Newcastle rugby league team

The Newcastle rugby league team is a representative rugby league football team made up of players selected from the Newcastle Rugby League's first grade clubs. Also called Newcastle Firsts, the team has been assembled occasionally since rugby league's first season in Australia in 1908.
History
On the Australian leg of the 1907–1908 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain the 'professional All Blacks' played a Newcastle side at rugby union, defeating them 53-6. They then played a "Northern Districts" selection and defeated them 37-8 in the first ever game of rugby league played in Newcastle.
The visit by the New Zealanders boosted the profile of rugby league in Newcastle as the Newcastle Rebels were at the time playing all their matches away in Sydney. As a result of the visit playing numbers in Newcastle surged and in 1910 the Rebels dropped out of the Sydney competition to form their own league. In 1911 Newcastle played against the...