1982 NSWRFL season explained

Year:1982
Competition:New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams:14
Count:2nd
Mpcount:2nd
Matches:188
Points:5,927
Attendance:1,716,490
Top Point Scorer: Mick Cronin (279)
Top Try Scorer: Steve Ella (23)
Player Of The Year: Greg Brentnall (Rothmans Medal)
Prevseason Link:1981 NSWRFL season
Prevseason Year:1981
Nextseason Link:1983 NSWRFL season
Nextseason Year:1983

The 1982 NSWRFL season was the 75th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and saw the New South Wales Rugby Football League’s first expansion since 1967 with the introduction of the first two clubs from outside the Sydney area in over half a century: the Canberra Raiders and the Illawarra Steelers. Thus a total of 14 clubs (including 6 Sydney-based foundation teams, another 6 from Sydney, one from greater New South Wales, and one from the Australian Capital Territory) competed for the J.J. Giltinan Shield and newly-created Winfield Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Parramatta and Manly-Warringah clubs. This season, NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1982 KB Cup which was won by Manly-Warringah.

Season summary

The first Charity Shield match was played before the 1982 season between St. George and South Sydney.

This year a bronze replica of “the Gladiators” – the 1963 photo taken by John O'Gready of Norm Provan and Arthur Summons’ post-game, mud-caked embrace – was first adopted to adorn the Winfield Cup, the new trophy to be awarded to the grand final winners. Because of the introduction of two new teams, twenty-six (rather than twenty-two) regular season rounds were played from February till August, resulting in a top five of Parramatta, Manly, Norths, Easts and Wests. The new teams, the Illawarra Steelers and the Canberra Raiders, would finish their debut seasons in second last and last place respectively.

The 1982 season saw the only nil-all scoreline in competition history. Newtown and Canterbury-Bankstown drew their match at Henson Park on 28 March, with neither team scoring a point. The long-standing record for the longest suspension for a player in the League's history was broken during the season. Western Suburbs' Bob Cooper was suspended for 15 months for punching Illawarra’s Lee Pomfret.

The 1982 season's Rothmans Medallist was Canterbury-Bankstown’s Greg Brentnall and the Dally M Award went to Parramatta’s lock forward, Ray Price. Rugby League Week gave their player of the year award to Eastern Suburbs’ halfback Kevin Hastings for the third consecutive season.

Teams

This year the number of clubs in the League reached a new high of fourteen, with the addition of two expansion clubs, the Illawarra Steelers and the Canberra Raiders.[1] This saw the first inclusion of teams based outside of the Sydney area since the foundation Newcastle club departed the League in 1909. This was the first of several expansions that would take place over the next decade and a half which would see the Sydney-wide competition grow into a New South Wales-wide competition and eventually into a national league. Also, for the first time in three quarters of a century, the League's 1908 foundation teams were outnumbered by teams introduced since the inaugural season.

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 Parramatta262105619242+37742
2 Manly-Warringah261709530411+11934
3 North Sydney261619399360+3933
4 Eastern Suburbs261529437304+13332
5 Western Suburbs2616010412349+6332
6 South Sydney2614111395400-529
7 Newtown2613211406309+9728
8 Cronulla-Sutherland2613112400336+6427
9 Canterbury-Bankstown2612311399361+3827
10 St. George2611213408402+624
11 Balmain2610115383427-4421
12 Penrith267118375441-6615
13 Illawarra266020344572-22812
14 Canberra264022269862-5938

Finals

HomeScoreAwayMatch information
width=17%Date and timewidth=17%Venuewidth=11%Refereewidth=7%Crowd
Qualifying Finals
align=left Eastern Suburbs11–7align=left Western Suburbs4 September 1982Sydney Cricket GroundJack Danzey21,167
align=left Manly-Warringah26–3align=left North Sydney5 September 1982Sydney Cricket GroundJohn Gocher24,690
Semi-finals
align=left North Sydney10–12align=left Eastern Suburbs11 September 1982Sydney Cricket GroundJack Danzey19,566
align=left Parramatta0–20align=left Manly-Warringah12 September 1982Sydney Cricket GroundJohn Gocher31,604
Preliminary final
align=left Parramatta33–0align=left Eastern Suburbs19 September 1982Sydney Cricket GroundJohn Gocher24,637
Grand final
align=left Manly-Warringah8–21align=left Parramatta26 September 1982Sydney Cricket GroundJohn Gocher52,186

Grand final

Manly-WarringahPositionParramatta
  1. Graham Eadie
  1. Paul Taylor
2. John RibotWG2. Neil Hunt
CE
5. Eric Grothe
6. Alan Thompson (c) 6. Brett Kenny
HB7. Peter Sterling
13. Geoff Bugden
12. Steve Edge (c)
11. Chris Phelan
10. Paul VautinSR10. Steve Sharp
9. John Muggleton
8. Ray Price
Reserve 14. Peter Wynn
15. Max KrillichReserve
Reserve 19. Mark Laurie
Reserve 19. Steve Halliwell
Coach Jack Gibson
The Eels won the minor premiership with ease – eight points ahead of Manly – and breezed through the decider with the same confidence. Manly opened the scoring through Phil Blake in the opening minutes, but Parramatta replied quickly when Brett Kenny put Steve Ella over. After a quiet period, Manly collapsed in the ten minutes before half-time with Parramatta scoring three tries. The first to Eric Grothe came when Brett Kenny had shown brilliant evasive skills on the second tackle after Manly dropped the ball, the second came when a Peter Sterling bomb deflected off a Parramatta player into Kenny's arms, and the third after quick hands saw Kenny send Neil Hunt over in the corner. The Eels led 16–3 at half-time and, despite Les Boyd scoring after playing the ball forward in the 48th minute, Brett Kenny's second try in the 62nd minute sealed victory.

Parramatta 21 (Tries: Kenny 2, Ella, Grothe, Hunt. Goals: Cronin 3/5.)

Manly 8 (Tries: P Blake, Boyd. Goal: Eadie 1/2.)

Player statistics

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 26.Top 5 point scorers

width=50 Pointswidth=200 Playerwidth=30 Trieswidth=30 Goalswidth=30 Field Goals
255 Mick Cronin91140
187 Steve Rogers9792
186 Tony Melrose8794
161 Ron Giteau4741
159 John Dorahy6701
Top 5 try scorers
width=50 Trieswidth=200 Player
21 Steve Ella
18 John Ribot
17 Steve Broughton
17 Steve Morris
15 John Ferguson
Top 5 goal scorers
width=50 Goalswidth=200 Player
114 Mick Cronin
79 Tony Melrose
79 Steve Rogers
74 Ron Giteau
71 Michael Eden

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: History of the Premiership . https://archive.today/20131021091506/http://www.centenaryofrugbyleague.com.au/site/about/history/history-of-the-premiership.aspx . dead . 21 October 2013 . centenaryofrugbyleague.com.au . . 21 October 2013 .