1914 NSWRFL season explained

1914 NSWRFL season
League:New South Wales Rugby Football League
Duration:2 May to 22 August
No Of Teams:8
Matches:56
Points:1202
Season Champs: South Sydney[1]
Season Champs Count:3rd
Season Champ Name:Premiers
League Leaders: South Sydney
League Leaders Count:3rd
League Leaders Name:Minor Premiers
Top Scorer: Harold Horder (87)
Top Try Scorer: Harold Horder (19)
Season2:Second Grade
No Of Teams2:14
Season Champs2: South Sydney
Season Champ Name2:Premiers
Second Place2: Eastern Suburbs
Season3:Third Grade
No Of Teams3:16
Season Champs3: Eastern Suburbs
Season Champ Name3:Premiers
Second Place3:South Sydney Kinkora
Prevseason Link:1913 NSWRFL season
Prevseason Year:1913
Nextseason Link:1915 NSWRFL season
Nextseason Year:1915

The 1914 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the seventh season of Sydney's top-grade rugby league football club competition, Australia's first. Eight teams from across the city contested during the season. The 1914 season's gate receipts totalled £24,072, which was £7,038 more than the previous season's.[2]

Season summary

Following the retirement of Dally Messenger at the end of the 1913 season, Eastern Suburbs’ stranglehold on the premiership came to an end. In their place, previous premiers South Sydney and Newtown took control of the competition. Newtown were in a good position to take out their second premiership midway through the season but a loss to middle-placed Balmain hurt their cause, although Newtown defeated South Sydney the following week. It turned out that the Balmain loss would make the difference, with South Sydney finishing just one point ahead of Newtown at the end of the season to claim their third premiership. No Finals were contested. Members of the South Sydney premiership winning side included Howard Hallett (Player of the Season), Roy Almond, O. Brown, Arthur Butler, Harry Butler, William Cann, Jim Davis, Wally Dymant, E. Hilliard, Owen McCarthy, Arthur McCabe and Harold Horder.[3]

The season was punctuated by matches against the 1914 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand, and was the last for future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee Chris McKivat who went on to have a prominent coaching career.

Teams

The teams remained unchanged from the previous season.

Ladder

width=20 abbr="Position×" width=175 Teamwidth=30 abbr="Played" Pldwidth=30 abbr="Won" Wwidth=30 abbr="Drawn" Dwidth=30 abbr="Lost" Lwidth=30 abbr="Points for" PFwidth=30 abbr="Points against" PAwidth=30 abbr="Points difference" PDwidth=30 abbr="Points" Pts
1 South Sydney14111216679+8723
2 Newtown141103185111+7422
3 Eastern Suburbs14806164122+4216
4 Balmain14644132111+2116
5 Glebe14716187140+4715
6 North Sydney14518158165-711
7 Western Suburbs143011104231-1276
8 Annandale141112106243-1373

Sources

Book: Collis, Ian . Whiticker, Alan . 100 Years of Rugby League . New Holland . 2007 . Chatswood, NSW . 1 . 978-1-74110-463-9 . 52 .

Notes and References

  1. http://www.rl1908.com/clubcomps/Honours.htm Premiership Roll of Honour
  2. News: Rugby League's Gate Receipts . Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 64 . New Zealand . 8 . 5 March 1915 . 3 December 2009.
  3. Book: Haddan. Stephen. History of the NSW Rugby League Finals. 1991. Australia. 26. 9780646050980 . 13 July 2014.