12 August 1911. The journalist "Gulliver" in his "Football Notes" column reports; "W.G.B. (Balmain) writes: "Who said Balmain weren't rough? Here is an essay on "The Tiger" written by an eight year old boy at one of the local schools.:- The tiger has large padded feet so that he can steal softly upon his prey...The tiger is like the Balmain footballers, because he has black and yellow stripes. He is very wild, but not so wild as the Balmain footballers." After a string of poor years, the Tigers managed a strong turn-around to become a dominant force in the Australian Rugby League with the club's first, second and third Premierships coming in successive years dominating the 1915, 1916 and 1917 seasons. Tigers dominance continued winning the 1919 and 1920 seasons comfortably. When they won the 1924 premiership this would be the last success for Balmain for over a decade to come. Golden era It would not be until 1939 the Tigers won back the Premiership smashing Souths 33-4. The weekend of the Final will also be remembered for the invasion of Poland by Germany which led to England and Australia going to War. Post-World War II marked a golden era for Balmain with the Tigers reaching five consecutive Grand Finals winning three of them. In the 1944 Grand Final, the Tigers beat the strong favourites Newtown 19-16. Balmain reached the Grand Final again in 1945 but fell at the last hurdle against Easts 22-18. The loss was not long remembered as the Tigers went on to take out the next two seasons, beating St George 13-12 in 1946, and Canterbury 13-9 in 1947. On the hunt for a third successive title, they lost to Wests in 1948. 1960s–1970s The Tigers would appear in several Grand Final matches throughout the 1950s and 1960s but were just another victim to the mighty St. George Dragons eleven-year streak of Premiership wins in this period, losing in 1956, 1964 and 1966. When the Tigers did take out the competition in the 1969 NSWRFL season it was a classy 11–2 defeat of favourites Souths who boasted 11 internationals, this would signal the last time Balmain would ever win a Grand Final. The side was captained by Peter Provan, brother of Norm, and coached by Leo Nosworthy. The 1970s were not a great era for the Tigers. The wooden spoon had not been in Balmain since