From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1951 NSWRFL season

Rugby league competition

Field	Value
year	1951
competition	New South Wales Rugby Football League
imagesize	125px
teams	10
premiers	[[Image:South Sydney colours.svg	16x16px]] South Sydney
count	13th
minor premiers	[[Image:South Sydney colours.svg	16x16px]] South Sydney
mpcount	12th
matches	94
points	3400
top point scorer	[[Image:Manly Sea Eagles colours.svg	16x16px]] Ron Rowles (220)
top try scorer	[[Image:South Sydney colours.svg	16x16px]] Johnny Graves (28)
wooden_spoon	North Sydney
wooden_spoon_count	8th
prevseason_link	1950 NSWRFL season
prevseason_year	1950
nextseason_link	1952 NSWRFL season
nextseason_year	1952

The 1951 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the forty-fourth season of Sydney’s top-level rugby league competition, Australia’s first. Ten teams from across the city competed for the newly created J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season which culminated in a grand final between South Sydney and Manly-Warringah.

Season summary

South Sydney ascended to the minor premiership with relative ease in 1951, losing only one match during the season to finish the regular season ahead by a record eleven-point margin.

Teams

North Sydney[[Image:North Sydney Jersey 1941.png	100px	center]]	Parramatta[[Image:Parramatta Jersey 1948.png	100px	center]]	South Sydney[[Image:South Sydney Jersey 1930.png	100px	center]]	St. George[[Image:St George Jersey 1948.png	100px	center]]	Western Suburbs[[Image:Western Suburbs Jersey 1949.png	100px	center]]

Ladder

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	[[Image:South Sydney colours.svg	16x16px]] South Sydney	18	16	1	1	428	237	+191
2	[[Image:Manly Sea Eagles colours.svg	16x16px]] Manly	18	11	0	7	424	262	+162
3	[[Image:St. George colours.svg	16x16px]] St. George	18	10	1	7	374	251	+123
4	[[Image:Western Suburbs colours.svg	16x16px]] Western Suburbs	18	10	0	8	360	333	+27
5	[[Image:Eastern Suburbs colours.svg	16x16px]] Eastern Suburbs	18	9	0	9	304	340	-36
6	[[Image:Parramatta colours.svg	16x16px]] Parramatta	18	9	0	9	309	410	-101
7	[[Image:Canterbury colours.svg	16x16px]] Canterbury	18	7	0	11	266	362	-96
8	[[Image:Newtown colours.svg	16x16px]] Newtown	18	6	0	12	261	341	-80
9	[[Image:Balmain colours.svg	16x16px]] Balmain	18	6	0	12	283	365	-82
10	[[Image:North Sydney colours.svg	16x16px]] North Sydney	18	5	0	13	220	328	-108

Finals

Odds-on favourites to retain the premiership, Souths reserved their worst performance of the year for the semifinal against St. George being trounced 35–8. This loss meant that a grand final would be necessary to determine the season's premiers.{{cite news | access-date = 2009-12-05}} The next week, the Dragons were beaten by a gutsy Manly side in a preliminary final, 18–8. The infant Manly club thus qualified for its first grand final only five seasons after having entered the League in 1947.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information	Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Semifinals
[[Image:South Sydney colours.svg	23x23px]] South Sydney	8–35	[[Image:St. George colours.svg	23x23px]] St. George	1 September 1951	Sydney Cricket Ground	Aub Oxford	39,735
[[Image:Manly Sea Eagles colours.svg	23x23px]] Manly-Warringah	37–9	[[Image:Western Suburbs colours.svg	23x23px]] Western Suburbs	8 September 1951	Sydney Cricket Ground	George Bishop	29,444
Preliminary Final
[[Image:Manly Sea Eagles colours.svg	23x23px]] Manly-Warringah	18–8	[[Image:St. George colours.svg	23x23px]] St. George	15 September 1951	Sydney Cricket Ground	George Bishop	41,845
Final
[[Image:South Sydney colours.svg	23x23px]] South Sydney	42–14	[[Image:Manly Sea Eagles colours.svg	23x23px]] Manly-Warringah	23 September 1951	Sydney Sports Ground	Jack O'Brien	28,505

Grand Final

South Sydney	Position	Manly-Warringah
13. Clive Churchill	FB
12. John Graves	WG	2. Ron Rowles
11. Kevin Woolfe	CE	5. Gordon Willoughby
10. Milton Atkinson	CE	4. Warren Simmons
34. Harry Wells	WG	16. Jack Lumsden
28. Norm Spillane	FE	17. Jim Sullivan
58. Ray Mason	HB	7. Ken Arthurson
	PR	12. Roy Bull
2. Ernie Hammerton	HK	13. Kevin Schubert (c)
3. Bryan Orrock	PR	11. Fred Brown
5. Bernie Purcell	SR	10. Jack Hubbard
4. Jack Rayner (Ca./Co.)	SR	9. Sandy Herbert
6. Les Cowie	LK	8. George Hunter
	Coach	Wally O'Connell

Manly were without former Test star and captain-coach Wally O'Connell who had a fractured bone in his wrist.{{cite news | access-date = 2009-11-20}} The Sea Eagles were instead captained by hooker Kevin Schubert. Gordon Willoughby played out the match with his leg heavily strapped rather than leave his side further depleted but Manly’s hopes of upsetting the defending premiers were shattered in a spectacular display of attacking rugby league by Souths.

Souths scored first through Bernie Purcell and led 15–4 at the break. They then piled on twenty-seven points in the second-half. Tries to Clive Churchill, Ray Mason, Jack Rayner and Chick Cowie added to Graves' record haul. The Rabbitohs pack, led by front rower Denis Donoghue, dominated Manly’s forwards with Ernie Hammerton giving his team a feast of possession. Bernie Purcell landed seven goals from nine attempts and was also dynamic in attack, being chosen by The Sunday Herald judge, Frank McMillan as the man-of-the-match, for which he received a £10 reward.{{cite news | access-date = 2009-11-20}}

Other records set that day include the most combined points scored in a grand final (56 total); the most tries scored by one team in a grand final (8), (a mark later matched by Eastern Suburbs in 1975 Grand Final, and Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the 2008 NRL Grand Final), the most goals scored in grand final by the winning team (9) and the most total combined goals scored in a Grand Final (13).

Manly 1951 Grand Finalists. '''Back Row''' - Sandy Herbert, Gordon Willoughby, Roy Bull, Jack Hubbard, Fred Brown, Warren Simmons. '''Front Row''' - Ron Beaumont, Ken Arthurson, Jim Sullivan, Kevin Schubert (c), George Hunter, Ron Rowles, Jack Lumsden. ''Ball Boy'' W. Sullivan

South Sydney Rabbitohs 42

Tries: Graves (4), Churchill, Mason, Rayner, Cowie Goals: Purcell (7), Hammerton, Donoghue.

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 14

Tries: Lumsden (2) Goals: Rowles (4)

Player statistics

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 18. Top 5 point scorers

Points	Player	Tries
Ron Rowles	11	83
Noel Pidding	13	72
Johnny Graves	22	31
Don Worne	1	57
Ian Johnston	13	38

Top 5 try scorers

Tries	Player	22	18	13	13	12	12	12	12
Johnny Graves
Mitchell Wallace
Noel Pidding
Ian Johnston
Kevin Woolfe
Ron Roberts
Jack Troy
John McClean

Top 5 goal scorers

Goals	Player	83	72	57	46	45
Ron Rowles
Noel Pidding
Don Worne
Joe Jorgenson
Ron Willey

References

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

new-south-wales-rugby-league-premiership 1951-in-australian-rugby-league

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1951 NSWRFL season — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report