1973 NSWRFL season

1973 NSWRFL season
Teams	12
Premiers	Manly-Warringah (2nd title)
Minor premiers	Manly-Warringah (3rd title)
Matches played	139
Points scored	4234 (total) 30.46 (per match)
Attendance	1,390,810 (total) 10,006 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Graeme Langlands (183)
Top try scorer(s)	Bob Fulton (18)

The 1973 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the sixty-sixth season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Twelve district clubs from across the city, including six foundation clubs, competed for the J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between Manly-Warringah and Cronulla-Sutherland. This season also saw the introduction of an under-23s competition as well as a five-team finals series (rather than the previous four).^[1]

Season summary

The 1973 NSWRFL season saw the introduction of the metric system to the playing field. Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March until August, resulting in in a top four of Manly, Cronulla, St. George and Newtown who went on to battle it out in the finals.

The 1973 Rothmans Medal was awarded to Cronulla-Sutherland forward Ken Maddison. Rugby League Week awarded their player of the year award to Manly-Warringah's halfback Johnny Mayes.

The 1973 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Ken Irvine.

Teams

From 1973 onwards, Newtown were known as the Newtown Jets^[2]

Balmain 66th season Ground: Coach: Captain:	Canterbury-Bankstown season Ground: Coach: Captain:	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 7th season Ground: Endeavour Field Captain-coach: Tommy Bishop	Eastern Suburbs 66th season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Captain:
Manly-Warringah season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Captain:	Newtown Jets 66th season Ground: Henson Park Coach: Captain:	North Sydney 66th season Ground: Coach: Captain:	Parramatta season Ground: Coach: Dave Bolton Captain:
Penrith 7th season Ground: Penrith Stadium Coach: Leo Trevena Captain: Ron Lynch	South Sydney 66th season Ground: Coach: Captain:	St. George season Ground: Coach: Captain:	Western Suburbs 66th season Ground: Coach: Captain:

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Manly	22	17	1	4	500	226	+274	35
2	Cronulla	22	17	0	5	389	219	+170	34
3	St. George	22	15	0	7	372	213	+159	30
4	Newtown Jets	22	14	0	8	358	224	+134	28
5	Canterbury	22	12	1	9	369	269	+100	25
6	Eastern Suburbs	22	12	0	10	415	314	+101	24
7	South Sydney	22	11	1	10	345	367	-22	23
8	North Sydney	22	7	1	14	239	350	-101	15
9	Western Suburbs	22	7	0	15	310	414	-104	14
10	Balmain	22	7	0	15	254	495	-241	14
11	Parramatta	22	6	0	16	275	492	-217	12
12	Penrith	22	5	0	17	272	525	-253	10

Finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Qualifying Finals
Cronulla	18-0	St. George	25 August 1973	Sydney Cricket Ground	Keith Page	37,778
Newtown	13-2	Canterbury	26 August 1973	Sydney Sports Ground	Keith Page	17,778
Semi Finals
Manly-Warringah	14-4	Cronulla	1 September 1973	Sydney Cricket Ground	Keith Page	41,898
St. George	12-12	Newtown Jets	2 September 1973	Sydney Cricket Ground	Keith Page	24,390
St. George	5-8	Newtown Jets	4 September 1973	Sydney Sports Ground	Keith Page	27,791
Preliminary Final
Cronulla	20-11	Newtown Jets	8 September 1973	Sydney Cricket Ground	Keith Page	30,649
Grand Final
Manly-Warringah	10-7	Cronulla	15 September 1973	Sydney Cricket Ground	Keith Page	52,044

Grand Final

After Cronulla's 14-4 loss in the major semi-final, Manly expected the Sharks would be fired up for the Grand Final. And they were. Ian Heads wrote in the Sunday Telegraph the next day that It was a Grand Final as tough and dirty as any bar-room brawl.^[3] Alan Clarkson wrote in the Sun Herald The fare served up in the first half belonged in the Colosseum.^[4] The first half was not how the game's administrators would have wished to show-case rugby league, every tackle was loaded with menace and meant to damage. But from the melee Bob Fulton emerged and showed his unrivalled skill. Heads and Clarkson wrote of his "towering genius" and "football brilliance" respectively.

Manly's English import Malcolm Reilly himself never one to take a backward step, was the first victim of the carnage. In the opening minute a Cronulla forward set his sights on Reilly and didn't miss his target. Reilly was in agony from a badly bruised hip and left the field for pain-killers, to return for revenge. He then created mayhem but bowed out in the 25th minute and was replaced by John Bucknall.

After a number of brawls in the first half, referee Keith Page eventually called all 26 players in for mass cautions twice,^[5] advising that he would send the next infringer off.

Then Fulton took over in the 29th and 58th minutes. 'Bozo' demonstrated power and pace in both tries. The first came from a brilliant Fred Jones flick pass ^[6] which saw Fulton split Eric Archer and Steve Rogers just twenty-five metres from the line. Manly took a 5-0 scoreline to the half time break.

The second Fulton try came after Eadie took a pass from five-eighth. Ian Martin then looked for Fulton and set him up perfectly.

Cronulla had to wait a long time before they dented the Manly line. It was in the 70th minute that the crack appeared. Trailing 8-2, the Sharks struck when lock Greg Pierce positioned replacement fullback Rick Bourke for a try. Eadie stretched the lead to three points from a penalty kick and then the Sharks rallied and bombarded Manly. Ultimately, the Manly defence of John Mayes, Terry Randall, Peter Peters, Eadie and Fulton were up to the task. It will, however, go down in Sharks folklore that a Tommy Bishop flick pass in the dying moments failed to go to hand with the Manly line wide open. It was a set move Cronulla had successfully played all year, but had adjusted for the Grand Final in anticipation of Manly's familiarity with the standard move. As expected, the Manly defence reacted to snuff out the set play, leaving a gap that Bishop's pass managed to pinpoint. But in the heat of the moment, Sharks second-rower Ken Maddison also played for the old move, ran the wrong line and the ball went to ground - and with it went the premiership.

Manly-Warringah 10 (Tries: Fulton 2. Goals: Eadie 2. )

Cronulla-Sutherland 7 (Tries: Bourke. Goals: Rogers )

Attendance: 52,044

References

External links

• Rugby League Tables - Notes The World of Rugby League
• Rugby League Tables - Season 1973 The World of Rugby League
• Premiership History and Statistics RL1908
• Clarkson, Alan (1997) The Greatest Games We Ever Played (Essay Collection, ed Geoff Prenter) Ironbark Publishing, Sydney
• 1973 Grand Final at eraofthebiff.com
• Results:1971-80 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1973 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com
• NSWRFL season 1973 at rugbyleagueproject.com