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New South Wales Rugby Football League season 1976
Teams 12
Premiers Manly colours.svg Manly-Warringah (3rd title)
Minor premiers Manly colours.svg Manly-Warringah (4th title)
Matches played 138
Points scored 4390 (total)
31.812 (per match)
Attendance 1,594,183 (total)
11,552 (per match)
Top points scorer(s) Manly colours.svg Graham Eadie (233)
Top try scorer(s) Manly colours.svg Bob Fulton (24)

The 1976 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the sixty-ninth season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Twelve teams, including six of 1908's foundation clubs and another six from around Sydney, competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Manly-Warringah and Parramatta clubs. NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1976 Amco Cup.

Contents

[edit] Season summary

Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August resulting in a top four of Manly-Warringah, Parramatta, St. George and Eastern Suburbs who battled it out in the finals.

In a one-off match that would form the foundation of the modern World Club Challenge, the previous season's premiers, Eastern Suburbs played British Champions St Helens RLFC on the 29th of June at the Sydney Cricket Ground. 26,865 turned out to see the Roosters beat the Saints 25 to 2.

This season Parramatta front-rower and captain Ray Higgs won both the Rothmans Medal and the Rugby League Week player of the year award.

The 1976 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Graeme Langlands.

[edit] Teams

Balmain home jersey 1963.svg
Balmain Tigers
Canterbury home jersey 1966.svg
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
Cronulla home jersey 1970.svg
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
Eastern Suburbs home jersey 1953.svg
Eastern Suburbs Roosters
Manly Sea Eagles home jersey 1965.svg
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
Newtown Jets home jersey 1972.svg
Newtown Jets
North Sydney Bears home jersey 1951.svg
North Sydney Bears
Parramatta Eels home jersey 1975.svg
Parramatta Eels
Penrith Panthers home jersey 1973.svg
Penrith Panthers
South Sydney home jersey 1908.svg
South Sydney Rabbitohs
St. George home jersey 1945.svg
St. George Dragons
Western Suburbs home jersey 1959.svg
Western Suburbs Magpies

[edit] Ladder

Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Manly colours.svg Manly-Warringah 22 16 0 6 499 252 +247 32
2 Parramatta colours.svg Parramatta 22 14 2 6 347 238 +109 30
3 St. George colours.svg St. George 22 14 0 8 328 298 +30 28
4 Eastern Suburbs colours.svg Eastern Suburbs 22 13 1 8 399 250 +149 27
5 Canterbury colours.svg Canterbury-Bankstown 22 12 3 7 361 337 +24 27
6 Balmain colours.svg Balmain 22 12 1 9 318 287 +31 25
7 Western Suburbs colours.svg Western Suburbs 22 11 2 9 379 313 +66 24
8 Cronulla colours.svg Cronulla-Sutherland 22 9 1 12 378 393 -15 19
9 Penrith colours.svg Penrith 22 8 1 13 352 333 +19 17
10 South Sydney colours.svg South Sydney 22 8 0 14 297 421 -124 16
11 North Sydney colours.svg North Sydney 22 6 1 15 272 526 -254 13
12 Newtown colours.svg Newtown Jets 22 3 0 19 264 546 -282 6

[edit] Finals

Parramatta were first into the Grand Final, triumphing 23-17 in a bloody and brutal major semi-final against Manly. Manly earned a grand final berth the following week, surviving a Canterbury comeback to win 15-12.[1]

Home Score Away Match Information
Date and Time Venue Referee Crowd
Qualifying Finals
Parramatta colours.svg Parramatta 31-6 St. George colours.svg St. George 28 August 1976 Sydney Cricket Ground Greg Hartley 28,264
Eastern Suburbs colours.svg Eastern Suburbs 13-22 Canterbury colours.svg Canterbury-Bankstown 29 August 1976 Sydney Cricket Ground Gary Cook 27,203
Semi Finals
Manly colours.svg Manly-Warringah 17-23 Parramatta colours.svg Parramatta 4 September 1976 Sydney Cricket Ground Greg Hartley 30,999
St. George colours.svg St. George 9-25 Canterbury colours.svg Canterbury-Bankstown 5 September 1976 Sydney Cricket Ground Gary Cook 27,261
Preliminary Final
Manly colours.svg Manly-Warringah 15-12 Canterbury colours.svg Canterbury-Bankstown 11 September 1976 Sydney Cricket Ground Gary Cook 31,381
Grand Final
Parramatta colours.svg Parramatta 10-13 Manly colours.svg Manly-Warringah 18 September 1976 Sydney Cricket Ground Gary Cook 57,343

[edit] Grand Final

Manly-Warringah Position Parramatta
Graham Eadie FB Mark Levy
Tom Mooney WG Jim Porter
Russell Gartner CE Ed Sulkowicz
Bob Fulton (c) CE John Moran
Rod Jackson WG Neville Glover
Alan Thompson FE John Peard
Gary Stephens HB John Kolc
John Harvey PR Graham Olling
Max Krilich HK Ron Hilditch
Terry Randall PR Denis Fitzgerald
Steve Norton SR Ray Higgs (c)
Phil Lowe SR Geoff Gerard
Ian Martin LK Ray Price
Gary Thoroughgoood Reserve John Baker
Mark Willoughby Reserve Graeme Atkins
Frank Stanton Coach Terry Fearnley

In 1976, after 30 years of competition, Parramatta reached their first grand final since their admission into the NSWRFL premiership in 1947. Jim Porter scored first, getting Parramatta to a 5-0 lead. A penalty goal to Graham Eadie closed the score to 5-2 before Alan Thompson side-stepped through to send Phil Lowe in for Manly's first and only try. Scores were locked 7-7 at half time.

Geoff Gerard scored an unconverted try for the Eels early in the second half, then two penalties gave Manly an 11-10 lead. Twelve minutes from full-time Parramatta missed a critical opportunity to win the game and their first ever premiership when winger Neville Glover put down a pass from John Moran in the Paddington Hill corner with the line wide open.

Another penalty gave Manly a 13-10 lead. In the frantic dying minutes Parramatta threw everything they had at the Manly defence including the infamous "flying wedge" of dubious legality which had Ron Hilditch at the apex of a phalanx of players driving him towards the line. The wedge was somehow stopped by Eadie a foot short of the try line.

The Manly defence held and the Sea Eagles secured their third premiership in five seasons, while the Eels would have to wait five more years for their first.

It was Bob Fulton's 213th and final match for Manly after a brilliant ten-year career with the club. He was full of emotion as he accepted the J J Giltinan Shield and was able to end his playing career at Manly on the highest note. He would later return to the club as a successful coach in the 1980s but first he would finish his playing years and then commence coaching at the Eastern Suburbs Roosters.

Manly's win was a triumph for the powerful triumvirate of Fulton, coach Frank Stanton and Secretary Ken Arthurson who would all go onto higher honours in the game. For Stanton, it was his first success in a coaching career which was to bring two premierships and two Ashes-winning Kangaroo tours. Arthurson had brought to the club players of a calibre to enable five Grand Final appearances in the 1970s for four victories. He would go on to become the Chairman of the New South Wales Rugby League and later the Australian Rugby League.

Manly 13 (Tries: Lowe. Goals: Eadie 5.)

Parramatta 10 (Tries: Porter, Gerard. Goals: Peard 2.)

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Heads, p365

[edit] References




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