselves in case of problems re-occurring, chose a shade of gold that was somewhat darker.

There was a clear local link between Balmain RFLC & our RU counterpart - and colours are part of that! But the colours were adopted by the then Watersiders under a the pretence of the wattles on the bayside waterline - why question it now???

PS - In 1999 - Balmain still wore 90% cotton Canterbury-brand jerseys - dyeing them gold/orange was never an issue!!!

Also - why choose a "somewhat darker" gold that would only be less recognisable in the mud (i.e. is yellow or orange easier to see in a green/brown environment)???

It makes F-All sense Citizen!

 

[redemption]

My recollection of Wests using the white strip was in the pre-season WD & HO Wills competition in the late 70's. Games were played mainly at night time and the lighting at Lidcombe Oval wasn't good hence the wearing of the white jumper.

It was also used in hot weather early in the season and occasionally when we were in the semi finals in September.

One of if not the first tru alternate jerseys produced….was really only Wests Manly & Parra had true reversed alternates- dunno whos was first.
I remember as a kid first time I saw them in em was amazing, wanted one so bad - never got one

All three cliubs that you mention were THE pioneers ink.

Penrith followed shortly after - but clubs like Balmain - Dragons & Roosters could not do so for the impending backlash (& Balmain had a courtesy issue with Wests to not try to take their primary black - unlike Penrith & NZ contemporarily)!!

Souths tried a bit later but their fans rightfully hated it! Bulldogs always played the field - but all their pre-2000 premierships all came with their traditional predominantly white jersey!

 

[Geo]

My recollection of Wests using the white strip was in the pre-season WD & HO Wills competition in the late 70's. Games were played mainly at night time and the lighting at Lidcombe Oval wasn't good hence the wearing of the white jumper.

It was also used in hot weather early in the season and occasionally when we were in the semi finals in September.

One of if not the first tru alternate jerseys produced….was really only Wests Manly & Parra had true reversed alternates- dunno whos was first.
I remember as a kid first time I saw them in em was amazing, wanted one so bad - never got one

Ummm better not,,

but Yeah u r right if my memory serves..

When did wests first use the white strip thought it was 70's early 80's??????

 

[alien]

they want to get away from the past (move forward, own identity, yada yada, etc) yet the primary jersey is an orange jersey with a black v, lol.

 

[PrattenParkMagpie]

My recollection of Wests using the white strip was in the pre-season WD & HO Wills competition in the late 70's. Games were played mainly at night time and the lighting at Lidcombe Oval wasn't good hence the wearing of the white jumper.

It was also used in hot weather early in the season and occasionally when we were in the semi finals in September.

One of if not the first tru alternate jerseys produced….was really only Wests Manly & Parra had true reversed alternates- dunno whos was first.
I remember as a kid first time I saw them in em was amazing, wanted one so bad - never got one

Ummm better not,,

but Yeah u r right if my memory serves..

When did wests first use the white strip thought it was 70's early 80's??????

The first occasion I remember them using the White with Black V was against Manly in Round 13 on June 15, 1975 at Lidcombe Oval, Wests won 18-0, still remember the head on picture in the Big League magazine of Joe Cool sidestepping the Manly defence. They may have used them before then but is the earliest recollection I have of them.

They sort of had 3 alternatives, Black jersey with Black shorts was the norm but they also donned the White jersey with White shorts or the Black jersey with White shorts or the White jersey with Black shorts on occasions.

 

[Knuckles]

I can remember Wests using the Black jumper and white shorts in the 1974 semi final against Easts at the cricket ground.

I think the pre-season Wills Cup was also around this time and that was my first recollection of the white jumper. As Ink says, it was probably one of the original alternate jumpers. I can't remember what year it was but I remember Chris Wellman the first player I saw playing in a white jumper ….. goodness knows why I remember that for !

 

[innsaneink]

Ummm better not,,

but Yeah u r right if my memory serves..

When did wests first use the white strip thought it was 70's early 80's??????

Yeh, youre right….you better not

Grow up

 

[Citizen_Tiger]

The Balmain Rugby Union Club was founded in 1873\. The Balmain Rugby League Club adopted their colours of black and gold, represented by horizontal stripes, in 1908\. The Rugby League Club chose a logo of a football, with a Tiger one one side and a Kangaroo on the other. How the Union club came to use the colours in the first place is a matter of conjecture, although a publication by Sydney University (Australia's oldest Rugby Club - Founded 1863) suggests that some of Balmain Rugby's early benefactors were wealthy English immigrants, who had arrived in NSW via India, where many had made their fortunes. Having seen the magnificence of the Tiger first hand, they thought it natural to adopt it's colours for their Rugby team.

That's all quite plausible and logical, methinks that the appearance of Blackwattle Bay at sunset or a singlet worn by a local rower might just be convenient local myths, designed to put distance between the codes

The Club gravitated to an orange version of the jersey in either 1967 or 68', after some difficult issues with the existing gold, which was proving not to be particularly colourfast. **The jersies in those days were 100% cotton** and had to be heavily laundered sometimes, in order to shift dirt and mud. I believe the Club changed suppliers and to insure themselves in case of problems re-occurring, chose a shade of gold that was somewhat darker.

There was a clear local link between Balmain RFLC & our RU counterpart - and colours are part of that! But the colours were adopted by the then Watersiders under a the pretence of the wattles on the bayside waterline - why question it now???

PS - In 1999 - Balmain still wore 90% cotton Canterbury-brand jerseys - dyeing them gold/orange was never an issue!!!

Also - why choose a "somewhat darker" gold that would only be less recognisable in the mud (i.e. is yellow or orange easier to see in a green/brown environment)???

It makes F-All sense Citizen!

Yes all very romantic that the players should be smitten and inspired by the blooming wattles around the bays of the area, but that's as fanciful as some sort of connection to Bill Beach, the rower. The colours of the local RU club were used, as they were by other newly created RL clubs Souths, Newtown, Cumberland, Glebe, Norths and Easts. Wests adopted the B & W of Ashfield, although there's some evidence to suggest that the colours and the jersey design were replicas of Newington's jersey, since this is where a significant number of Ashfield's Rugby players attended school. In the case of Balmain, the colours had been in use locally for 35 years and the logical decision to use them was minuted in the inaugural meeting of 23 January.

That Bill Beach, the champion rower, was somehow instrumental in influencing Balmain's colours is even more revisionist than the 'flora theory'. Beach was an Illawarra local, who's only connection with Balmain was that he lived in Pyrmont for a short while and competed mainly on the Parramatta River. His only trip to England was in 1887 to defend his World Title. There was a suggestion that while there, he used a black and gold singlet to race in. OK, if we go with that, how does wearing a particular singlet translate into influencing the colours of a Rugby League team 21 years later? It's implausible. In any case, the bloke retired to Dapto a couple of years later (1889/90).

In the late sixties, the Club was having difficulty with the colourfastness of the jersies ie. Because they sometimes required heavy laundering they would fade. The Club changed suppliers in either 67' or 68'. I don't know to whom, but at that time I believe the manufacturers may have been limited to Classic, Mick Simmons, Stan McCabe and perhaps Allan Kippax? When changing suppliers the club also decided to darken the 'gold' component, in order to mitigate the impact should the jersies from the new supplier also prove not to be colourfast. In the sixties, jersies were made from 100% cotton, which had a high moisture absorbency rate. From the early to mid eighties all manufacturers progressed to a cotton using a polyester core technology ie. polyester core, wrapped in a cotton sheath. The result of this was less absorption of moisture and dirt/mud.

What part of this does not make 'sense'

 

[Geo]

Ha you blokes can reminisce great read…cheers

Now...... The New Jumpers have grown on me ESPECIALLY the predominately BLACK one....

Humph listens...love ya work Stephen...

 

[Leroy_The_Tigers_Fan]

Citizen Tiger, thanks for such a great history lesson, I'm a kid from the late 60's early 70's and I can remember that by the end of the season most players from all clubs had their jerseys in all states of disrepair, the forwards jerseys and socks would be faded after repeated attempts to keep them clean while the wingers jumpers were pristine.
In recent years Rusty at the Bunnies tried to make a big deal out of the half a rabbitoh emblem that Satts wore in the 1970 grand final, the simple fact there was that not all clubs could come up with new jumpers even for a Grand Final.
I still remember the first Balmain jumper I bought as a kid, out here in the bush we didn't have the luxury of a Sports Store at the time and a country rep from one of the major Sydney stores used to do the rounds at all the schools and in 1970 guess what a heap of kids here at West Bathurst Public bought, optional extras were the numbers and the most important thing the emblem.
As a cash strapped family at the time it took me a few years until I could afford the Tigers emblem but what I remember most from my first ever Balmain jumper was it lasted from the ages of 10 right up till I was 18 or 19 before it bit the dust, those old jumpers were designed to last.
In the years 1995 through to 1999 the Tigers were somewhat dinosaurs with their jumpers, everyone else had gone to the acrylic/polyester type jerseys and we were still in the old heavy almost woolen jumpers, no wonder we were battlers couldn't even afford the modern trend.