 South Sydney was the third rugby league football club founded in Australia after Glebe and Newtown.In 1908 a rugby league competition began in Sydney with working-class clubs, including the South Sydney Rugby Union Club, leaving rugby union to play by the new rules adopted by the New South Wales Rugby League.The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club was founded on Friday 17 January 1908 at Redfern Town Hall when J J Giltinan was joined on the podium by cricketer Victor Trumper and politician Henry Clement Hoyle before a large crowd of supporters.