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The Australian-English phrase to get a guernsey, also to draw a guernsey, means: to get selected for a task, to gain recognition or approval, to succeed.
This phrase occurs, for example, in the following from Tharunka (Kensington, New South Wales, Australia) of Tuesday 11th April 1995 [page 3, column 2]—Tharunka is the student newspaper of the University of New South Wales:
The Oscar’s proved as predicably, sentimentally American as a Robert Zemeckis’ film, with Forrest Gump sweeping up the major awards. The less culturally-challenged and possibly more meritable “Pulp Fiction” drew a guernsey for its script, but failed to out gun the American dream. One can only ponder on what Quentin Tarantino needed to add to “Pulp Fiction” to win America’s heart.
In the phrase to get a guernsey, also to draw a guernsey, the image is of getting selected in a sporting team, the noun guernsey designating a shirt worn by soccer or rugby players. The following, for example, about ‘Snowy’ Hamilton, a football champion from Adelaide, South Australia, who had settled down in Perth, Western Australia, is from Truth (Perth, Western Australia, Australia) of Saturday 2nd January 1926 [page 9, column 7]:
He fell out of favor with the leather hunters, and […] he decided to pack his grip and go back whence he came. He left Perth without the necessary clearance to play elsewhere and […] the “Champ.” could not get a guernsey for the 1925 season, Westralia being upheld by his own dear State in refusing to give him a clearance.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest transferred uses of the phrase to get a guernsey, also to draw a guernsey, that I have found:
1-: From a letter dated Thursday 26th September 1918, published in Jacka’s Mob (Sydney: Angus & Robertson Limited, 1933), the memoirs of Edgar John Rule, an Australian farmer who served in the battalion that included Captain Albert Jacka (1893-1932)—as quoted in The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1974), by the Australian historian Bill Gammage (born 1942) [Chapter 7: France: The Old Days Never Will Come Again, page 218]:
—the following is about the association between war and sport:
Early in 1917 a veteran of Fromelles wrote that he was about to leave England ‘to help knock out old “Bill” in the last round of the championship’, 67 in 1918 troops chosen for an attack ‘got their guernseys’, 68 and at Menin Road a brave man dying told his mates that he was still playing and still had a jersey. 69
67. Lt S. J. Topp, 58 Bn, Clerk, of Brighton, Vic. KIA 12/5/17, aged 37. L 30/1/17.
68. E. J. Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 319 (26/9/18). (2/Lt, MC, MM, 14 Bn, Railway foreman, of Cobar, NSW. b. 1886.)
69. In Hill, L re death, 1/10/17.
2-: From an account of a public meeting held in the Town Hall, Beechworth, on Wednesday 27th August 1924, published in The Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Victoria, Australia) of Saturday 30th August 1924 [page 2, column 6]:
Mr Tossell: Do you say you did not see that circular before it got into print? (Laughter).
Mr Guy: Don’t ask me questions. I am not in the game. I haven’t got a guernsey. (Laughter).
3-: From an account of a meeting of the Cessnock Hospital Board, published in The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (Cessnock, New South Wales, Australia) of Friday 12th April 1929 [page 1, column 4]:
During the discussion, the president, noticing temporary inattention on the part of Mr. Dixon, said to that member, “You can listen to this, you’ve got a guernsey.”
4-: From Friday Night Philosophy, published in The ABC Weekly: Journal of The Australian Broadcasting Commission (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Saturday 8th March 1941 [page 14, column 1]:
“Young Joe [is] goin’ overseas with the next bunch,” says “Blue.” “By Cripes, I wish I was goin’ with ’im!”
“Me too,” I says. “It ain’t so comfortin’ to realise you’re a back number, that you’re too old to do anythin’ but wave a flag.”
“Too old, me foot,” says “Blue.” “We’ve got a guernsey in this stoush. They’ll need us bad before this war is through.”
5-: From Extracts from letters received by his parents from L/Bdr. J. J. Bardi, published in The York Chronicle (York, Western Australia, Australia) of Friday 22nd August 1941 [page 2, column 5]:
“I was disappointed to note Captain and Doug have not left yet, but tell them not to despair as there is plenty of stouch yet to come. There’s a lot of marking time but we have worked into a good position at the barrier and may get a guernsey in the next heat.”
6-: From The Political Scene, by Don Whitington, published in the Daily Telegraph and Daily News (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Monday 19th January 1942 [page 4, column 3]:
Australia is in the war game with a vengeance now, as last week’s War Council talks in Melbourne revealed. We’ve got a guernsey—look like getting a big share of the ball.
7-: From Debits and credits in Labor’s first year of office, by Don Whitington, published in the Daily Telegraph and Daily News (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Wednesday 30th September 1942 [page 6, column 4]:
The Cabinet comprises half a dozen good men, half a dozen mediocre triers, and half a dozen dim-witted diddlers who wouldn’t get a guernsey in a prep. school mock Parliament.
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