1982 NSWRFL season

1982 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams 14
Premiers Parramatta (2nd title)
Minor premiers Parramatta (2nd title)
Matches played 188
Points scored 5927 (total)
31.527 (per match)
Attendance 1,716,490 (total)
9,130 (per match)
Top point scorer(s) Mick Cronin (279)
Top try scorer(s) Steve Ella (23)

The 1982 NSWRFL season was the seventy-fifth season of professional rugby league football in Australia. This season saw the New South Wales Rugby Football League’s first expansion since 1967 with the introduction of the first two clubs in over half a century from outside the Sydney area: the Canberra Raiders and the Illawarra Steelers. Therefore, a total of fourteen clubs (including six Sydney-based foundation teams, another six from Sydney, one from greater New South Wales, and one from the Australian Capital Territory) competed for the J J Giltinan Shield and newly created Winfield Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Parramatta and Manly-Warringah clubs. This season, NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1982 KB Cup.

Season summary

This year a bronze replica of “the Gladiators” – the 1963 photo taken by John O'Gready of Norm Provan and Arthur Summons’ post-game, mud-caked embrace - was first adopted to adorn the Winfield Cup, the new trophy to be awarded to the grand final winners. Because of the introduction of two new teams, twenty-six (rather than twenty-two) regular season rounds were played from February till August, resulting in a top five of Easts, Newtown, Parramatta, Cronulla and Manly. The new teams, the Illawarra Steelers and the Canberra Raiders, would finish their debut seasons in second last and last place respectively.

The 1982 season saw the only nil-all scoreline in competition history. The Newtown Jets and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs drew their match at Henson Park on 28 March, with neither team scoring a point. The long-standing record for the longest suspension for a player in the League's history was broken during the season. Western Suburbs' Bob Cooper was suspended for 15 months for punching Illawarra’s Lee Pomfret.

The 1982 season's Rothmans Medallist was Canterbury-Bankstown’s Greg Brentnall and the Dally M Award went to Parramatta’s lock forward, Ray Price. Rugby League Week gave their player of the year award to Eastern Suburbs’ halfback Kevin Hastings for the third consecutive season.

Teams

This year the number of clubs reached a new high of fourteen, with the addition on Illawarra and Canberra.[1] This saw the first inclusion of teams based outside of the Sydney area since the foundation Newcastle club departed the League in 1909. This was the first of several expansions that would take place over the next decade and a half which would see the Sydney-wide competition grow into a New South Wales-wide competition and eventually into a national league. Also, for the first time in three quarters of a century, the League's 1908 foundation teams were outnumbered by teams introduced after 1908.

Balmain Tigers
75th season
Ground: Liechhardt Oval
Coach: Frank Stanton
Captain: Neil Whittaker→Trevor Ryan
Canberra Raiders
1st season
Ground: Seiffert Oval
Coach: Don Furner
Captain: David Grant
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
48th season
Ground: Belmore Sports Ground
Coach: Ted Glossop
Captain: George Peponis
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
16th season
Ground: Endeavour Field
Coach: Greg Pierce
Captain: Steve Rogers
Eastern Suburbs Roosters
75th season
Ground: Sydney Sports Ground
Coach: Bob Fulton
Captain: Royce Ayliffe
Illawarra Steelers
1st season
Ground: Wollongong Showground
Coach: Allan Fitzgibbon
Captain: John Dorahy
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
36th season
Ground: Brookvale Oval
Coach: Ray Ritchie
Captain: Max Krilich
Newtown Jets
75th season
Ground: Henson Park
Coach: Warren Ryan
Captain: Tom Raudonikis & Ken Wilson
North Sydney Bears
75th season
Ground: North Sydney Oval
Coach: Ron Willey
Captain: Mark Graham
Parramatta Eels
36th season
Ground: Belmore Sports Ground
Coach: Jack Gibson
Captain: Steve Edge
Penrith Panthers
16th season
Ground: Penrith Stadium
Coach: John Peard
Captain: Darryl Brohman
South Sydney Rabbitohs
75th season
Ground: Redfern Oval
Coach: Bill Anderson
Captain: Mitch Brennan
St. George Dragons
62nd season
Ground: Jubilee Oval
Coach: Roy Masters
Captain: Craig Young
Western Suburbs Magpies
75th season
Ground: Lidcombe Oval
Coach: Terry Fearnley
Captain: Warren Boland

Ladder

Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Parramatta 262105619242+37742
2 Manly-Warringah 261709530411+11934
3 North Sydney 261619399360+3933
4 Eastern Suburbs 261529437304+13332
5 Western Suburbs 2616010412349+6332
6 South Sydney 2614111395400-529
7 Newtown 2613211406309+9728
8 Cronulla-Sutherland 2613112400336+6427
9 Canterbury-Bankstown 2612311399361+3827
10 St. George 2611213408402+624
11 Balmain 2610115383427-4421
12 Penrith 267118375441-6615
13 Illawarra 266020344572-22812
14 Canberra 264022269862-5938

Finals

Home Score Away Match Information
Date and Time Venue Referee Crowd
Qualifying Finals
Eastern Suburbs 11-7 Western Suburbs 4 September 1982 Sydney Cricket Ground Jack Danzey 21,167
Manly-Warringah 26-3 North Sydney 5 September 1982 Sydney Cricket Ground John Gocher 24,690
Semi Finals
North Sydney 10-12 Eastern Suburbs 11 September 1982 Sydney Cricket Ground Jack Danzey 19,566
Parramatta 0-20 Manly-Warringah 12 September 1982 Sydney Cricket Ground John Gocher 31,604
Preliminary Final
Parramatta 33-0 Eastern Suburbs 19 September 1982 Sydney Cricket Ground John Gocher 24,637
Grand Final
Manly-Warringah 8-21 Parramatta 26 September 1982 Sydney Cricket Ground John Gocher 52,186

Grand Final

Manly-Warringah Position Parramatta
Graham Eadie FB Paul Taylor
John Ribot WG Neil Hunt
Chris Close CE Mick Cronin
Michael Blake CE Steve Ella
Phil Carey WG Eric Grothe
Alan Thompson (c) FE Brett Kenny
Phil Blake HB Peter Sterling
Geoff Gerard PR Geoff Bugden
Ray Brown HK Steve Edge (c)
Terry Randall PR Chris Phelan
Paul Vautin SR John Muggleton
Les Boyd SR Steve Sharp
Paul McCabe LK Ray Price
Max Krilich Reserve Peter Wynn
Bruce Walker Reserve Mark Laurie
Ian Thomson Reserve
Ray Ritchie Coach Jack Gibson

The Eels won the minor premiership with ease - eight points ahead of Manly - and breezed through the decider with the same confidence. Manly opened the scoring through Phil Blake in the opening minutes, but Parramatta replied quickly when Brett Kenny put Steve Ella over. After a quiet period, Manly collapsed in the ten minutes before half-time with Parramatta scoring three tries. The first to Eric Grothe came when Brett Kenny had shown brilliant evasive skills on the second tackle after Manly dropped the ball, the second came when a Peter Sterling bomb deflected off a Parramatta player into Kenny's arms, and the third after quick hands saw Kenny send Neil Hunt over in the corner. The Eels led 16-3 at half-time and, despite Les Boyd scoring after playing the ball forward in the 48th minute, Brett Kenny's second try in the 62nd minute sealed victory.

Parramatta 21 (Tries: Kenny 2, Grothe, Ella, Hunt. Goals: Cronin 3.)

Manly 8 (Tries: P Blake, Boyd. Goal: Eadie.)

References

  1. "History of the Premiership". centenaryofrugbyleague.com.au. Australian Rugby League. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
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.