1943 NSWRFL season

Rugby league competition December 2020 February 2012 1943 New South Wales Rugby Football League 8 16x16px Newtown 3rd 16x16px Newtown 3rd 61 1527 16x16px Tom Kirk (116) 16x16px Cyril McMahon (12) Canterbury-Bankstown 1st 1942 NSWRFL season 1942 1944 NSWRFL season 1944 The 1943 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the thirty-sixth season of Sydney's top-level rugby league 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 victory over North Sydney.Premiership Roll of Honour https://web.archive.org/web/20070428143335/http://rl1908.com/clubcomps/Honours.htm 28 April 2007 at rl1908.com 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 had a disastrous season, finishing last and picking up the wooden spoon for the first of only six 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.Easts: Season Summary https://web.archive.org/web/20090419173550/http://stats.rleague.com/rl/teams/easts/easts_ss.html 19 April 2009 Teams Balmain, formed on 23 January 1908 at Balmain Town Hall Canterbury-Bankstown, formed on 24 September 1935 in Belmore, Canterbury-Bankstown Eastern Suburbs, formed on 24 January 1908 at Paddington Town Hall 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 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.Souths Retain Colors - The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954) - 16 Dec 1942 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230597229 2021-07-09 Sun 16 December 1942 en 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.2020-04-22 The story behind the Maroon jersey https://www.bulldogs.com.au/news/2020/04/22/the-story-behind-the-maroon-jersey/ 2021-07-09 Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs en Balmain100px|center 36th seasonGround: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Bill KellyCaptain: Merv DentonCanterbury-Bankstown100px|center 9th seasonGround: Belmore Oval Captain-coach: Roy KirkaldyEastern Suburbs100px|center 36th seasonGround: Sports Ground Coach: Dave BrownCaptain: Harry PierceNewtown100px|center 36th seasonGround: Henson Park Coach: Arthur FolwellCaptain: Frank FarrellNorth Sydney100px|center 36th seasonGround: North Sydney Oval Captain-coach: Frank HydeSouth Sydney100px|center 36th seasonGround: Sports Ground Coach: Jim TaitSt. George100px|center 23rd seasonGround: Hurstville Oval Captain-coach: Neville SmithWestern Suburbs100px|center 36th seasonGround: Pratten Park Coach: Alf BlairCaptain: Jack Whitehurst, Eric Bennett Regular season Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 F1 F2 F3 F4 GF BalmainWES+4SOU−12EAS−12NEW+12CBY+3STG+2NOR0SOU+14EAS+12NEW−28CBY+33STG+6NOR+8WES+5NEW−1XSTG−7 Canterbury-BankstownEAS+8NOR−6NEW−27WES−11BAL−3SOU−10STG−8NOR−25NEW−18WES+8BAL−33SOU−2STG−5EAS+3 Eastern SuburbsCBY−8NEW−19BAL+12STG+20NOR−8WES+5SOU+2NEW−6BAL−12STG−2NOR−14WES−16SOU−34CBY−3 NewtownSOU+17EAS+19CBY+27BAL−12STG−1NOR0WES+4EAS+6CBY+18BAL+28STG+13NOR−6WES+1SOU+15BAL+1NOR−5XXNOR+27 North SydneySTG−1CBY+6WES−3SOU−3EAS+8NEW0BAL0CBY+25WES+18SOU+7EAS+14NEW+6BAL−8STG0XNEW+5XSTG+6NEW−27 South SydneyNEW−17BAL+12STG−18NOR+3WES+10CBY+10EAS−2BAL−14STG+9NOR−7WES+7CBY+2EAS+34NEW−15 St. GeorgeNOR+1WES+9SOU+18EAS−20NEW+1BAL−2CBY+8WES+3SOU−9EAS+2NEW−13BAL−6CBY+5NOR0XXBAL+7NOR−6 Western SuburbsBAL−4STG−9NOR+3CBY+11SOU−10EAS−5NEW−4STG−3NOR−18CBY−8SOU−7EAS+16NEW−1BAL−5 Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 F1 F2 F3 F4 GF Bold – Home game X – Bye Opponent for round listed above margin Ladder 230px|thumb|right|The geographical locations of the teams that contested the 1943 premiership across Sydney. TeamPldWDLPFPAPDPts116x16px Newtown141013272143+12921216x16px Balmain141013178131+4721316x16px North Sydney14734193124+6917416x16px St. George14815185188−317516x16px South Sydney14806161147+1416616x16px Eastern Suburbs144010131214−838716x16px Western Suburbs143011132176−446816x16px Canterbury143011115244−1296 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. Team12345678910111213141Newtown 16 Newtown 2 4 6 6 6 7 9 11 13 15 17 17 19 212Balmain 16 Balmain 2 2 2 4 6 8 9 11 13 13 15 17 19 213North Sydney 16 North Sydney 0 2 2 2 4 5 6 8 10 12 14 16 16 174St. George 16 St. George 2 4 6 6 8 8 10 12 12 14 14 14 16 175South Sydney 16 South Sydney 0 2 2 4 6 8 8 8 10 10 12 14 16 166Eastern Suburbs 16 Eastern Suburbs 0 0 2 4 4 6 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 87Western Suburbs 16 Western Suburbs 0 0 2 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6 6 68Canterbury 16 Canterbury-Bankstown 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 6 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 likely last premiership. The team was expelled from first grade after the 1983 season, and hasn’t returned since HomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueRefereeCrowd Playoff 23x23px Newtown11–10 23x23px Balmain7 August 1943Sydney Cricket Ground47,230 Semifinals 23x23px Newtown16–21 23x23px North Sydney14 August 1943Sydney Cricket GroundJack O'Brien35,920 23x23px Balmain5–12 23x23px St. George21 August 1943Sydney Cricket GroundGeorge Bishop27,395 Preliminary Final 23x23px North Sydney25–19 23x23px St. George28 August 1943Sydney Cricket GroundJack O'Brien41,646 Final 23x23px Newtown34–7 23x23px North Sydney4 September 19431943 Grand Final at nrlstats.comSydney Cricket GroundJack O'Brien60,922 Premiership final NewtownPositionNorth Sydney 13. Tom Kirk FB Stan Ridgway 24. Sid Goodwin WG 2. Frank Collins 10. Len Smith CE 3. Frank Hyde (Ca./Co.) 9. Norm Jacobson CE 4. Ted Rudd 12. Bruce Ryan WG 5. Ron Ainsworth 8. Tom Nevin FE 6. Cyril McMahon 7. Paddy Bugden HB 7. Johnny McLachlan 3. Gordon MacLennan PR 11. Laurie Doran Jimmy Brailey HK 12. Frank Facer 2. Frank Farrell (c) PR 14. Harry McKinnon 5. Keith Phillips SR 15. Max Whitehead 4. Herb Narvo SR 9. Don McKinnon 6. Charles Cahill LK 10. Gerald Scully Arthur Folwell Coach 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. Pollard Jack Gregory's Guide to Rugby League Grenville Publishing 1965 Australia p144 Middleton David Footy stars taken on battlefield http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/footy-stars-taken-on-battlefield/story-e6frexnr-1225857603994 3 January 2012 The Daily Telegraph 24 April 2010 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. Pollard Jack Gregory's Guide to Rugby League Grenville Publishing 1965 Australia p82 Captained by the colourful Frank "Bumper" Farrell, Coady Ben Grand final dramas WA Today Australia Fairfax Digital 2009-09-28 http://blogs.watoday.com.au/executive-style/sportandstyle/bencoady/2009/09/28/grandfinaldra.html 2010-01-15 https://web.archive.org/web/20181004074123/http://blogs.watoday.com.au/executive-style/sportandstyle/bencoady/2009/09/28/grandfinaldra.html 4 October 2018 dead Newtown took on the fancied North Sydney side. The men from across the harbour were led by Frank Hyde 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. South's record margin in League Finale The Sydney Morning Herald Australia 6 1951-09-24 https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Cs0QAAAAIBAJ&pg=6675,3446226 2009-11-20 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 before being expelled from the top flight after the 1983 season Newtown 34 (Tries: Goodwin 2, Ryan, Brailey, Phillips, Narvo, Smith, Farrell. Goals: Kirk 5) defeated North Sydney 7 (Tries: McLachlan. Goals: Rudd 2) centre|thumb|500px|Newtown 1943 premiers Player statistics The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 14. Top 5 point scorers PointsPlayerTriesGoalsField Goals100Newtown Tom Kirk050080North Sydney Ted Rudd434069South Sydney Fred Felsch330049Western Suburbs Bob Andrews320041Balmain Frank Dreise5130 Top 5 try scorers TriesPlayer10North Sydney Cyril McMahon9St. George Len Kelly8Newtown Norm Jacobson7Newtown Sid Goodwin7Newtown Keith Phillips Top 5 goal scorers GoalsPlayer50Newtown Tom Kirk34North Sydney Ted Rudd30South Sydney Fred Felsch20Western Suburbs Bob Andrews18Eastern Suburbs Bert Cowley References External links Rugby League Tables – Notes AFL Tables Rugby League Tables – Season 1943 AFL Tables Premiership History and Statistics RL1908 Finals lineups and results Hunterlink site Unofficial North Sydney History Greg Fiveash site Results: 1941–50 at rabbitohs.com.au Category:New South Wales Rugby League premiership Nswrfl season