New South Wales Rugby Football League season 1976

Infobox rugby league season
year = 1976
competition = New South Wales Rugby Football League


imagesize = 125px
caption =
teams = 12
premiers =
count = 3rd
minor premiers =
mpcount = 4th
matches = 138
points = 4390
attendance = 1594183
top points scorer = (233)
top try scorer = (24)
1976's New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the sixty-ninth season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Twelve clubs, including six Sydney-based foundation teams and another six from 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.

eason summary

Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August resulting in a top four of Manly-Warringah, Parramatta, St. George and Eastern Suburbs 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 RLFC 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 Ray Higgs won both the Rothmans Medal and the Rugby League Week player of the year award.

Teams

Grand Final

In 1976, after 30 years of competition, Parramatta reached their first grand final since their admission into the NSWRFL premiership in 1947. 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 side-stepped 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. Twelve minutes from full-time Parramatta missed a critical opportunity to win the game and their first ever premiership when winger Neville Glover put down a pass from John Moran in the Paddington Hill corner with the line wide open.

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.

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 213th and final match for Manly after a brilliant ten-year career with the club. 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 the Eastern Suburbs Roosters.

Manly's win was a triumph for the powerful triumvirate of Fulton, coach Frank Stanton and Secretary Ken Arthurson who would all go onto 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 13 (Tries: Lowe. Goals: Eadie 5.)

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

Footnotes

References

* 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
* [http://www.stats.rleague.com/rl/seas/1976.html Rugby League Tables - Season 1976] "The World of Rugby League"
* [http://www.rabbitohs.com.au/The-Club/Tradition/Results---1971-1980.html Results: 1971-80 at rabbitohs.com.au]
* [http://www.rleague.com//db/year/1976/j_j_giltinan_shield_and_wd_ho_wills_cup/index.php 1976 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com]
* [http://rugbyleagueproject.com/competitions/NSWRL_1976.html NSWRFL season 1976 at rugbyleagueproject.com]
* [http://soaringseaeagles.tripod.com/history/1976gf.htm 1976 Grand Final at soaringseaeagles.tripod.com]