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1953 NSWRFL season
Rugby league competition
Rugby league competition
| Field | Value | |
|---|---|---|
| year | 1953 | |
| competition | New South Wales Rugby Football League | |
| teams | 10 | |
| premiers | [[Image:South Sydney colours.svg | 16x16px]] South Sydney |
| count | 14th | |
| minor premiers | [[Image:South Sydney colours.svg | 16x16px]] South Sydney |
| mpcount | 13th | |
| matches | 93 | |
| points | 3241 | |
| top point scorer | [[Image:Manly Sea Eagles colours.svg | 16x16px]] Ron Rowles (152) |
| top try scorer | [[Image:South Sydney colours.svg | 16x16px]] Ian Moir (23) |
| wooden_spoon | [[File:Western Suburbs colours.svg | 16x16px]] Western Suburbs |
| wooden_spoon_count | 9th | |
| prevseason_link | 1952 NSWRFL season | |
| prevseason_year | 1952 | |
| nextseason_link | 1954 NSWRFL season | |
| nextseason_year | 1954 |
The 1953 New South Wales Rugby Football League season was the forty-sixth season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Ten teams from across the city competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a final between South Sydney and St. George.
Teams
| **North Sydney**[[Image:North Sydney Jersey 1941.png | 100px | center]] | **Parramatta**[[Image:Parramatta Jersey 1953.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 1953.png | 100px | center]] |
|---|
Ladder
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [[Image:South Sydney colours.svg | 16x16px]] South Sydney | 18 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 384 | 278 | +106 |
| 2 | [[Image:St. George colours.svg | 16x16px]] St. George | 18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 313 | 289 | +24 |
| 3 | [[Image:North Sydney colours.svg | 16x16px]] North Sydney | 18 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 421 | 283 | +138 |
| 4 | [[Image:Eastern Suburbs colours.svg | 16x16px]] Eastern Suburbs | 18 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 330 | 310 | +20 |
| 5 | [[Image:Newtown colours.svg | 16x16px]] Newtown | 18 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 292 | 268 | +24 |
| 6 | [[Image:Canterbury colours.svg | 16x16px]] Canterbury | 18 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 252 | 291 | -39 |
| 7 | [[Image:Parramatta colours.svg | 16x16px]] Parramatta | 18 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 271 | 291 | -20 |
| 8 | [[Image:Balmain colours.svg | 16x16px]] Balmain | 18 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 313 | 377 | -64 |
| 9 | [[Image:Manly Sea Eagles colours.svg | 16x16px]] Manly | 18 | 6 | 0 | 12 | 294 | 393 | -99 |
| 10 | [[Image:Western Suburbs colours.svg | 16x16px]] Western Suburbs | 18 | 5 | 0 | 13 | 287 | 377 | -90 |
Finals
| Home | Score | Away | Match Information | Date and Time | Venue | Referee | Crowd | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Semifinals** | |||||||||
| [[Image:South Sydney colours.svg | 23x23px]] South Sydney | 5–4 | [[Image:North Sydney colours.svg | 23x23px]] North Sydney | 29 August 1953 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Jack O'Brien | 30,392 | |
| [[Image:St. George colours.svg | 23x23px]] St. George | 25–7 | [[Image:Eastern Suburbs colours.svg | 23x23px]] Eastern Suburbs | 5 September 1953 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Darcy Lawler | 37,753 | |
| **Final** | |||||||||
| [[Image:South Sydney colours.svg | 23x23px]] South Sydney | 31–12 | [[Image:St. George colours.svg | 23x23px]] St. George | 12 September 1953 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Darcy Lawler | 44,581 |
Chart
|RD1-seed1=1 |RD1-team1= Souths |RD1-score1=5 |RD1-seed2=3 |RD1-team2= Norths |RD1-score2=4 |RD1-seed3=2 |RD1-team3= St George |RD1-score3=25 |RD1-seed4=4 |RD1-team4= Easts |RD1-score4=7
|RD2-seed1= |RD2-team1= Souths |RD2-score1=31 |RD2-seed2= |RD2-team2= St George |RD2-score2=12
|RD3-seed1=MP |RD3-team1=** Souths** |RD3-score1=X |RD3-seed2= |RD3-team2= Souths |RD3-score2=X
Final
| South Sydney | Position | St. George |
|---|---|---|
| 13. Clive Churchill | FB | 3. Noel Pidding |
| 12. Ian Moir | WG | 15. Kevin Hole |
| 18. Martin Gallagher | CE | 5. Tommy Ryan |
| 14. Kevin Woolfe | CE | 44. Merv Lees |
| 11. Frank Threlfo | WG | 2. Ross Kite |
| 21. John Dougherty | FE | 4. Allan Staunton |
| 22. Greg Hawick | HB | 20. Peter Bracken |
| PR | 39. Kevin Brown | |
| 2. Ernie Hammerton | HK | 12. Ken Kearney (c) |
| 5. Jim Richards | PR | 11. Bob Bower |
| 41. Bob Moon | SR | 10. Barry Passfield |
| 4. Jack Rayner (Ca./Co.) | SR | 9. Norm Provan |
| 6. Les Cowie | LK | 8. Billy Wilson |
| Coach | Norm Tipping |
To win the 1953 premiership St George would need to beat minor premiers Souths in both a final and a Grand final, emulating the feats of the Dragons of 1949 from which team only Noel Pidding was still playing. A crowd of 44,581 were at the Sydney Cricket Ground to see the first phase of this attempt.
Souths opened the scoring with a penalty goal in the ninth minute kicked by Clive Churchill from 40 yards. The Dragons threatened Souths' line continuously in the next stanza but bombed three tries and then lost some momentum in the 14 minutes before half-time during the absence of centre Merv Lees while he was off the field having stitches to his lip after driving a tooth through it. Souths scored 13 points in this period. Ian Moir capitalised on a spillage of the ball by Pidding behind his own line after a heavy tackle, Churchill then featured when he firstly sent Threlfo in and then set up Moir for his second try. The score at half time was 15–0.
Early in the second half Pidding kicked a penalty and a few minutes later Wilson and Gallagher were sent off for fighting. With Wilson gone Rabbitoh hard-men Rayner and Donoghue then took control and four Souths tries flowed to Woolfe, Dougherty, Hammerton and Moir’s third. Two late Dragons’ tries to Brown and Lees made no difference and South Sydney powered to their fourteenth premiership.
South Sydney Rabbitohs 31
Tries: Moir (3), Woolfe, Threlfo, Dougherty, Hammerton
Goals: Dougherty (4), Churchill (1)
St George Dragons 12
Tries: Lees, Brown
Goals: Pidding (3)
Player statistics
The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 18. Top 5 point scorers
| Points | Player | Tries | Goals | Field Goals | 152 | 114 | 99 | 91 | 88 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ron Rowles | 8 | 64 | 0 | ||||||
| Bob Hobbs | 2 | 54 | 0 | ||||||
| Noel Pidding | 3 | 45 | 0 | ||||||
| Norm Stewart | 1 | 44 | 0 | ||||||
| Gordon Clifford | 0 | 44 | 0 |
Top 5 try scorers
| Tries | Player | 20 | 18 | 18 | 14 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian Moir | ||||||
| Horrie Toole | ||||||
| Ray Preston | ||||||
| Barry Stenhouse | ||||||
| Peter O'Brien |
Top 5 goal scorers
| Goals | Player | 64 | 54 | 45 | 44 | 44 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ron Rowles | ||||||
| Bob Hobbs | ||||||
| Noel Pidding | ||||||
| Norm Stewart | ||||||
| Gordon Clifford |
References
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.
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