The 1943
New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership
The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sou ...
was the thirty-sixth season of
Sydney's top-level
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
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
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...
victory over North Sydney.
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
Canterbury-Bankstown is a customary region of Sydney, Australia, in the south-western suburbs. The area is located around the Bankstown railway line, to the west of the St George region and to the south of the Inner West region. The suburbs ...
had a disastrous season, finishing last and picking up the wooden spoon for the first of only four 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.
Teams
*
Balmain, formed on 23 January 1908 at
Balmain Town Hall Balmain may refer to:
Places
* Balmain, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia
* Electoral district of Balmain, an electoral division in New South Wales, Australia
* Balmain East, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia
* Balmain Ho ...
*
Canterbury-Bankstown
Canterbury-Bankstown is a customary region of Sydney, Australia, in the south-western suburbs. The area is located around the Bankstown railway line, to the west of the St George region and to the south of the Inner West region. The suburbs ...
, formed on 24 September 1935 in Belmore, Canterbury-Bankstown
*
Eastern Suburbs Eastern Suburbs may refer to:
Places
*Eastern Suburbs (Mumbai), India
*Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Australia
**Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney, Australia
Sports clubs
;Association football
*Eastern Suburbs AFC, Auckland, New Zealand
* Eastern ...
, formed on 24 January 1908 at
Paddington Town Hall
The Paddington Town Hall is a heritage-listed former town hall building located at 249 Oxford Street in the inner eastern Sydney suburb of Paddington, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. Sir Henry Parkes ...
*
Newtown, formed on 8 January 1908 at Newtown Town Hall
*
North Sydney, formed on 7 February 1908
*
South Sydney, formed on 17 January 1908 at
Redfern Town Hall
The Redfern Town Hall is a landmark sandstone civic building located in the heart of , New South Wales, Australia. built in 1870 and designed in the Victorian Regency style by George Allen Mansfield. It was the seat of the Municipality of Redfer ...
*
St. George, formed on 8 November 1920 at Kogarah School of Arts
*
Western Suburbs, formed on 4 February 1908
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.
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.
Ladder
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.
Premiership final
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.
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.
Captained by the colourful
Frank "Bumper" Farrell, Newtown took on the fancied North Sydney side. The men from across the harbour were led by
Frank Hyde
Frank Hyde MBE OAM (7 February 1916 – 24 September 2007) was an Australian rugby league footballer, coach and radio caller. A New South Wales representative three-quarter, Hyde played his club football in Sydney for NSWRFL Premiership clubs ...
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.
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
Top 5 try scorers
Top 5 goal scorers
References
External links
Rugby League Tables – Notes''AFL Tables''
''AFL Tables''
''RL1908''
''Hunterlink site''
''Greg Fiveash site''
at ''rabbitohs.com.au''
{{National Rugby League seasons
New South Wales Rugby League premiership
Nswrfl season