NSWRL_season_1988

1988 NSWRL season

1988 NSWRL season

Rugby league competition

The 1988 NSWRL season was the 81st season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and saw the first expansion of the New South Wales Rugby League Premiership outside the borders of New South Wales, and another expansion outside of Sydney, with the addition of three new teams: the Brisbane Broncos, Newcastle Knights and Gold Coast-Tweed Giants. The largest NSWRL premiership yet, sixteen clubs competed during the 1988 season, with the J J Giltinan Shield for minor premiers going to Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. The finals culminated in a grand final for the Winfield Cup between the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Balmain Tigers. This season NSWRL teams also competed for the 1988 Panasonic Cup.

Quick Facts New South Wales Rugby League premiership, Teams ...

Season summary

1988 was the year of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations, and on 4 March, the season opened with the first game of rugby league played at the newly built Sydney Football Stadium.[1] The St. George Dragons defeated the Eastern Suburbs Roosters 24–14. Easts and South Sydney would use the SFS as their home venue from 1988. This saw the end of both the Sydney Sports Ground (which closed due to the building of the SFS) and Redfern Oval as regular venues.

The brand new Brisbane Broncos club, featuring Australian Kangaroos captain Wally Lewis and starting their first ever season of football, played their first match against the previous season's premiers the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and won 44–10.

Eventual grand finalists the Balmain Tigers had a dreadful start to the season with six wins and five losses by the end of the first full round. But their plight was rescued by a masterstroke from their chief executive Keith Barnes. The Great Britain side was touring Australia that season and in strict secrecy Barnes negotiated to have the English captain and centre Ellery Hanley – judged the best player in the English competition the previous season and an undoubted world-class player – to join the Tigers. Barnes got to the NSWRL to register Hanley at 4:55 pm on 30 June, just five minutes inside the deadline for signing players for that season.

The 1988 season's Rothmans Medallist was Cronulla-Sutherland's Barry Russell.[2] The Dally M Award went to Russell's teammate Gavin Miller, and Rugby League Week gave its player of the year award to Balmian's hooker, Ben Elias.

Twenty-two regular season rounds were played in total from March till August, with Cronulla-Sutherland winning their first ever minor premiership since joining the competition in 1967. Penrith and Balmain finished on equal points in fifth place and played each other for the place in the top five, alongside Cronulla, Canterbury, Canberra and Manly.

The grand finals;

  • Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs vs Balmain Tigers (Senior Grade)
  • Eastern Suburbs vs Manly Sea Eagles (Reserve Grade)
  • Under 21s team vs Under 21s (Under 21s Grade)

The Tests;

  • Australia vs Great Britain
  • Australia vs Rest of the World

The State of Origin;

  • Queensland vs New South Wales

Teams

This season saw the premiership's first expansion since 1982 with the addition of three newly created teams: the Brisbane Broncos, the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants and the Newcastle Knights.[3] This brought the League another step closer to becoming a national competition as a total of sixteen teams, the largest number in the tournament's history, contested the premiership, including five Sydney-based foundation teams, another six from Sydney, two from greater New South Wales, two from Queensland, and one from the Australian Capital Territory.

Balmain
Tigers

81st season
Ground: Leichhardt Oval
Coach: Warren Ryan
Captain: Wayne Pearce

 Brisbane
Broncos

1st season
Ground: Lang Park
Coach: Wayne Bennett
Captain: Wally Lewis

 Canberra
Raiders

7th season
Ground: Seiffert Oval
Coach: Tim Sheens
Captain: Dean Lance

 Canterbury-Bankstown
Bulldogs

54th season
Ground: Belmore Oval
Coach: Phil Gould
Captain: Peter Tunks

Cronulla-Sutherland
Sharks

22nd season
Ground: Caltex Field
Coach: Allan Fitzgibbon
Captain: David Hatch

 Eastern Suburbs
Roosters

81st season
Ground: Sydney Football Stadium
Coach: Arthur Beetson
Captain: Hugh McGahan

 Gold Coast-Tweed
Giants

1st season
Ground: Seagulls Stadium
Coach: Bob McCarthy
Captain: Billy Johnstone

 Illawarra
Steelers

7th season
Ground: Wollongong Stadium
Coach: Terry Fearnley
Captain: Perry Haddock → Paul Upfield

Manly-Warringah
Sea Eagles

42nd season
Ground: Brookvale Oval
Coach: Bob Fulton
Captain: Paul Vautin

 Newcastle
Knights

1st season
Ground: Newcastle ISC
Coach: Allan McMahon
Captain: Sam Stewart

 North Sydney
Bears

81st season
Ground: North Sydney Oval
Coach: Frank Stanton
Captain: Mark Graham

 Parramatta
Eels

42nd season
Ground: Parramatta Stadium
Coach: John Monie
Captain: Peter Sterling

Penrith
Panthers

22nd season
Ground: Penrith Stadium
Coach: Ron Willey
Captain: Royce Simmons

 South Sydney
Rabbitohs

81st season
Ground: Sydney Football Stadium
Coach: George Piggins
Captain: Mario Fenech

 St. George
Dragons

68th season
Ground: Belmore Sports Ground
Coach: Ted Glossop
Captain: Craig Young

 Western Suburbs
Magpies

81st season
Ground: Orana Park
Coach: Laurie Freier → John Bailey
Captain: Ian Schubert

Advertising

1988 saw the NSWRL move their advertising account from John Singleton Advertising to Hertz Walpole Advertising. There was initially however no shift in the prior campaign direction. For the second year running a visual and vocal performance by Australian rock journeyman John "Swanee" Swan was used. Swanee recorded a purpose-written jingle entitled "The Greatest Game of All" and a rock-clip style ad was shot on a stage setting with smoke, lights and fireworks. The performance footage was interspersed with game action.

Five years later Swan's younger brother Jimmy Barnes would also feature in an NSWRL season advertisement performing alongside Tina Turner.

Regular season

More information Team, F1 ...

Bold – Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin

Ladder

More information Team, Pld ...
  • South Sydney were stripped of 2 competition points due to an illegal replacement in one game.

Ladder progression

  • Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 5.
  • 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 ...

Finals

Balmain had staged a gripping charge for the final five, winning nine of their last eleven games including five in a row to leave them in equal fifth spot with the Penrith Panthers at the regular season's end. They then won four sudden death finals to make it to the Grand final.

More information Home, Score ...

Chart

Qualifying finalMajor semi-finalPreliminary finalGrand final
1 Cronulla-Sutherland82 Canterbury24
2 Canterbury265 Balmain12
2 Canterbury191 Cronulla-Sutherland2
3 Canberra18Minor semi-final5 Balmain9
3 Canberra6
4 Manly65 Balmain14
5 Balmain19

Grand final

More information Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Position ...

This was the first grand final not to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Following Balmain's extraordinary late season run in winning thirteen of fifteen games, the stage was set for a grand final of great appeal. 1980s master coach Warren Ryan of Balmain was up against the club he had coached for four years to three grand finals and two premierships, as well as being matched against the man who had replaced him at Canterbury – Phil Gould. It was master against pupil. At just 30 years of age, Gould was vying not only to become the youngest coach to win a grand final but the first since Balmain's Leo Nosworthy in 1969 to steer a team to premiership victory in his first season coaching the top-grade.

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs faced the Balmain Tigers on 11 September 1988 in the first grand final played at the Sydney Football Stadium and the last game for Steve Mortimer. The match was played early so that Channel Ten could broadcast the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The Australian national anthem was performed by Glenn Shorrock.

After five minutes Peter Tunks was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes for treading on Ben Elias. The first points of the match were scored shortly after from Terry Lamb's successful penalty kick. Another penalty kick from Lamb put the Bulldogs in front 4 nil. However Balmain grabbed the first try an Elias put up a bomb and was first to the ball ahead of Bulldog Jason Alchin. Conlon's conversion from in front gave the Tigers the lead for first time at 6–4.[4]

A highly controversial tackle by Terry Lamb put Balmain's in form British import Ellery Hanley out of the game before the 30-minute mark had been reached.[5] Hanley staggered off, heavily concussed, with the score at 6–4. Under the rules of the time, Hanley was allowed 10 minutes to recover in the head bin. If he could not return he would need to be replaced. He returned just before half-time and stood, out-of-sorts, on the wing. The Bulldogs then ran in a 70-metre try from broken play and went to the break with a lead of 10–8.

Hanley did not return after half-time and the Bulldogs started to dominate. A great Canterbury team try to Michael Hagan sealed the match. Bruce McGuire scored Balmain's second try late in the match although the outcome was already clear. The match ended on a sentimental note when Gould called the Bulldogs' representative star, former captain and 271-game veteran, Steve Mortimer to the sideline. He was less than fully fit and had his arm heavily padded to protect the wrist he had broken early in the season. However Mortimer had been named as a fresh reserve as tribute to his previous club contributions and the match ended with him moving to dummy half and taking the ball up for the last time.

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 24
Tries: Nissen, Hagan, Gillespie, Lamb
Goals: Lamb 4

Balmain Tigers 12
Tries: Elias, McGuire
Goals: Conlon 2

Clive Churchill Medal: Paul Dunn (Canterbury)[6]

Player statistics

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 22.

More information Points, Player ...

1988 Transfers

Players

More information Player, 1987 Club ...

Coaches

More information Coach, 1987 Club ...

References

  1. [1]
    "Sydney Football Stadium Magic Moments". sydneycricketground.com.au. Sydney Cricket & Sports Ground Trust. Archived from the original on 16 August 2007. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
  2. [2]
    Paul Tait & Heather Smith (1 September 1988). "Cool Russell is ready to shoulder the burden for Sharks". The Sydney Morning Herald. Australia: Fairfax. p. 50. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  3. [3]
    "History of the Premiership". centenaryofrugbyleague.com.au. Australian Rugby League. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  4. [4]
    Weidler, Danny (11 September 1988). "Minutes that mattered". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Digital. p. 3. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
  5. [5]
    Coady, Ben (28 September 2009). "Grand final dramas". WA Today. Australia: Fairfax Digital. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  6. [6]
    D'Souza, Miguel. "Grand Final History". wwos.ninemsn.com.au. Australian Associated Press. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
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