1978 NSWRFL season

1978 NSWRFL season
Teams	12
Premiers	Manly-Warringah (4th title)
Minor premiers	Western Suburbs (5th title)
Matches played	140
Points scored	4375 (total) 31.25 (per match)
Attendance	1,582,914 (total) 11,307 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Mick Cronin (282)
Top try scorer(s)	Larry Corowa (24)

The 1978 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the seventy-first season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Twelve clubs, including six of 1908's foundation teams 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 Cronulla-Sutherland clubs that was drawn and had to be re-played. NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1978 Amco Cup.

Season summary

This season video citing was introduced for incidents of foul play that are not detected on the field.^[1] Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Western Suburbs, Cronulla-Sutherland, Manly-Warringah, Parramatta and Canterbury-Bankstown who battled it out in the finals.

Mick Cronin set a new record for most points scored by an individual in Australian club rugby league history with his tally of 282 points from 25 games in 1978. This record would stand for another twenty years. He also broke Arthur Oxford's 1920 record for consecutive goals with 26 in a row.

The 1978 season's Rothmans Medallist was Parramatta centre Mick Cronin. Rugby League Week gave their player of the year award to Parramatta forward Geoff Gerard.

The 1978 season was also the last in the playing career of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Ron Coote.

Teams

Balmain Tigers 71st season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Ron Willey Captain: Trevor Ryan	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 44th season Ground: Belmore Sports Ground Coach: Ted Glossop Captain: George Peponis	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 12th season Ground: Endeavour Field Coach: Norm Provan Captain: Greg Pierce	Eastern Suburbs Roosters 71st season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Captain-Coach: Arthur Beetson
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 32nd season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Frank Stanton Captain: Terry Randall	Newtown Jets 71st season Ground: Henson Park Coach: John Raper Captain: Barry Wood	North Sydney Bears 71st season Ground: North Sydney Oval Captain-Coach: Bill Hamilton	Parramatta Eels 32nd season Ground: Cumberland Oval Coach: Terry Fearnley Captain: Ray Price
Penrith Panthers 12th season Ground: Penrith Park Coach: Don Parish Captain: Ken Wilson	South Sydney Rabbitohs 71st season Ground: Redfern Oval Coach: Jack Gibson Captain: Paul Sait→Darrell Bampton	St. George Dragons 58th season Ground: Kogarah Oval Coach: Harry Bath Captain: Steve Edge	Western Suburbs Magpies 71st season Ground: Lidcombe Oval Coach: Roy Masters Captain: Tom Raudonikis

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Western Suburbs	22	16	1	5	426	288	+138	33
2	Cronulla-Sutherland	22	15	0	7	418	261	+157	30
3	Manly-Warringah	22	15	0	7	427	287	+140	30
4	Parramatta	22	14	0	8	525	306	+219	28
5	Canterbury-Bankstown	22	13	2	7	307	273	+34	28
6	Eastern Suburbs	22	13	0	9	377	280	+57	26
7	South Sydney	22	12	1	9	298	300	-2	25
8	St. George	22	10	1	11	367	354	+13	21
9	Balmain	22	9	1	12	337	344	-7	19
10	Penrith	22	4	2	16	206	463	-257	10
11	North Sydney	22	4	1	17	325	439	-114	9
12	Newtown Jets	22	2	1	19	199	577	-378	5

Finals

Manly had finished the regular season in the relatively strong position of equal second with Cronulla, three points behind minor premiers Wests. However after Cronulla beat Manly 17-12 in the preliminary final, every game from that point was a sudden-death fixture for the Sea-Eagles.

The second week of finals saw Manly come from 13-3 behind Parramatta to draw 13-all in the semi-final requiring a mid-week replay. Again in that match Parramatta led (11-2 this time), before Manly stormed home with three late tries in ten minutes to win 17-11.

Manly then had to back up a few days later to play a fresh Wests side in the Preliminary Final. Thus far the Magpies had only played one final to Manly's three. Wests had two tries disallowed by referee Greg Hartley. Manly coach Frank Stanton somehow coaxed a courageous effort out of his exhausted players and on field, five-eighth Alan Thompson was inspirational as they triumphed 14-7 and reached the Grand Final.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Qualifying Finals
Cronulla-Sutherland	17-12	Manly-Warringah	26 August 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack Danzey	17,718
Parramatta	22-15	Canterbury-Bankstown	27 August 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	24,967
Semi Finals
Western Suburbs	10-14	Cronulla-Sutherland	2 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack Danzey	22,789
Manly-Warringah	13-13	Parramatta	3 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	30,850
Manly-Warringah	17-11	Parramatta	6 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	42,678
Preliminary Final
Western Suburbs	7-14	Manly-Warringah	9 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	27,345
Grand Final
Cronulla-Sutherland	11-11	Manly-Warringah	16 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	51,510
Grand Final re-play
Cronulla-Sutherland	0-16	Manly-Warringah	19 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	33,552

Grand Final

Manly-Warringah	Position	Cronulla-Sutherland
Graham Eadie	FB	Mick Mullane
Tom Mooney	WG	Rick Bourke
Russell Gartner	CE	Steve Rogers (c)
Stephen Knight	CE	Dave Chamberlin
Simon Booth	WG	Steve Edmonds
Alan Thompson	FE	Barry Andrews
Steve Martin	HB	Steve Hansard
Ian Thomson	PR	Paul Khan
Max Krilich (c)	HK	John McMartin
John Harvey	PR	Gary Stares
Bruce Walker	SR	Steve Kneen
Terry Randall	SR	Eric Archer
Ian Martin	LK	John Glossop
	Reserve	Rowland Beckett
Frank Stanton	Coach	Norm Provan

In the Grand Final, Cronulla went to a 9-4 lead in the second half before Manly came back to hit the front 11-9. A Steve Rogers penalty squared it at 11-all but he then missed a desperate late field-goal attempt and at full time the scores remained locked. For the second consecutive season the weary Grand Finalists were required to play a mid-week rematch three days later.

Manly 11 (Tries: Mooney. Goals: Eadie.)

Cronulla 11 (Tries: Edmonds. Goals: Rogers 4.)

Grand Final Replay

Manly-Warringah	Position	Cronulla-Sutherland
Graham Eadie	FB	Rick Bourke
Tom Mooney	WG	Chris Gardner
Stephen Knight	CE	Steve Rogers (c)
Russell Gartner	CE	Dave Chamberlin
Simon Booth	WG	Steve Edmonds
Alan Thompson	FE	Martin Raftery
Steve Martin	HB	Steve Hansard
Ian Thomson	PR	Paul Khan
Max Krilich (c)	HK	Rowland Beckett
John Harvey	PR	Peter Ryan
Bruce Walker	SR	Steve Kneen
Terry Randall	SR	Eric Archer
Ian Martin	LK	John Glossop
Ray Branighan	Reserve
Wayne Springall	Reserve
Frank Stanton	Coach	Norm Provan

The Tuesday rematch in front of 33,500 was Manly's sixth game in twenty-four days. It was the second Grand Final in a row to end up going into a mid-week replay with the 1977 Grand Final also needing a re-match to decide the Premiers.

In the first half Cronulla had no answer to Graham Eadie's blind-side bursts. His display completely routed the hapless Sharks and Manly went to the break holding a 15-0 lead.

The only points in the second half came from a field goal by Eadie.

In the replay, as throughout their extraordinary finals campaign, Manly were inspired by the leadership of captain Max Krilich and coach Frank Stanton, their iron-man Terry Randall, their cool five eighth Alan Thompson and classy fullback Graham Eadie.

As of the 2007 NRL season no player since Eadie has scored the combination of a try, a goal and a field-goal in a Grand Final.

The refereeing of Greg "Hollywood" Hartley in the replay attracted criticism from coaches Roy Masters, Jack Gibson and Terry Fearnley, all of whom appealed to the NSWRFL to prohibit Hartley from refereeing their clubs' matches the following season.^[2]

Manly-Warringah 16 (Tries: Gartner 2, Eadie. Goals: Eadie 3. Field Goal: Eadie.)

Cronulla-Sutherland 0

Man-of-the-match: Graham Eadie

References

1. ^ Middleton, David (2008). League of Legends: 100 Years of Rugby League in Australia. National Museum of Australia. pp. 31. 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. 
2. ^ Coady, Ben (2009-09-28). "Grand final dramas". WA Today (Australia: Fairfax Digital). http://blogs.watoday.com.au/executive-style/sportandstyle/bencoady/2009/09/28/grandfinaldra.html. Retrieved 2010-01-15. 

• Rugby League Tables - Season 1978 The World of Rugby League
• Results: 1971-80 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1978 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com
• NSWRFL season 1978 at rugbyleagueproject.com