History

When a mix of rugby league diehards from the Balmain Junior League gathered at a Rydalmere hotel years ago they shared a dream.

Led by forward-thinking Fred Fayers – an ex-top grade forward with the Western Suburbs, Newtown, Balmain and Parramatta rugby league clubs – the officials met to discuss the prospects of forming a new club to compete in a semi-professional competition.

It was late 1962 at the time and Fayers was President of the West Ryde-Dundas Junior Rugby League Football Club, and a personal friend of the late NSW Rugby League Chairman, Bill Buckley. The NSWRL we’re looking to start an Inter-District competition in 1963 and already had nine clubs pencilled in.

Mr Buckley approached Fayers with the idea of establishing a club in the north west region – hence the birth of the Ryde-Eastwood Hawks.