1957 NSWRFL season explained

Year:	1957
Competition:	New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams:	10
Count:	4th
Mpcount:	4th
Matches:	94
Points:	3103
Attendance:	1089273
Top Point Scorer:	Darcy Russell (169)
Top Try Scorer:	Tommy Ryan (26)
Prevseason Link:	1956 NSWRFL season
Prevseason Year:	1956
Nextseason Link:	1958 NSWRFL season
Nextseason Year:	1958

1957's New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 50th season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Ten teams from across the city competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final between St. George and Manly-Warringah.

Season summary

Teams

Regular season

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	F1	F2	F3	GF
Balmain	STG −6	MAN −15	PAR +24	CBY +2	SOU +27	WES +14	NOR −10	EAS +14	NEW +3	STG −6	MAN +16	PAR +6	CBY −4	SOU −2	WES −13	NOR −7	EAS +29	NEW −1
Canterbury-Bankstown	NOR +3	EAS −4	NEW −15	BAL −2	MAN 0	PAR −4	STG −37	SOU −13	WES −1	NOR −8	EAS −12	NEW −8	BAL +4	MAN −10	PAR +7	STG −9	SOU −14	WES −34
Eastern Suburbs	PAR +5	CBY +4	SOU +5	WES −11	NOR −8	STG −21	NEW −19	BAL −14	MAN −27	PAR +7	CBY +12	SOU −2	WES +4	NOR +3	STG +9	NEW +19	BAL −29	MAN −7
Manly-Warringah	NEW +11	BAL +15	STG −23	PAR +7	CBY 0	SOU −13	WES +6	NOR +21	EAS +27	NEW +9	BAL −16	STG −3	PAR +21	CBY +10	SOU −9	WES +5	NOR −2	EAS +7	X	STG −14	SOU +4	STG −22
Newtown	MAN −11	PAR +35	CBY +15	SOU +6	WES +8	NOR −10	EAS +19	STG −3	BAL −3	MAN −9	PAR −14	CBY +8	SOU +24	WES −8	NOR +6	EAS −19	STG −6	BAL +1
North Sydney	CBY −3	SOU +8	WES 0	STG −12	EAS +8	NEW +10	BAL +10	MAN −21	PAR +15	CBY +8	SOU −1	WES −6	STG −30	EAS −3	NEW −6	BAL +7	MAN +2	PAR +28
Parramatta	EAS −5	NEW −35	BAL −24	MAN −7	STG −39	CBY +4	SOU −40	WES −7	NOR −15	EAS −7	NEW +14	BAL −6	MAN −21	STG −23	CBY −7	SOU −36	WES −20	NOR −28
South Sydney	WES −40	NOR −8	EAS −5	NEW −6	BAL −27	MAN +13	PAR +40	CBY +13	STG +22	WES +6	NOR +1	EAS +2	NEW −24	BAL +2	MAN +9	PAR +36	CBY +14	STG −8	WES +13	X	MAN −4
St. George	BAL +6	WES −18	MAN +23	NOR +12	PAR +39	EAS +21	CBY +37	NEW +3	SOU −22	BAL +6	WES +8	MAN +3	NOR +30	PAR +23	EAS −9	CBY +9	NEW +6	SOU +8	X	MAN +14	X	MAN +22
Western Suburbs	SOU +40	STG +18	NOR 0	EAS +11	NEW −8	BAL −14	MAN −6	PAR +7	CBY +1	SOU −6	STG −8	NOR +6	EAS −4	NEW +8	BAL +13	MAN −5	PAR +20	CBY +34	SOU −13
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	F1	F2	F3	GF

Bold – Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin

Ladder

width=20 abbr="Position×"		width=175	Team	width=20 abbr="Played"	Pld	width=20 abbr="Won"	W	width=20 abbr="Drawn"	D	width=20 abbr="Lost"	L	width=20 abbr="Points for"	PF	width=20 abbr="Points against"	PA	width=20 abbr="Points difference"	PD	width=20 abbr="Points"	Pts
1	St. George	18	15	0	3	417	232	+185	30
2	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	18	11	1	6	282	209	+73	23
3	South Sydney	18	11	0	7	354	314	+40	22
4	Western Suburbs	18	10	1	7	358	251	+107	21
5	North Sydney	18	9	1	8	292	278	+14	19
6	Balmain	18	9	0	9	352	281	+71	18
7	Newtown	18	9	0	9	267	228	+39	18
8	Eastern Suburbs	18	9	0	9	277	347	-70	18
9	Canterbury-Bankstown	18	3	1	14	182	339	-157	7
10	Parramatta	18	2	0	16	189	491	-302	4

Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 4.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round.

width=20 abbr="Position"		width=250	Team	width=20 abbr="Round 1"	1	width=20 abbr="Round 2"	2	width=20 abbr="Round 3"	3	width=20 abbr="Round 4"	4	width=20 abbr="Round 5"	5	width=20 abbr="Round 6"	6	width=20 abbr="Round 7"	7	width=20 abbr="Round 8"	8	width=20 abbr="Round 9"	9	width=20 abbr="Round 10"	10	width=20 abbr="Round 11"	11	width=20 abbr="Round 12"	12	width=20 abbr="Round 13"	13	width=20 abbr="Round 14"	14	width=20 abbr="Round 15"	15	width=20 abbr="Round 16"	16	width=20 abbr="Round 17"	17	width=20 abbr="Round 18"	18
1		2	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	20	22	24	24	26	28	30
2		2	4	4	6	7	7	9	11	13	15	15	15	17	19	19	21	21	23
3		0	0	0	0	0	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	20	22	22
4		2	4	5	7	7	7	7	9	11	11	11	13	13	15	17	17	19	21
5		0	2	3	3	5	7	9	9	11	13	13	13	13	13	13	15	17	19
6		0	0	2	4	6	8	8	10	12	12	14	16	16	16	16	16	18	18
7		0	2	4	6	8	8	10	10	10	10	10	12	14	14	16	16	16	18
8		2	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	8	10	10	12	14	16	18	18	18
9		2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	5	5	7	7	7	7
10		0	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4

Finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
width=17%	Date and Time	width=17%	Venue	width=11%	Referee	width=7%	Crowd
Semifinals
align=left	South Sydney	26–13	align=left	Western Suburbs	31 August 1957	Sydney Cricket Ground	Darcy Lawler	46,957
align=left	St. George	21–7	align=left	Manly-Warringah	7 September 1957	Sydney Cricket Ground	Darcy Lawler	39,845
Preliminary Final
align=left	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	15–11	align=left	South Sydney	14 September 1957	Sydney Cricket Ground	Darcy Lawler	39,065
Grand Final
align=left	St. George	31–9	align=left	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	21 September 1957	Sydney Cricket Ground	Darcy Lawler	54,399

Grand Final

St. George	Position	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
		Ron Willey
	WG	2. Ray Ritchie
		4. Ray Quinnell
	CE	17. Bill Lloyd
		5. George Hugo
		33. Kevin Diett
	HB	7. Peter Burke
Kevin Brown		13. Roy Bull
2. Ken Kearney (Ca./Co.)		12. George Lenon
		11. Denis Meaney
3. Harry Bath	SR	10. Doug Daley
		9. Rex Mossop
		8. George Hunter (c)
	Coach	Ken Arthurson

Under 27 year-old coach Ken Arthurson, Manly were playing in their second grand final. The match began with Saints pounding the (then called) 'Seagulls' with some heavy tackling. Brian Clay in particular targeted Manly's Rex Mossop, often trapping the dual international forward with the ball. “Poppa” Clay had a fearsome reputation in defence and at one point he knocked the Manly captain George Hunter senseless.

Manly were up to the task in the first half with the score locked at 4–4 for 30 minutes. Straight after half time, the flood gates opened following a magnificent run up the centre by second-row forward Norm Provan. He palmed off Manly defenders, ran deep into their territory, high stepped past fullback Ron Willey and slipped the ball to Poppa Clay who scored under the posts.

A second Dragon try followed within three minutes and the game began to slip away from the Manly side. The Larry Writer reference quotes Manly coach Arthurson: "The sheer physical strength of the St. George team is in itself a formidable thing to overcome. Our fellows tried everything, but St. George had so much more to give. Those big fellows are so clever."^[1]

Harry Bath kicked eight goals from eight attempts establishing a standing record for the most goals in a grand final and the most points scored in a grand final (16). His fellow ball playing forward and tactician Ken Kearney had returned for this, the first of five successful seasons as coach (four as captain-coach).

St. George 31 (Tries: Clay 2, Ryan, Fifield, Lumsden. Goals: Bath 8.)

Manly 9 (Tries: Burke. Goals: Willey 3.)

Player statistics

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 18.Top 5 point scorers

width=50	Points	width=200	Player	width=30	Tries	width=30	Goals	width=30	Field Goals
165	Darcy Russell	3	78	0
142	Ron Willey	4	65	0
140	Alan Arkey	0	70	0
115	Fred Dunn	1	56	0
110	Doug Fleming	2	52	0

Top 5 try scorers

width=50	Tries	width=200	Player
24	Tommy Ryan
18	Eric Sladden
18	Des Horne
15	Eddie Lumsden
15	Ian Moir
15	Laurie McMahon

Top 5 goal scorers

width=50	Goals	width=200	Player
78	Darcy Russell
70	Alan Arkey
65	Ron Willey
56	Fred Dunn
52	Doug Fleming

References

• Rugby League Tables - Season 1957 The World of Rugby League
• Writer, Larry (1995) Never Before, Never Again, Pan MacMillan, Sydney

External links

• Results:1951-60 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1957 J J Giltinan Shield at rleague.com
• NSWRFL season 1957 at rugbyleagueproject.com
• 1957 Final at Dragons History site

Notes and References

1. Never Before, Never Again p 39