1976 NSWRFL season

1976 New South Wales Rugby Football League
1976 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams	12
Premiers	Manly-Warringah (3rd title)
Minor premiers	Manly-Warringah (4th title)
Matches played	138
Points scored	4390
Attendance	1,863,183
Top points scorer(s)	Graham Eadie (233)
Rothmans Medal	Ray Higgs
Top try-scorer(s)	Bob Fulton (24)
	← 1975 1977 →

The 1976 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 69th season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Twelve teams, including six of 1908's foundation clubs and another six from around Sydney, competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Manly-Warringah and Parramatta clubs. NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1976 Amco Cup.

Season summary

This season Eastern Suburbs became the first rugby league team, and one of the first in Australian sport, to have a sponsor's name appear on their jersey.^[1]

Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August resulting in a top five of Manly-Warringah, Parramatta, St. George, Eastern Suburbs and Canterbury-Bankstown, who battled it out in the finals.

In a one-off match that would form the foundation of the modern World Club Challenge, the previous season's premiers, Eastern Suburbs played British Champions St Helens R.F.C. on the 29th of June at the Sydney Cricket Ground. 26,865 turned out to see the Roosters beat the Saints 25 to 2.

This season Parramatta front-rower and captain Ray Higgs won both the Rothmans Medal and the Rugby League Week player of the year award.

The 1976 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Graeme Langlands.

Teams


Balmain Tigers 69th season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Paul Broughton Captain: Dennis Manteit	Canterbury-Bankstown 42nd season Ground: Belmore Sports Ground Coach: Malcolm Clift Captain: Tim Pickup	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 10th season Ground: Endeavour Field Coach: John Raper Captain: Greg Pierce Roger Millward	Eastern Suburbs Roosters 69th season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Jack Gibson Captain: Arthur Beetson
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 30th season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Frank Stanton Captain: Bob Fulton	Newtown Jets 69th season Ground: Henson Park Coach: Clarrie Jeffries Captain: John Floyd	North Sydney Bears 69th season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Noel Kelly Captain: Bruce Walker	Parramatta Eels 30th season Ground: Cumberland Oval Coach: Terry Fearnley Captain: Ray Higgs
Penrith Panthers 10th season Ground: Penrith Park Coach: Barry Harris Captain: Mike Stephenson	South Sydney Rabbitohs 69th season Ground: Redfern Oval Coach: Johnny King Captain: Gary Stevens	St. George Dragons 56th season Ground: Jubilee Oval Captain-coach: Graeme Langlands Captain(from May 76): Steve Edge	Western Suburbs Magpies 69th season Ground: Lidcombe Oval Coach: Don Parish Captain: Tom Raudonikis

Regular season

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	F1	F2	F3	GF
Balmain Tigers	CBY −1	STG 13	PAR 16	NOR 8	EAS 5	PEN 14	NEW 13	SOU 17	WES 0	CRO −3	MAN −14	NEW −2	CBY −17	X	PAR −4	NOR −10	EAS 6	PEN 7	STG −11	SOU 10	WES 1	CRO 2	MAN −19
Canterbury-Bankstown	BAL 1	CRO 0	MAN −10	WES −7	STG 2	PAR 7	NOR 17	EAS −1	PEN −17	NEW 3	SOU 13	NOR 0	BAL 17	CRO −16	MAN 4	WES 9	STG 1	PAR 0	EAS −23	X	PEN −4	NEW 16	SOU 12	EAS 9	STG 16	MAN −3
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	MAN −12	CBY 0	STG −3	PAR −19	NOR 14	EAS −11	PEN 8	NEW −4	SOU 34	BAL 3	WES −13	PEN 1	MAN −11	CBY 16	STG −1	PAR −23	NOR 11	EAS −20	NEW 17	X	SOU −3	BAL −2	WES 3
Eastern Suburbs Roosters	WES −3	PEN 4	NEW 4	SOU −1	BAL −5	CRO 11	MAN 1	CBY 1	STG −3	PAR 0	NOR 31	MAN −5	WES 3	PEN 7	NEW 36	SOU 10	BAL −6	CRO 20	CBY 23	X	STG −3	PAR −7	NOR 31	CBY −9
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	CRO 12	WES 4	CBY 10	STG 26	PAR −3	NOR 25	EAS −1	PEN 13	NEW 51	SOU 2	BAL 14	EAS 5	CRO 11	WES 22	CBY −4	STG −8	PAR −4	NOR 23	X	PEN −1	NEW 8	SOU 23	BAL 19	X	PAR −6	CBY 3	PAR 3
Newtown Jets	PAR 3	NOR −9	EAS −4	PEN −5	WES −24	SOU −18	BAL −13	CRO 4	MAN −51	CBY −3	STG −8	BAL 2	PAR −24	NOR −5	EAS −36	PEN −7	WES −11	SOU −15	CRO −17	X	MAN −8	CBY −16	STG −17
North Sydney Bears	PEN −34	NEW 9	SOU −5	BAL −8	CRO −14	MAN −25	CBY −17	STG −3	PAR −36	WES −29	EAS −31	CBY 0	PEN 6	NEW 5	SOU −21	BAL 10	CRO −11	MAN −23	X	STG 7	PAR 6	WES −9	EAS −31
Parramatta Eels	NEW −3	SOU 17	BAL −16	CRO 19	MAN 3	CBY −7	STG −16	WES 4	NOR 36	EAS 0	PEN 2	STG 11	NEW 24	SOU 14	BAL 4	CRO 23	MAN 4	CBY 0	X	WES −12	NOR −6	EAS 7	PEN 1	STG 25	MAN 6	X	MAN −3
Penrith Panthers	NOR 34	EAS −4	WES 0	NEW 5	SOU −11	BAL −14	CRO −8	MAN −13	CBY 17	STG 11	PAR −2	CRO −1	NOR −6	EAS −7	WES 23	NEW 7	SOU −6	BAL −7	X	MAN 1	CBY 4	STG −3	PAR −1
South Sydney Rabbitohs	STG −21	PAR −17	NOR 5	EAS 1	PEN 11	NEW 18	WES −4	BAL −17	CRO −34	MAN −2	CBY −13	WES −21	STG −6	PAR −14	NOR 21	EAS −10	PEN 6	NEW 15	X	BAL −10	CRO 3	MAN −23	CBY −12
St. George Dragons	SOU 21	BAL −13	CRO 3	MAN −26	CBY −2	WES −10	PAR 16	NOR 3	EAS 3	PEN −11	NEW 8	PAR −11	SOU 6	X	CRO 1	MAN 8	CBY −1	WES 8	BAL 11	NOR −7	EAS 3	PEN 3	NEW 17	PAR −25	CBY −16
Western Suburbs Magpies	EAS 3	MAN −4	PEN 0	CBY 7	NEW 24	STG 10	SOU 4	PAR −4	BAL 0	NOR 29	CRO 13	SOU 21	EAS −3	MAN −22	PEN −23	CBY −9	NEW 11	STG −8	X	PAR 12	BAL −1	NOR 9	CRO −3
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	F1	F2	F3	GF

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

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Manly	22	16	0	6	499	252	247	32
2	Parramatta	22	14	2	6	347	238	109	30
3	St. George	22	14	0	8	328	298	30	28
4	Eastern Suburbs	22	13	1	8	399	250	149	27
5	Canterbury	22	12	3	7	361	337	24	27
6	Balmain	22	12	1	9	318	287	31	25
7	Western Suburbs	22	11	2	9	379	313	66	24
8	Cronulla	22	9	1	12	378	393	-15	19
9	Penrith	22	8	1	13	352	333	19	17
10	South Sydney	22	8	0	14	297	421	-124	16
11	North Sydney	22	6	1	15	272	526	-254	13
12	Newtown	22	3	0	19	264	546	-282	6

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.
Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
1	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	2	4	6	8	8	10	10	12	14	16	18	20	22	24	24	24	24	26	26	26	28	30	32
2	Parramatta Eels	0	2	2	4	6	6	6	8	10	11	13	15	17	19	21	23	25	26	26	26	26	28	30
3	St. George Dragons	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	12	12	14	14	16	18	18	20	22	22	24	26	28
4	Eastern Suburbs Roosters	0	2	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	11	13	13	15	17	19	21	21	23	25	25	25	25	27
5	Canterbury-Bankstown	2	3	3	3	5	7	9	9	9	11	13	14	16	16	18	20	22	23	23	23	23	25	27
6	Balmain Tigers	0	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	17	19	19	21	23	25	25
7	Western Suburbs Magpies	2	2	3	5	7	9	11	11	12	14	16	18	18	18	18	18	20	20	20	22	22	24	24
8	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	0	1	1	1	3	3	5	5	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	13	15	15	17	17	17	17	19
9	Penrith Panthers	2	2	3	5	5	5	5	5	7	9	9	9	9	9	11	13	13	13	13	15	17	17	17
10	South Sydney Rabbitohs	0	0	2	4	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	10	10	12	14	14	14	16	16	16
11	North Sydney Bears	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	5	7	7	9	9	9	9	11	13	13	13
12	Newtown Jets	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

Finals

Parramatta were first into the Grand final, triumphing 23–17 in a bloody and brutal major semi-final against Manly. Manly earned a grand final berth the following week, surviving a Canterbury comeback to win 15–12.^[2]

Home	Score	Away	Match information
Home	Score	Away	Date and time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Qualifying Finals
Parramatta	31–6	St. George	28 August 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	28,264
Eastern Suburbs Roosters	13–22	Canterbury-Bankstown	29 August 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	27,203
Semi-finals
Manly-Warringah	17–23	Parramatta	4 September 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	30,999
St. George	9–25	Canterbury-Bankstown	5 September 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	27,261
Preliminary final
Manly-Warringah	15–12	Canterbury-Bankstown	11 September 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	31,381
Grand final
Parramatta	10–13	Manly-Warringah	18 September 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	57,343

Chart


Qualifying final			Major semi-final			Preliminary final		Grand final



			1	Manly	17			Parramatta	10

				Parramatta	23			Manly	13

2	Parramatta	31				Manly	15

3	St. George	6	Minor semi-final			Canterbury	12



			St. George		9

4	Eastern Suburbs	13	Canterbury		25

5	Canterbury	22

Grand final

Parramatta	Position	Manly-Warringah
Mark Levy	FB	Graham Eadie
2. Jim Porter	WG	2. Tom Mooney
3. Ed Sulkowicz	CE	3. Russel Gartner
4. John Moran	CE	4. Bob Fulton (c)
5. Neville Glover	WG	5. Rod Jackson
6. John Peard	FE	6. Alan Thompson
7. John Kolc	HB	7. Gary Stephens
13. Graham Olling	PR	13. John Harvey
12. Ron Hilditch	HK	12. Max Krilich
11. Denis Fitzgerald	PR	11. Terry Randall
10. Geoff Gerard	SR	10. Steve Norton
9. Ray Higgs (c)	SR	9. Phil Lowe
8. Ray Price	LK	8. Ian Martin
14. Graeme Atkinson	Reserve	14. Gary Thoroughgood
15. John Baker	Reserve	17. Mark Willoughby
Terry Fearnley	Coach	Frank Stanton

In 1976, after 30 years of competition, Parramatta reached their first grand final since their admission into the NSWRFL premiership in 1947. Their opponents were Manly-Warringah, who had also joined the premiership in 1947, but were playing in their eighth Grand final, having previously won in 1972 and 1973 with captain Bob Fulton, fullback Graham Eadie, forward Terry Randall and lock Ian Martin having played in those two premiership teams.

Jim Porter scored first, getting Parramatta to a 5–0 lead. A penalty goal to Graham Eadie closed the score to 5–2 before Alan Thompson sidestepped through to send Phil Lowe in for Manly's first and only try. Scores were locked 7–7 at half time.

Geoff Gerard scored an unconverted try for the Eels early in the second half, then two penalties gave Manly an 11–10 lead.

Parramatta missed a critical opportunity to win the game and their first ever premiership with ten minutes of the match remaining: 15 metres out from a wide-open tryline,^[3] Eels winger Neville Glover dropped the pass from John Moran which would have given the Eels the match-winning try in the Paddington Hill corner.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Another penalty gave Manly a 13–10 lead. In the frantic dying minutes Parramatta threw everything they had at the Manly defence including the infamous "flying wedge" of dubious legality which had Ron Hilditch at the apex of a phalanx of players driving him towards the line. The wedge was somehow stopped by Eadie a foot short of the try line.^{[citation needed]}

The Manly defence held and the Sea Eagles secured their third premiership in five seasons, while the Eels would have to wait five more years for their first.

It was Bob Fulton's 213rd and final match for Manly after a brilliant ten-year career with the club and the grand final victory was largely credited to his experience and brilliance.^[7] He was full of emotion as he accepted the J.J. Giltinan Shield and was able to end his playing career at Manly on the highest note. He would later return to the club as a successful coach in the 1980s but first he would finish his playing years and then commence coaching at Eastern Suburbs (Fulton would join Easts in 1977, unable to resist a big-money offer from the club that was backed by one of Australia's richest men and a big supporter of the future rugby league Immortal, Kerry Packer).

Manly's win was a triumph for the powerful triumvirate of Fulton, coach Frank Stanton and Secretary Ken Arthurson who would all go on to higher honours in the game. For Stanton, it was his first success in a coaching career which was to bring two premierships and two Ashes-winning Kangaroo tours. Arthurson had brought to the club players of a calibre to enable five Grand final appearances in the 1970s for four victories. He would go on to become the Chairman of the New South Wales Rugby League and later the Australian Rugby League.

Manly-Warringah 13 (Tries: Lowe. Goals: Eadie 5/6)

Parramatta 10 (Tries: Porter, Gerard. Goals: Peard 2/3)

Referee: Gary Cook
Attendance: 57,343

Player statistics

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

Top 5 point scorers

Points	Player	Tries	Goals	Field Goals
207	Graham Eadie	9	90	0
161	Ron Giteau	7	70	0
143	John Brass	5	64	0
136	Don Moseley	2	65	0
130	Ken Wilson	3	60	1

Top 5 try scorers

Tries	Player
18	Bob Fulton
18	Tom Mooney
16	Terry Fahey
14	Martin Raftery
12	Bruce Walker

Top 5 goal scorers

Goals	Player
90	Graham Eadie
70	Ron Giteau
65	Don Moseley
64	John Brass
60	Ken Wilson

References

^ Jacquelin Magnay and Jessica Halloran (19 August 2006). "How to win games and influence people". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
^ Heads, p. 365
^ Top 10 finals blunders, The Daily Telegraph (2010 News Limited)
^ O'Neill, Matthew (2007-09-14). "Eels vs Bulldogs Classic – Triple Mortimer Magic". rleague.com. Rleague.com PTY LTD. Archived from the original on 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
^ Ryan, Stephen (2001-09-28). "Not a Neville Nobody". Manning River Times. Australia: Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
^ Rothfield, Phil (2010-08-23). "Buzz names his top 10 NRL chokers". The Daily Telegraph. Australia: News Limited. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
^ "Form over five years". The Sun-Herald. 19 March 1978. Retrieved 19 June 2011.

External links

Heads, Ian (1992) True Blue The Story of the NSW Rugby League, Ironbark Press, Randwick, NSW
Whiticker, Alan (1994) Grand finals of the NSW Rugby League, Gary Allen Pty Ltd, Smithfield, NSW
Rugby League Tables – Season 1976 The World of Rugby League
Results: 1971-80 at rabbitohs.com.au
1976 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com^{[dead link‍]}
NSWRFL season 1976 at rugbyleagueproject.org
1976 Grand final at soaringseaeagles.tripod.com

[1] Jacquelin Magnay and Jessica Halloran (19 August 2006). "How to win games and influence people". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 January 2014.

[2] Heads, p. 365

[3] Top 10 finals blunders, The Daily Telegraph (2010 News Limited)

[4] O'Neill, Matthew (2007-09-14). "Eels vs Bulldogs Classic – Triple Mortimer Magic". rleague.com. Rleague.com PTY LTD. Archived from the original on 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2010-04-24.

[5] Ryan, Stephen (2001-09-28). "Not a Neville Nobody". Manning River Times. Australia: Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2010-04-24.

[6] Rothfield, Phil (2010-08-23). "Buzz names his top 10 NRL chokers". The Daily Telegraph. Australia: News Limited. Retrieved 2010-08-24.

[7] "Form over five years". The Sun-Herald. 19 March 1978. Retrieved 19 June 2011.

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