page_title: Dally Messenger
section_title: Life after football
hierarchical_section_title: Dally Messenger / Life after football
caption_attribution_description: H.H. Dally Messenger. 1959
context_page_description: Herbert Henry Messenger, nicknamed "Dally" and sometimes "The Master" was one of Australasia's first professional rugby footballers, recognised as one of the greatest-ever players in either code. He played for New South Wales in the very first match run by the newly created 'New South Wales Rugby Football League' which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.
  Messenger had a stocky build, and while standing only about 172 centimetres in height, he was a powerful runner of the ball and a solid defender. According to his peers, the centre's greatest attributes were his unpredictability and astonishing physical co-ordination, coupled with a freakish ability to kick goals from almost any part of the ground. He was a teetotaller and non-smoker during his career and other than breakfast, Messenger would rarely eat before a match.
context_section_description: In addition to his rugby prowess, Messenger was a talented cricketer, canoeist and sailor. After the end of his rugby league career, he ran a couple of hotels in Sydney and Manilla, New South Wales and a banana plantation in Mount Buderim, Queensland. He later worked as a carpenter in the NSW Department of Public Works.
  None of his various business opportunities proved to be successful. In his later years, he lived in the New South Wales Rugby Leagues Club in Phillip Street. It was reported in the press that Dally Messenger had suffered a heart attack on 18 November 1959 and he died in Gunnedah six days later. His body was returned to Sydney for a large funeral and was buried on 26 November 1959 at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park : Anglican section FM DDD - Grave 321
caption: Dally Messenger.1959