1943 NSWRFL season explained

Year:1943
Competition:New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams:8
Count:3rd
Mpcount:3rd
Matches:61
Points:1527
Top Point Scorer: Tom Kirk (116)
Top Try Scorer: Cyril McMahon (12)
Prevseason Link:1942 NSWRFL season
Prevseason Year:1942
Nextseason Link:1944 NSWRFL season
Nextseason Year:1944

The 1943 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the thirty-sixth season of Sydney's top-level rugby league competition, Australia's first. Eight teams from across the city contested during the season which lasted from April until September, culminating in the Newtown club's Grand Final victory over North Sydney.[1]

Season summary

The season is notable for Newtown turning around their second-last placing from the previous season, becoming minor premiers and later premiers. On the other hand, defending premiers Canterbury-Bankstown had a disastrous season, finishing last and picking up the wooden spoon for the first of only six occasions to date. Eastern Suburbs also slumped from the four to their lowest placing and poorest record since 1929, and were not to recover their former prominence until the late 1960s.[2]

Teams

For the new season, proposals were made to change the jerseys of the clubs to a single colour. With the exception of South Sydney, who had a sufficient number of their traditional myrtle and cardinal jersey's, the other clubs had each submitted a single colour to the league. St George were to play in white, Balmain in canary yellow, Eastern Suburbs in green, Canterbury-Bankstown in maroon, North Sydney in scarlet, Western Suburbs in black and Newtown in their traditional royal blue.[3]

Due to the on-going war, certain dyes and patterns were becoming expensive and hard to obtain. Jerseys with stripes, especially the popular "butcher stripes" that had been used by many clubs, were more expensive to manufacture. Materials and certain dyes, such as navy, were either rationed or used exclusively by the defence forces. As a result, jerseys became much simpler with the V pattern becoming a common design.[4]

Regular season

Team1234567891011121314F1F2F3F4GF
BalmainWES
+4
SOU
−12
EAS
−12
NEW
+12
CBY
+3
STG
+2
NOR
0
SOU
+14
EAS
+12
NEW
−28
CBY
+33
STG
+6
NOR
+8
WES
+5
NEW
−1
XSTG
−7
Canterbury-BankstownEAS
+8
NOR
−6
NEW
−27
WES
−11
BAL
−3
SOU
−10
STG
−8
NOR
−25
NEW
−18
WES
+8
BAL
−33
SOU
−2
STG
−5
EAS
+3
Eastern SuburbsCBY
−8
NEW
−19
BAL
+12
STG
+20
NOR
−8
WES
+5
SOU
+2
NEW
−6
BAL
−12
STG
−2
NOR
−14
WES
−16
SOU
−34
CBY
−3
NewtownSOU
+17
EAS
+19
CBY
+27
BAL
−12
STG
−1
NOR
0
WES
+4
EAS
+6
CBY
+18
BAL
+28
STG
+13
NOR
−6
WES
+1
SOU
+15
BAL
+1
NOR
−5
XXNOR
+27
North SydneySTG
−1
CBY
+6
WES
−3
SOU
−3
EAS
+8
NEW
0
BAL
0
CBY
+25
WES
+18
SOU
+7
EAS
+14
NEW
+6
BAL
−8
STG
0
XNEW
+5
XSTG
+6
NEW
−27
South SydneyNEW
−17
BAL
+12
STG
−18
NOR
+3
WES
+10
CBY
+10
EAS
−2
BAL
−14
STG
+9
NOR
−7
WES
+7
CBY
+2
EAS
+34
NEW
−15
St. GeorgeNOR
+1
WES
+9
SOU
+18
EAS
−20
NEW
+1
BAL
−2
CBY
+8
WES
+3
SOU
−9
EAS
+2
NEW
−13
BAL
−6
CBY
+5
NOR
0
XXBAL
+7
NOR
−6
Western SuburbsBAL
−4
STG
−9
NOR
+3
CBY
+11
SOU
−10
EAS
−5
NEW
−4
STG
−3
NOR
−18
CBY
−8
SOU
−7
EAS
+16
NEW
−1
BAL
−5
Team1234567891011121314F1F2F3F4GF
Bold – Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin

Ladder

width=20 abbr="Position" width=175 Teamwidth=20 abbr="Played" Pldwidth=20 abbr="Won" Wwidth=20 abbr="Drawn" Dwidth=20 abbr="Lost" Lwidth=20 abbr="Points for" PFwidth=20 abbr="Points against" PAwidth=20 abbr="Points difference" PDwidth=20 abbr="Points" Pts
1 Newtown141013272143+12921
2 Balmain141013178131+4721
3 North Sydney14734193124+6917
4 St. George14815185188−317
5 South Sydney14806161147+1416
6 Eastern Suburbs144010131214−838
7 Western Suburbs143011132176−446
8 Canterbury-Bankstown143011115244−1296

Ladder progression

width=20 abbr="Position" width=250 Teamwidth=20 abbr="Round 1" 1width=20 abbr="Round 2" 2width=20 abbr="Round 3" 3width=20 abbr="Round 4" 4width=20 abbr="Round 5" 5width=20 abbr="Round 6" 6width=20 abbr="Round 7" 7width=20 abbr="Round 8" 8width=20 abbr="Round 9" 9width=20 abbr="Round 10" 10width=20 abbr="Round 11" 11width=20 abbr="Round 12" 12width=20 abbr="Round 13" 13width=20 abbr="Round 14" 14
12 4 6 6 6 7 9 11 13 15 17 17 19 21
22 2 2 4 6 8 9 11 13 13 15 17 19 21
30 2 2 2 4 5 6 8 10 12 14 16 16 17
42 4 6 6 8 8 10 12 12 14 14 14 16 17
50 2 2 4 6 8 8 8 10 10 12 14 16 16
60 0 2 4 4 6 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
70 0 2 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6 6 6
82 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 6

Finals

For the second year running, the minor premiership was decided by a playoff and again Balmain failed to win this important match, this time against Newtown. The following week both of these teams lost their matches to lower-ranked teams, and as a result, the victors North Sydney and St. George faced off to decide who would meet the minor premiers in the final. North Sydney won this match which allowed them to face the side they had beaten two weeks earlier again; this time in the final. Here, Newtown won the match and claimed their third and final premiership.

HomeScoreAwayMatch Information
width=17%Date and Timewidth=17%Venuewidth=11%Refereewidth=7%Crowd
Playoff
align=left Newtown11–10align=left Balmain7 August 1943Sydney Cricket Ground47,230
Semifinals
align=left Newtown16–21align=left North Sydney14 August 1943Sydney Cricket GroundJack O'Brien35,920
align=left Balmain5–12align=left St. George21 August 1943Sydney Cricket GroundGeorge Bishop27,395
Preliminary Final
align=left North Sydney25–19align=left St. George28 August 1943Sydney Cricket GroundJack O'Brien41,646
Final
align=left Newtown34–7align=left North Sydney4 September 1943[5] Sydney Cricket GroundJack O'Brien60,922

Premiership final

NewtownPositionNorth Sydney
13. Tom Kirk
  1. Stan Ridgway
WG2. Frank Collins
3. Frank Hyde (Ca./Co.)
9. Norm JacobsonCE4. Ted Rudd
5. Ron Ainsworth
6. Cyril McMahon
7. Paddy BugdenHB7. Johnny McLachlan
11. Laurie Doran
  1. Jimmy Brailey
12. Frank Facer
2. Frank Farrell (c)14. Harry McKinnon
SR15. Max Whitehead
9. Don McKinnon
6. Charles Cahill10. Gerald Scully
Coach
The final was played at the SCG before a record crowd of 60,922, though there were thousands more on roofs and vantage points outside the ground. Because of the War all service people got in, if they were in uniform, for free. Norths were missing two stars on active service who had contributed to their season's performance – lock Harry Taylor and full-back Neville Butler who was killed in an Air Force action not long before the final.[6] [7]

Police closed the gates two hours before kick-off leaving ten thousand fans locked out. Latecomers offered up to £10 for seats in the stand. The match provided a great betting orgy with bets of £100 common and more than £25,000 laid before the match began.[8]

Captained by the colourful Frank "Bumper" Farrell,[9] Newtown took on the fancied North Sydney side. The men from across the harbour were led by Frank Hyde and his Norths' side had shown no sympathy for his former club, having beaten Newtown three times already that season. Newtown countered the short-kicking tactics of the Bears into an advantage of their own, gaining a strong lead at half-time and going on to win 34–7.[10] The 27-point margin was a grand final record. Stars of the day for Newtown were forward Charles Cahill along with backs Len Smith and Tom Kirk. It was the third premiership win for Newtown, and would turn out to be their last.

Newtown 34 (Tries: Goodwin 2, Ryan, Brailey, Phillips, Narvo, Smith, Farrell. Goals: Kirk 5)

defeated

North Sydney 7 (Tries: McLachlan. Goals: Rudd 2)

Player statistics

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 14.Top 5 point scorers

width=50 Pointswidth=200 Playerwidth=30 Trieswidth=30 Goalswidth=30 Field Goals
100 Tom Kirk0500
80 Ted Rudd4340
69 Fred Felsch3300
49 Bob Andrews3200
41 Frank Driese5130
Top 5 try scorers
width=50 Trieswidth=200 Player
10 C. McMahon
9 Len Kelly
8 Norm Jacobson
7 Sid Goodwin
7 Keith Phillips
Top 5 goal scorers
width=50 Goalswidth=200 Player
50 Tom Kirk
34 Ted Rudd
30 Fred Felsch
20 Bob Andrews
18 Bert Cowley

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://rl1908.com/clubcomps/Honours.htm Premiership Roll of Honour
  2. http://stats.rleague.com/rl/teams/easts/easts_ss.html Easts: Season Summary
  3. Web site: Souths Retain Colors - The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954) - 16 Dec 1942. 2021-07-09. Sun. 16 December 1942 . en.
  4. Web site: 2020-04-22. The story behind the Maroon jersey. 2021-07-09. Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. en.
  5. https://web.archive.org/web/20080802103258/http://www.nrlstats.com/archive/match.cfm?MatchID=2052 1943 Grand Final
  6. Book: Pollard , Jack . Gregory's Guide to Rugby League . Grenville Publishing . 1965 . Australia . p144 .
  7. News: Middleton. David. Footy stars taken on battlefield. 3 January 2012. The Daily Telegraph. 24 April 2010.
  8. Book: Pollard , Jack . Gregory's Guide to Rugby League . Grenville Publishing . 1965 . Australia . p82 .
  9. News: Coady . Ben . Grand final dramas . WA Today . Australia . Fairfax Digital . 2009-09-28 . 2010-01-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181004074123/http://blogs.watoday.com.au/executive-style/sportandstyle/bencoady/2009/09/28/grandfinaldra.html . 4 October 2018 . dead .
  10. News: South's record margin in League Finale . . Australia . 6 . 1951-09-24 . 2009-11-20.