New South Wales Rugby League season 1984

Infobox rugby league season
year = 1984
competition = New South Wales Rugby League


imagesize = 125px
caption =
teams = 13
premiers =
count = 4th
minor premiers =
mpcount = 4th
matches = 163
points = 5226
attendance = 1379655
top points scorer = (190)
top try scorer = (17)
1984's New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the seventy-seventh season of professional rugby league football in Australia. With the departure of the Newtown Jets from the first grade competition at the close of the previous season, 1984 saw thirteen teams compete for the J J Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Canterbury-Bankstown and Parramatta clubs. NSWRL teams also competed for the 1984 National Panasonic Cup.

eason summary

The New South Wales Rugby Football League dropped the "football" from its name this year. Twenty-six regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Canterbury, St. George, Parramatta, Manly and Souths who battled it out in the finals.

The 1984 season's Rothmans Medallist was Canterbury-Bankstown's five-eighth, Terry Lamb, who was also the season's top try-scorer. The Dally M Award was given to Canterbury's fullback, Michael Potter, while "Rugby League Week" gave their player of the year award to Parramatta's halfback, Peter Sterling.

Teams

At the close of the previous season Newtown became the first club since University in 1937 to exit the League, reducing the number of clubs this season from fourteen to thirteen, including five Sydney-based foundation teams, another six from Sydney, one from greater New South Wales and one from the Australian Capital Territory.

Grand Final

The ruthless game plan of coach Warren Ryan saw Canterbury trump Parramatta in a guelling encounter. The Bulldogs mastered the art of the "gang-tackle" under Ryan and it was executed superbly by Peter Tunks, Peter Kelly, Mark Bugden and Brian Battese. Parramatta had a 4-0 half-time lead after Mick Cronin scored from a neat Peter Sterling pass.

An ingenious moment from Canterbury hooker Bugden won the day - seeing an injured Ray Price on the ground, he ran from dummy-half at the place where Price would have been defending to crash over and score the winning try.

Cronin later missed a close range penalty goal attempt which would have levelled the scores close to fulltime.

Canterbury-Bankstown 6 (Tries: Bugden. Goals: Chris Mortimer.)

Parramatta 4 (Tries: Cronin.)

References

* [http://www.stats.rleague.com/rl/seas/1984.html Rugby League Tables - Season 1984] "The World of Rugby League"
* [http://www.rabbitohs.com.au/The-Club/Tradition/Results---1981-1990.html Results:1981-90 at rabbitohs.com.au]
* [http://www.rleague.com//db/year/1984/j_j_giltinan_shield_and_winfield_cup/index.php 1984 J J Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup at rleague.com]
* [http://rugbyleagueproject.com/competitions/NSWRL_1984.html NSWRL season 1984 at rugbyleagueproject.com]