1967 NSWRFL season

1967 NSWRFL season
Teams	12
Premiers	South Sydney (17th title)
Minor premiers	St. George (13th title)
Matches played	136
Points scored	3827 (total) 28.14 (per match)
Attendance	1,769,881 (total) 13,014 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Eric Simms (233)
Top try scorer(s)	Les Hanigan (16)

The 1967 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the sixtieth season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. The introduction of the Cronulla-Sutherland and Penrith clubs saw a total of twelve teams from across the Sydney area compete for the J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between South Sydney and Canterbury-Bankstown. This was also the first live televised broadcast of a football grand final of any code in Australia.^[1]

Season summary

The 1967 season was the first played under the limited tackle rule, replacing the previous era (since the code's 1908 inception) of unlimited tackles.^[2] The number of tackles was four and would remain at that number for only four years before being increased to six in 1971.

Also this season Lidcombe Oval became the Western Suburbs club's homeground.

The twelve sides met each other twice in twenty-two regular premiership rounds before the top four teams battled out four finals. For the sixth consecutive season the St. George Dragons finished as minor premiers. The two newcomers to the premiership, Penrith and Cronulla-Sutherland, finished the season second last and last respectively.

In 1967 the Nine Network reached agreement with the NSWRFL for a fee of $5,000 for TV broadcasting rights for the grand final.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs won their seventeenth premiership, defeating Canterbury-Bankstown in their first grand final since 1947. This finally spelled the end for St. George's monopoly on Grand Final wins which lasted over a decade, and commenced a new period of Souths' dominance, in which they would win four premierships in a five-year period.

The 1967 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Reg Gasnier.

Teams

1967 saw the NSWRFL expand to twelve teams with the introduction of the Penrith and the Cronulla-Sutherland clubs. This was the first time the number of clubs had increased since 1947 and the first time ever the number of clubs competing totalled more than ten.

Balmain	Canterbury-Bankstown	Cronulla-Sutherland	Eastern Suburbs
Manly-Warringah	Newtown	North Sydney	Parramatta
Penrith 1st season	South Sydney	St. George	Western Suburbs

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	St. George	22	16	1	5	437	267	+170	33
2	South Sydney	22	16	0	6	422	271	+151	32
3	Canterbury-Bankstown	22	14	1	7	349	269	+80	29
4	Eastern Suburbs	22	13	2	7	269	219	+50	28
5	Manly-Warringah	22	12	2	8	365	271	+94	26
6	Balmain	22	12	2	8	344	258	+86	26
7	Western Suburbs	22	10	2	10	269	255	+14	22
8	North Sydney	22	8	1	13	297	370	-73	17
9	Parramatta	22	8	0	14	309	322	-13	16
10	Newtown	22	7	2	13	274	406	-132	16
11	Penrith	22	5	2	15	203	352	-149	12
12	Cronulla-Sutherland	22	3	1	18	208	486	-278	7

Finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Semi Finals
Canterbury-Bankstown	13-2	Eastern Suburbs	26 August 1967	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	47,186
St. George	8-13	South Sydney	2 September 1967	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	51,915
Preliminary Final
St. George	11-12	Canterbury-Bankstown	9 September 1967	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	49,941
Grand Final
South Sydney	12-10	Canterbury-Bankstown	16 September 1967	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	56,358

Grand Final

Canterbury-Bankstown	Position	South Sydney
Les Johns	FB	Kevin Longbottom
Barry Reynolds	WG	Brian James
Bob Hagan	CE	Eric Simms
Johnny Greaves	CE	Bob Moses
Clive Gartner	WG	Michael Cleary
Bob Doyle	FE	Jim Lisle
Ross Kidd	HB	Ivan Jones
Kevin Ryan (Ca./Co.)	PR	John Sattler (c)
Col Brown	HK	Elwyn Walters
Merv Hicks	PR	John O'Neill
Kevin Goldspink	SR	Bob McCarthy
George Taylforth	SR	Alan Scott
Ron Raper	LK	Ron Coote
	Coach	Clive Churchill

Live television broadcast coverage of grand finals commenced in 1967 with the match being shown on all four Sydney channels. As a result, the crowd of 56,358 was the lowest seen at a grand final since the rainy 1962 St George and Wests decider.^[3]

South Sydney, led by new skipper John Sattler, began their period of dominance by downing Canterbury in a torrid 80 minutes played in bleak conditions with a light rain throughout. Taylforth and Eric Simms opened accounts with early goals, before John O'Neill barged over for a close-range try from dummy half. Canterbury's Ron Raper responded with a field-goal kicked from halfway and then Taylforth punished Souths with two successful penalty goals after firstly a clash between Kevin Ryan and O'Neill and then a scrum infringement. Canterbury led 8-5.

A turning point came just before half-time when Rabbitohs second rower Bob McCarthy swooped on a lofted pass from Canterbury's Col Brown intended for Johnny Greaves and ran the length of the field to take Souths into the break with a 10-8 lead.

Taylforth kicked his fourth goal to take the scores level nine minutes into the second-half but from that point on the match became a tight arm wrestle. With five minutes remaining Canterbury's Ross Kidd was penalised for a scrum feed and Simms kicked the Rabbitohs to a two point lead which they held to give them their 17th premiership title.^[4]

It marked the beginning of a new golden period for Souths and Ron Coote, Mike Cleary, Bob McCarthy, O'Neill, Sattler and Simms would win four premierships in the next five seasons and figure prominently in representative squads of that period.

South Sydney 12 (Tries: O,Neill, McCarthy. Goals: Simms 3)

Canterbury-Bankstown 10 (Goals: Taylforth 4. Fld Goal: Raper)

Footnotes

1. ^ Masters, Roy (2009-10-04). "Messenger can watch a better league broadcast in the US than south of the border". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Digital. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/messenger-can-watch-a-better-league-broadcast-in-the-us-than-south-of-the-border-20091004-ghve.html. Retrieved 2009-05-10. 
2. ^ Middleton, David (2008). League of Legends: 100 Years of Rugby League in Australia. National Museum of Australia. pp. 27. ISBN 978-1-876944-64-3. http://www.nma.gov.au/shared/libraries/attachments/league_of_legends/rugby_league_a_work_in_progress/files/22453/F_RL_work_in_progress.pdf. 
3. ^ Big League, 13 July 2006 p.7
4. ^ Clarkson, Alan (1986-09-26). "The best Grand Finals I've seen". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media): pp. 77. http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=smh&Page=1&docID=news860926_0120_2297. Retrieved 2010-09-14. 

References

• Rugby League Tables - Season 1967 The World of Rugby League
• Big League, News Magazines for the National Rugby League 13 June 2006
• Results:1961-70 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1967 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com
• NSWRFL season 1967