Bill Lawry
Lawry was born in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. He was given the names William Morris after the early Prime Minister of Australia, William Morris Hughes. His father Alfred played amateur cricket until the age of 51. Bill never saw his father play, who was aged 47 when Bill was born. Aged nine, he played competitive cricket for the first time with the Thornbury Presbyterian Church team. He spent three years there, as well as playing for Preston Technical School. When he was twelve, he entered Melbourne's district competition playing for Northcote's fourth team, working his way up to the First XI by the age of sixteen. At the time, he was apprenticed as a plumber and attending Preston Technical College. Lawry was selected for Victoria's Second XI at the age of seventeen. He made a duck against the South Australians and did not see any further action for the Seconds for the rest of the summer of 1954–55. The following season, Lawry was recalled to the Seconds and scored 183 against South Australia.
Bill Whitty
Born in Sydney, Whitty had only played junior cricket before he was noticed by Test batsman Victor Trumper, who recommended him for coaching and gave him the opportunity to bowl to the New South Wales state team. In 1907, at the age of 21, Whitty made his first-class debut for New South Wales against Queensland at the Sydney Cricket Ground, taking 3 wickets. This was the only first-class match Whitty played for his home state, as he was recruited to Adelaide by Clem Hill to play for South Australia in 1908. Whitty played 5 first-class games in the 1908–09 Australian season, including one match for a "Rest of Australia" team against the Australian XI, where he took 3 wickets. Over the entire season, Whitty took 11 wickets with an average of 49.00, which was enough to earn him selection into the Australian team to tour England in 1909.