1928 NSWRFL season

1928 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams	9
Premiers	South Sydney (8th title)
Minor premiers	St. George (1st title)
Matches played	59
Points scored	1597 (total) 27.068 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Benny Wearing (94)
Top try scorer(s)	Tony Redmond (9)

The 1928 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the twenty-first season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football club competition, Australia's first. During the season, which lasted from April until September, nine teams from across the city contested the premiership, culminating in a final between Eastern Suburbs and South Sydney.

Season summary

• No minor premiership was awarded, and hence no "right of challenge" arose from the finals. Only 14 rounds of premiership matches were played.
• A dispute between the NSWRL and the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust over a number of issues lead to the League moving their match of the day to the neighbouring Sydney Sports Ground. The dispute wasn't patched up until 1935.
• The first ever night football match was played at the Sydney Showground, The match involved South Sydney and Eastern Sububs and was played on 22 December. Souths won 10-6. The match was played 9-a-side and took place without the approval of the NSWRL.
• Western Suburbs became the first Sydney club to use an animal for its nickname and logo. Wests, previously known as "The Fruitpickers" became "The Magpies".

Teams

• Balmain, formed on January 23, 1908 at Balmain Town Hall
• Eastern Suburbs, formed on January 24, 1908 at Paddington Town Hall
• Glebe, formed on January 9, 1908
• Newtown, formed on January 14, 1908
• North Sydney, formed on February 7, 1908
• South Sydney, formed on January 17, 1908 at Redfern Town Hall
• St. George, formed on November 8, 1920 at Kogarah School of Arts
• Western Suburbs, formed on February 4, 1908
• University, formed in 1919 at Sydney University

Balmain	Eastern Suburbs	Glebe
Newtown	North Sydney	St. George Ground: Earl Park Coach: Frank Burge
South Sydney	University	Western Suburbs

Earl Park riot

The season of 1928 was infamous for the Earl Park riot. In a St George home game 21-3 victory over Balmain, Tony Russell of Balmain became involved in a running feud with George Carstairs, the St George captain.

Referee Brannaghan began to lose control of the match when he sent off St George forward Harry Flower early in the second half but allowed Balmain players to stay on the field. After a later incident between Russell and Carstairs resulted in the latter being knocked unconscious and Brannaghan merely cautioning Russell, the crowd's aggravation grew and the situation escalated.

The Earl Park crowd took matters into their own hands by storming the field in an attempt to injure Russell. Police arrived and intervened using handcuffs, batons and fists but not before Russell was badly beaten by the crowd. He suffered leg and head injuries and was put into the same ambulance as George Carstairs where it was reported that Russell attempted to assault Carstairs and ambulance officers had to intervene to restrain him.

A week later, a NSWRL investigation blamed crowd violence and not the players or officials for the disturbance.

Ladder

The geographical locations of the teams that contested the 1928 premiership across Sydney.

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	St. George	13	12	0	1	1	200	98	+102	26
2	Eastern Suburbs	12	11	0	1	2	192	116	+76	26
3	South Sydney	13	8	0	5	1	216	152	+64	18
4	North Sydney	12	6	0	6	2	157	149	+8	16
5	University	13	6	0	7	1	184	176	+8	14
6	Western Suburbs	12	4	0	8	2	174	206	-32	12
7	Glebe	12	4	0	8	2	94	149	-55	12
8	Balmain	13	4	0	9	1	180	236	-56	10
9	Newtown	12	1	0	11	2	112	227	-115	6

Finals

Heading into the finals, top placed St. George and Eastern Suburbs were in top form, with St. George losing their only match in round 3 and Eastern Suburbs losing to St. George in round 7 of the 14-week competition. With Saints & Easts finishing on 26 points each, no playoff for the minor premiership was staged to award a right of challenge in the finals,^[1] thus negating the good work done by both sides during the premiership rounds and ultimately providing an easier route than otherwise for Souths to win the title away from both of the minor premiers.

In the semi-finals, Eastern Suburbs beat fourth-placed North Sydney to make the final, whilst South Sydney beat St. George, whom they had lost to 9-8 just three weeks earlier.

	Semi-finals				Final
	7 September 1928 - Wentworth Oval
	Eastern Suburbs	26
	North Sydney	13
					22 September 1928 - Agricultural
					South Sydney	26
					Eastern Suburbs	5
	7 September 1928 - Earl Park
	St. George	5
	South Sydney	13

Final

A crowd of 25,000 were at the Royal Agricultural Society Grounds to watch the final between South Sydney and Easts, refereed by Lal Deane. George Treweek scored Souths' first try, crashing over under the posts after Easts' fullback Toby fumbled the high kick. Wearing converted. Then Jack Why, Root and Brien combined to put Williams over and Souths took an 8-0 lead. Before the half-ended Wearing kicked a penalty goal from halfway and Quinlivan crossed for another Souths try and a 13-0 lead at the break.

The second stanza started no better for Easts when Hardy took the ball close with the line wide open only to see his pass dropped. Harry Kadwell struck back for Souths who went to a 16-0 lead before the floodgates opened - Cavanough scored from the next kick-off and then Kadwell crossed again. Easts' only try of the match was by Steel under the posts and was the last of the match with bell sounding shortly after. Thus the Rabbitohs took their fourth successive title and become the first club to achieve that feat.

South Sydney 26 (Tries: Kadwell (2), Treweek, Williams, Quinlivan, Cavanagh. Goals: Wearing 2, Quinlivan 2)

defeated

Eastern Suburbs 5 (Tries: Steel. Goal: Oxford)

References

• Rugby League Tables - Notes The World of Rugby League
• Rugby League Tables - Season 1928 The World of Rugby League
• Premiership History and Statistics RL1908
• Andrews, Malcolm (2006) The ABC of Rugby League Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney
• Haddan, Steve [2007] The Finals - 100 Years of National Rugby League Finals, Steve Haddan Publishing, Brisbane
• Results: 1921-30 at rabbitohs.com.au
• The Earl Park Riot at eraofthebiff.com