Teams

Balmain 64th season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Leo Nosworthy Captain: Keith Outten	Canterbury-Bankstown 37th season Ground:Belmore Sports Ground Coach: Bob Hagan Captain(s): Johnny Greaves / Terry Reynolds	Cronulla-Sutherland 5th season Ground: Endeavour Field Captain-coach: Tommy Bishop	Eastern Suburbs 64th season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Don Furner Captain: Kevin Junee
Manly-Warringah 25th season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Ron Willey Captain: Fred Jones	Newtown 64th season Ground: Henson Park Coach: Harry Bath Captain: Brian Moore / Barry Briggs	North Sydney 64th season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Merv Hicks Captain: Noel Cavanagh	Parramatta 25th season Ground: Cumberland Oval Coach: Ian Walsh Captain: Dick Thornett
Penrith 5th season Ground: Penrith Park Coach: Bob Boland Captain: Ian McKechnie	South Sydney 64th season Ground: Redfern Oval Coach: Clive Churchill Captain: John Sattler	St. George 51st season Ground: Kogarah Jubilee Oval Coach: Jack Gibson Captain: Graeme Langlands	Western Suburbs 64th season Ground: Lidcombe Oval Coach: Ron Watson Captain: Tommy Raudonikis

Ladder

More information Team, Pld ...

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Manly-Warringah	22	19	0	3	528	260	+268	38
2	South Sydney	22	17	0	5	499	308	+191	34
3	St. George	22	15	1	6	392	283	+109	31
4	Parramatta	22	12	0	10	383	355	+28	24
5	Balmain	22	11	0	11	366	398	-32	22
6	Canterbury-Bankstown	22	11	0	11	355	422	-87	22
7	Cronulla-Sutherland	22	10	0	12	352	310	+42	20
8	Penrith	22	10	0	12	283	372	-89	20
9	Eastern Suburbs	22	9	1	12	344	339	+5	19
10	Newtown	22	7	1	14	282	401	-119	15
11	North Sydney	22	5	1	16	265	446	-181	11
12	Western Suburbs	22	4	0	18	336	471	-135	8

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Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 4.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round.

More information Team ...

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
1	Manly-Warringah	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	18	20	22	24	24	26	28	30	32	34	36	38
2	South Sydney	2	4	6	8	10	12	12	14	16	18	20	20	22	24	26	28	28	28	28	30	32	34
3	St. George	0	2	4	4	6	8	8	8	10	12	14	16	18	19	21	23	23	25	27	29	29	31
4	Parramatta	0	2	4	4	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	16	16	18	20	20	20	22	22	22	22	24
5	Balmain	2	2	4	6	6	6	6	8	10	10	12	12	12	14	16	16	16	16	18	20	22	22
6	Canterbury-Bankstown	0	0	0	0	2	2	4	4	4	6	8	10	12	12	14	16	18	18	20	22	22	22
7	Cronulla-Sutherland	2	4	4	4	4	4	6	8	8	8	8	10	10	10	12	12	14	16	16	16	18	20
8	Penrith	0	0	2	4	4	6	6	6	6	8	8	10	12	14	14	14	16	18	20	20	20	20
9	Eastern Suburbs	2	2	2	2	4	6	8	10	10	10	10	12	12	13	13	15	15	15	15	17	19	19
10	Newtown	0	0	0	2	4	4	6	7	9	9	11	11	11	11	11	11	13	13	15	15	15	15
11	North Sydney	0	2	2	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	7	7	7	9	11
12	Western Suburbs	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	6	8	8	8	8	8	8

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Grand Final

Against a battle-hardened South Sydney side with a larger pack, the young Dragons went into the Grand Final as clear underdogs. Only Smith, Madison and Langlands for St. George had Grand Final experience of the level enjoyed by the entire Rabbitoh pack. Many of the Rabbitohs were playing in their fourth or fifth successive Grand Final.

The first half was a gruelling affair, with the sole point coming from an Eric Simms field goal. McCarthy crossed the Dragons’ try-line in the sixth minute but was called back on a forward pass ruling by referee Holman. Simms attempted a long-range field goal in the eighth minute which was unsuccessful, and Grant took another vain field goal shot minutes later. Souths dominated possession and field-position in the first fifteen minutes and were just held at bay by the rugged defence of the Dragons, especially from their centre, Clapham. Pittard made a 75 metres (82 yd) break at the fourteen-minute mark and was brought down 3 metres (3.28 yd) from the Dragons’ line by a desperate diving tackle from Smith. In the fifteenth minute Simms took another field goal attempt from dead in front and was successful. Souths attack was free-flowing, and they kept the play alive with late offloads whilst St. George adopted a more structured play of one-off running or moving the ball across the backline. In the twentieth minute Beath was stopped in the Souths' corner by a classy Coote cover tackle.

Langlands missed two penalty goal attempts in the first half, one mid-way through the period and another shortly before the break. Only Beath and Smith regularly broke through Souths' defences. At the interval Souths were in front by the unlikely scoreline of 1–0.

When play resumed Souths continued with their adventurous style of keeping the ball alive, they broke through poor Dragon defence and Branighan scored in the corner. Simms hit the post with the conversion attempt. Cox had replaced Bowen for St. George at half-time. Sattler tested out Cox early in the half with niggle and surreptitious fouls and appeared to eye-gouge Langlands in the 55th minute. The match began to turn spiteful at that point when Beath was penalised for using his knees on McCarthy. Coote scored the second try after a break by Sait, Simms converted and then added a penalty goal a few minutes later. At this stage Souths held an 11–0 lead and looked to be racing away with the match as St. George failed to complete tackles allowing the Rabbitohs to continually off-load.

The Dragons then rallied and fought back with a try to Barry Beath after a brave blind-side fifth tackle move by Billy Smith which was followed by a magnificent sideline conversion from Langlands. Smith was proving to be the Dragons’ only attacking spark until he was collared by Piggins and Sattler in a cynical head high tackle at the 65th minute. With the penalty that ensued Langlands took play to the other end of the field and Ted Walton scored for St. George. Langlands again converted from out wide. With the score at 11–10 and only twelve minutes remaining, Saints looked to be getting on top of their more fancied rivals. However a match-winning try two minutes from full-time by Bob McCarthy running freely off Ron Coote, showed the experience of the Rabbitohs, who took their fourth title in a five-year period.

McCarthy and Coote had starred for Souths and continually threatened to split the Dragons' defence. Souths hooker George Piggins who had been called into the side to replace regular season rake Elwyn Walters, was hailed as a hero, playing himself to a standstill in what was ultimately a closely fought encounter.

The victory was to be South Sydney's last for a period of 43 years, with the club not to win another Premiership until 2014.

South Sydney 16 (Tries: Branighan, Coote, McCarthy. Goals: Simms 3. Field Goal: Simms.)

St. George 10 (Tries: Beath, Walton. Goals: Langlands 2.)