The 1958 NSWRFL season was the 51st season of the

New South Wales Rugby Football League The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...

, Australia's first

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 112 ...

football competition. Ten teams from across Sydney competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final between St. George and Western Suburbs.

Season summary

Having been wooden spooners in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

, Wests embarked on a massive spending spree to recruit internationals Harry Wells,

Kel O'Shea Kelvin Joseph "Kel" O'Shea (13 July 1933 – 22 January 2015) was an Australian representative rugby league footballer, a second-rower from Queensland whose club career was played with the Western Suburbs Magpies in Sydney. He is rated am ...

Arthur Summons Arthur James Summons (13 December 1935 – 16 May 2020) was an Australian representative rugby union and rugby league player, a dual-code rugby international fly-half or five-eighth. He captained the Australian national rugby league team in fiv ...

, Dick Poole,

Darcy Henry Darcy Henry (1932–2004) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s. Playing career Henry was from Tamworth, New South Wales, and came to Eastern Suburbs as a teenager in 1951. After the 1952 season, Henry moved to pla ...

and Ian Moir over a five-year period. The fruits of this labour began to show in 1958 when they finished in second place for the minor premiership and posed a challenge to St. George in the finals.

Harry Bath Harry Bath (28 November 1924 – 4 October 2008), born Alfred Henry Bath, also known by the nickname of "The Old Fox", was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach who was prominent and influential in the mid-20th century. A state and i ...

was the competition's leading goal scorer in 1958, with his St George teammate

Eddie Lumsden Edmund Lumsden (28 September 1936 – 6 October 2019) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer. He was a with the St. George Dragons during their eleven-year premiership winning run from 1956 to 1966, playing in and winning ...

the leading try scorer. Bath shattered the Dragons club's point scoring record with 225 season points from three tries and 108 goals. Nineteen-year-old

Reg Gasnier Reginald William "Reg" Gasnier (12 May 1939 – 11 May 2014) was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. He played for the St. George Dragons from 1959 to 1967 and represented Australian national rugby league team, Australia in a then ...

, later to be honoured as one of the Australian game's

Immortals Immortality is the ability to live forever, or eternal life. Immortal or Immortality may also refer to: Film * ''The Immortals'' (1995 film), an American crime film * ''Immortality'', an alternate title for the 1998 British film '' The Wisdom of ...

, made his Third Grade debut in 1958 and was immediately noticed, regularly scoring length-of-the-field tries. The 1958 season also saw the retirement from the League of future

Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame The Australian Rugby LeaguHall of Fame'' honours players who have shown exceptional skill at rugby league, all-time great coaches and referees, and other major contributors to the game who are Australian. It was officially established in 2002, ...

inductee,

Clive Churchill Clive Bernard Churchill AM (21 January 1927 – 9 August 1985) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach in the mid-20th century. An Australian international and New South Wales and Queensland interstate representative ...

Teams

Ladder

Finals

The developing Western Suburbs side which would become such a force at the beginning of the 1960s, was already building around the class of internationals Keith "Yappy" Holman, Harry "Dealer" Wells, Kel "Twigs" O'Shea along with their hard men Neville "Boxhead" Charlton, Mark Patch and fiery nineteen-year-old

Peter Dimond Peter Dimond (28 November 1938 – 21 April 2021) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played his club rugby league for Western Suburbs. Born in Dapto, New South Wales, he is the younger brother of former Australian test player and Ne ...

. With a simple game plan of "retaliate first", the Magpies' aggression in the semi-final stunned St George who were coming off a coasting run through the end of the season. In spite of having beaten Wests twice in the regular season, the Dragons were mauled by them 34–10 in the major-semi final with Dimond dominating his opposite

five-eighth Five-eighth or Stand-off is one of the positions in a rugby league football team. Wearing jersey number 6, this player is one of the two half backs in a team, partnering the . Sometimes known as the pivot or second receiver, in a traditional a ...

Peter Carroll and forcing the Dragons to a sudden death final against Balmain for the right to defend their title. The lessons from this loss sat heavily with St George – how an early forward onslaught designed to knock the spirit of the rival pack could determine the course of the entire game. For the next eight years, in all of their finals appearances, the Dragons would play a deliberate tactic of giving the opposition the ball in the first fifteen minutes and setting about demoralising them with brutal defence.

Grand Final

In an effort to negate Peter Dimond, Saints dropped Peter Carroll for the Grand Final, selecting lock and hard hitting defender, Brian Clay at five-eighth. From the kick-off, the record crowd saw a furious St George team lay into Wests. High tackles and punches were the order of the day and referee

Darcy Lawler Darcy Thomas Elgan Lawler (1919–1994) was a NSWRFL Referee in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Darcy Lawler was a rugby league referee based in Sydney, Australia. A veteran of over 300 first class games, Lawler refereed at local, state and in ...

penalised the Dragons seventeen times to Wests seven. Wests were unable to counter the onslaught which saw a ruthless Dragon defence advancing upon them at every opportunity although the score remained close for most of the match. Eventually with the Magpies subdued, Norm Provan and Bob Bugden cut loose, with Provan scoring two tries and Bugden snatching an intercept try near the end. Saints won the fight, and the match. For eighty minutes Clay was all over Dimond who ended the match dazed and bleeding. The ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' described the match as the most “savage” game of the season. St George 20 (Tries: N. Provan 2, Bugden, Lumsden. Goals: Bath 4.) Wests 9 (Tries: Russell. Goals: Russell 3 )

Player statistics

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

Great Britain Lions Tour

From May until August, the

Great Britain Lions The Great Britain national rugby league team represents Great Britain in rugby league. Administered by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the team is nicknamed The Lions. For most of the 20th century, the Great Britain team toured overseas, ...

toured Australia and New Zealand. In Australia they played the three Test

Ashes series The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Te ...

against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

as well as games against various sides including Sydney Firsts,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and a Sydney Representative Colts side that featured a young

. The team was coached by

Jim Brough James Wasdale Brough (5 November 1903 – 16 September 1986), also known by the nickname of 'Gentleman Jim' , was an English dual-code international rugby union, association football (soccer) footballer, and professional rugby league football ...

and was captained was

Alan Prescott George Alan Prescott (17 June 1927 – 20 September 1998) was an English rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and coached in the 1960s. He played initially at , and then later at or . In 404 matches for St Helens. ...

. ''Note: Other than the Ashes Tests, only games in NSW listed''

References

External links

1958 Season
''Rugby League Tables'' * Writer, Larry (1995) ''Never Before, Never Again'', Pan MacMillan, Sydney
1958 J J Giltinan Shield at rleague.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nswrfl season

NSW ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

New South Wales Rugby League premiership