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 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
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.
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.
Balmain 36th seasonGround: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Bill KellyCaptain: Merv DentonCanterbury-Bankstown 9th seasonGround: Belmore Oval Captain-coach: Roy KirkaldyEastern Suburbs 36th seasonGround: Sports Ground Coach: Dave BrownCaptain: Harry PierceNewtown 36th seasonGround: Henson Park Coach: Arthur FolwellCaptain: Frank FarrellNorth Sydney 36th seasonGround: North Sydney Oval Captain-coach: Frank HydeSouth Sydney 36th seasonGround: Sports Ground Coach: Jim TaitSt. George 23rd seasonGround: Hurstville Oval Captain-coach: Neville SmithWestern Suburbs 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
TeamPldWDLPFPAPDPts1 Newtown141013272143+129212 Balmain141013178131+47213 North Sydney14734193124+69174 St. George14815185188−3175 South Sydney14806161147+14166 Eastern Suburbs144010131214−8387 Western Suburbs143011132176−4468 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.
Team12345678910111213141 Newtown 2 4 6 6 6 7 9 11 13 15 17 17 19 212 Balmain 2 2 2 4 6 8 9 11 13 13 15 17 19 213 North Sydney 0 2 2 2 4 5 6 8 10 12 14 16 16 174 St. George 2 4 6 6 8 8 10 12 12 14 14 14 16 175 South Sydney 0 2 2 4 6 8 8 8 10 10 12 14 16 166 Eastern Suburbs 0 0 2 4 4 6 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 87 Western Suburbs 0 0 2 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6 6 68 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 Newtown11–10 Balmain7 August 1943Sydney Cricket Ground47,230 Semifinals Newtown16–21 North Sydney14 August 1943Sydney Cricket GroundJack O'Brien35,920 Balmain5–12 St. George21 August 1943Sydney Cricket GroundGeorge Bishop27,395 Preliminary Final North Sydney25–19 St. George28 August 1943Sydney Cricket GroundJack O'Brien41,646 Final Newtown34–7 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.
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 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 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)
Player statistics The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 14.
Top 5 point scorers PointsPlayerTriesGoalsField Goals100 Tom Kirk050080 Ted Rudd434069 Fred Felsch330049 Bob Andrews320041 Frank Dreise5130 Top 5 try scorers TriesPlayer10 Cyril McMahon9 Len Kelly8 Norm Jacobson7 Sid Goodwin7 Keith Phillips
Top 5 goal scorers GoalsPlayer50 Tom Kirk34 Ted Rudd30 Fred Felsch20 Bob Andrews18 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