1947 NSWRFL season

1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams	10
Premiers	Balmain^[1] (10th title)
Minor premiers	Canterbury (3rd title)
Matches played	95
Points scored	3238 (total) 34.084 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Pat Devery (142)
Top try scorer(s)	Bob Lulham (28)

The 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 40th season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football competition, Australia's first. The addition of two teams, Manly-Warringah and Parramatta, saw ten teams from across the city contest during the 1947 premiership, the first expansion of the League since Canterbury's introduction in 1935. The season culminated in a grand final between the Balmain and Canterbury-Bankstown clubs.^[2]

Season summary

Mid way through the season the Balmain club looked out of touch winning only 6 of their first 12 games. Five consecutive wins to end the regular season left them in position to make a finals assault. Balmain's Bob Lulham's set a new record for the highest number of tries by a player in a debut season with a tally of 28 tries in 18 matches. This remains that club's standing record for tries in a season.

Teams

For the first time, the number of clubs in the league reached double digits due to the admission of Manly-Warringah and Parramatta to the first grade competition. Manly had been competing for a number of years in the NSWRFL's President's Cup (3rd grade) competition and had been assured by the league of first grade status should they win the Presidents Cup, which they finally did in 1946. After Cumberland's demise from the league, pressure began to build in the area for another team in the NSWRFL in the 1930s, though this died down during World War II and a Parramatta district club was not proposed again until 1946 when the club was successfully admitted into the Premiership.^[3]^[4]

Balmain, formed on January 23, 1908 at Balmain Town Hall
Canterbury-Bankstown, formed on September 25, 1934
Eastern Suburbs, formed on January 24, 1908 at Paddington Town Hall
Manly-Warringah admitted in 1947
Newtown, formed on January 14, 1908
North Sydney, formed on February 7, 1908
Parramatta, formed in November 1946
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


Balmain 40th season Ground(s): Leichhardt Oval, Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Norm Robinson Captain: Tom Bourke	Canterbury-Bankstown 13th season Ground(s): Belmore Oval, Sydney Showground, Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Ross McKinnon Captain: Henry Porter	Eastern Suburbs 40th season Ground(s): Pratten Park, Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Arthur Halloway Captain: Sel Lisle	Manly-Warringah 1st season Ground(s): Brookvale Oval Coach: Harold Johnson & Ray Stehr Captain: Max Whitehead
Newtown 40th season Ground(s): Erskineville Oval Captain-coach: Frank Farrell	North Sydney 40th season Ground(s): North Sydney Oval, Sydney Showground Coach: Cliff Pearce Captain: Tom Kirk	Parramatta 1st season Ground(s): Cumberland Oval Coach: Frank McMillan Captain: Bob Andrews	South Sydney 40th season Ground(s): Pratten Park, Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Dave Watson Captain: Jack Rayner
	St. George 27th season Ground(s): Hurstville Oval Coach: Arthur Justice, Charlie Lynch (from May) Captain: Doug McRitchie	Western Suburbs 40th season Ground(s): Pratten Park, Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Frank Burge Captain: Eric Bennett

Ladder

Balmain Premiers 1947.

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Canterbury	18	13	1	4	366	272	+94	27
2	Balmain	18	12	0	6	342	265	+77	24
3	Newtown	18	11	1	6	375	302	+73	23
4	St. George	18	11	0	7	353	272	+81	22
5	Western Suburbs	18	11	0	7	295	253	+42	22
6	North Sydney	18	9	1	8	287	278	+9	19
7	South Sydney	18	9	0	9	314	328	-14	18
8	Eastern Suburbs	18	5	1	12	270	316	-46	11
9	Manly-Warringah	18	4	0	14	242	364	-122	8
10	Parramatta	18	3	0	15	230	424	-194	6

Finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
Home	Score	Away	Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Playoff
St. George	5 - 10	Western Suburbs	27 August 1947	Sydney Sports Ground		13,552
Semi Finals
Canterbury	25 - 15	Newtown	30 August 1947	Sydney Cricket Ground	George Bishop	36,303
Balmain	27 - 16	Western Suburbs	6 September 1947	Sydney Sports Ground	Tom McMahon	29,375
Final
Canterbury	19 - 25	Balmain	13 September 1947	Sydney Sports Ground	Jack O'Brien	34,994
Grand Final
Canterbury	9 - 13	Balmain	20 September 1947^[5]	Sydney Sports Ground	Jack O'Brien	29,292

Grand final

Canterbury-Bankstown	Position	Balmain
Dick Johnson	FB	Jack McCullough
Jeff Simmonds	WG	Robert Lulham
Eddie Tracy	CE	Pat Devery
Norm Young	CE	Joe Jorgenson
Morrie Murphy	WG	Arthur Patton
Roy Hasson	FE	George Williams
Bruce Hopkins	HB	Des Bryan
Eddie Burns	PR	Jack Branighan
Roy Kirkaldy	HK	Herb Gilbert Jnr
Henry Porter (c)	PR	Jack Spencer
Alister Clarke	SR	Sid Ryan
Ken Charlton	SR	Harry Bath
Len Holmes	LK	Tom Bourke (c)
Ross McKinnon	Coach	Norm Robinson

The Tigers had strung together seven consecutive wins including a preliminary final victory over minor premiers Canterbury in their attempt at a second straight premiership. Canterbury exercised their "right of challenge" after losing the final and called for a Grand Final decider.

The formidable Canterbury front row of Eddie Burns, Roy Kirkaldy and Henry Porter were combining in their tenth season for close to 100 appearances as a scrum front trio. They led a punishing Berries defence and gave their side a better-than-even chance of possession in the scrum contests.

Balmain's international star centre and Kangaroo captain Joe Jorgenson had played and coached on a country contract in Junee in 1947 but returned to the Tigers reserve-grade in time for the semi-finals. The Grand Final marked his sole first-grade appearance of the season. Balmain's Test five-eighth Pat Devery was the nominated match kicker but after several misses he passed over to Jorgenson who kicked three penalties to keep Balmain in the game and trailing 9-6 with ten minutes to go.

Then Jorgenson crashed over for a try under the posts and after receiving medical attention he converted his own goal to give the Tigers an 11-9 lead. A final 45-yard penalty goal then sealed the match for the Tigers at 13-9 with Jorgenson scoring all of Balmain's points and being chaired victorious from the field.

Balmain 13 (Tries: Jorgenson. Goals: Jorgenson 5 )

defeated

Canterbury-Bankstown 9 (Tries: Hasson. Goals: Johnson 2, Hasson)

References

↑ Premiership Roll of Honour at rl1908.com
↑ "Canterbury wants Kilham back". The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia). 1947-09-15. p. 8. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
↑ Fagan, Sean. "Parramatta Eels". RL1908. Retrieved 18 September 2007.
↑ "History of the Premiership". centenaryofrugbyleague.com.au. Australian Rugby League. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
↑ 1947 Grand Final at nrlstats.com

Rugby League Tables - Notes The World of Rugby League
Rugby League Tables - Season 1947 The World of Rugby League
Premiership History and Statistics RL1908
Finals lineups and results Hunterlink site
Balmain Official History Tigers History Site
Whiticker, Alan(2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney
Results:1941-1950 at rabbitohs.com.au
1947 Labor Daily Cup at rleague.com
1947 NSWRFL season at rugbyleagueproject.com

NRL seasons

NSWRL era	1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994

ARL / SL war	1995 1996 1997 (ARL / SL)

NRL era	1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, January 25, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.