1943 NSWRFL season

1943 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams	8
Premiers	Newtown (3rd title)
Minor premiers	Newtown (3rd title)
Matches played	61
Points scored	1527 (total) 25.033 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Tom Kirk (116)
Top try scorer(s)	C "Kelly" McMahon (12)

The 1943 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 36th season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football 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.^[1]

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 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.^[2]

Teams

• Balmain, formed on 23 January 1908 at Balmain Town Hall
• Canterbury-Bankstown
• Eastern Suburbs, formed on 24 January 1908 at Paddington Town Hall
• Newtown, formed on 14 January 1908
• 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

Balmain 36th season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Bill Kelly Captain: Merv Denton	Canterbury-Bankstown 9th season Ground: Belmore Oval Captain-coach: Roy Kirkaldy	Eastern Suburbs 36th season Ground: Sports Ground Coach: Dave Brown Captain: Harry Pierce	Newtown 36th season Ground: Henson Park Coach: Arthur Folwell Captain: Frank Farrell
North Sydney 36th season Ground: North Sydney Oval Captain-coach: Frank Hyde	South Sydney 36th season Ground: Sports Ground Coach: Jim Tait	St. George 23rd season Ground: Hurstville Oval Captain-coach: Neville Smith	Western Suburbs 36th season Groung: Pratten Park Coach: Alf Blair Captain: Jack Whitehurst, Eric Bennett

Ladder

The geographical locations of the teams that contested the 1943 premiership across Sydney.

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Newtown	14	10	1	3	272	143	+129	21
2	Balmain	14	10	1	3	178	131	+47	21
3	North Sydney	14	7	3	4	193	124	+69	17
4	St. George	14	8	1	5	185	188	−3	17
5	South Sydney	14	8	0	6	161	147	+14	16
6	Eastern Suburbs	14	4	0	10	131	214	−83	8
7	Western Suburbs	14	3	0	11	132	176	−44	6
8	Canterbury-Bankstown	14	3	0	11	115	244	−129	6

Finals

For the second year running, the minor premiership was decided by a playoff and once 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 once again; this time in the Final. Here, Newtown easily won the match and claimed their third and final premiership.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Playoff
Newtown	11–10	Balmain	7 August 1943	Sydney Cricket Ground		47,230
Semi Finals
Newtown	16–21	North Sydney	14 August 1943	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack O'Brien	35,920
Balmain	5–12	St. George	21 August 1943	Sydney Cricket Ground	George Bishop	27,395
Preliminary Final
North Sydney	25–19	St. George	28 August 1943	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack O'Brien	41,646
Final
Newtown	34–7	North Sydney	4 September 1943[3]	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack O'Brien	60,922

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.^[4][5]

The teams line up before the 1943 Grand final

Police closed the gates two hours before kick-off leaving 10,000 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.^[6]

Captained by the colourful Frank "Bumper" Farrell,^[7] 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.^[8] The 24 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)

Newtown 1943 premiers

References

• Rugby League Tables – Notes The World of Rugby League
• Rugby League Tables – Season 1943 The World of Rugby League
• 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