in 1910 the sydney competition was well and truly alive. top union players had converted to league, crowds were huge, the english lions were on their way ... and the easts (sydney roosters) were filthy. despite having the best players in the country, including dally messenger, they had no titles to their name, and south sydney had two from two. when souths came up against easts, and they knew, just like every other team in the league, that the key to winning the match was to 'quiet dally'. this job was assigned to anderson. he was told to be physical with messenger – make every tackle and hit him hard, to make him hesitate and deride him in front of his fans and team mates. reports of the game show anderson and messenger meeting many times in the air, hitting chests. these clashes were so hard they were heard across the entire field. anderson did his job of attacking messenger valiantly. the entire stadium knew what was happening. however this seemed to have no effect on either player. messenger played his game as if there was nothing different, and anderson continued to hit him hard. afterwards, easts players were perplexed at messenger's ability to take this barrage from anderson. the same could not be said for anderson however. reports say that he was left the field "severely shaken". it was unclear if this was because of messenger's unaffected state or if he was sustaining an injury. anderson's form deteriorated over the last few weeks. he lost all his confidence and skill. he then lost his place in south sydney and never regained it anderson then moved to balmain. he played a single game. he then moved to newtown, and played a single game. his career then came to an end in 1913. anderson's australian tour team mates could tell that his end came after that match against easts. that anderson lived out the rest of his life in 'a punch drunk state.