New South Wales Rugby Football League season 1967

Infobox rugby league season
year = 1967
competition = New South Wales Rugby Football League


imagesize = 125px
caption =
teams = 12
premiers =
count = 17th
minor premiers =
mpcount = 13th
matches = 136
points = 3827
attendance = 1769881
top points scorer = (233)
top try scorer = (16)
1967's New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the sixtieth season of the rugby league football competition based in Sydney. 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.

eason 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. The number of tackles was four and would remain at that number for only four years before being increased to six in 1971.

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 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.

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

Teams

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

Grand Final

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.Big League, July13 2006 p.7]

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.

The 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. 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 10 ( Goals: Taylforth 4. Fld Goal: Raper .)

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.stats.rleague.com/rl/seas/1967.html Rugby League Tables - Season 1967] "The World of Rugby League"
* Big League, News Magazines for the National Rugby League June 13, 2006
* [http://www.rabbitohs.com.au/The-Club/Tradition/Results---1961-1970.html Results:1961-70 at rabbitohs.com.au]
* [http://www.rleague.com//db/year/1967/j_j_giltinan_shield_and_wd_ho_wills_cup/index.php 1967 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com]
* [http://rugbyleagueproject.com/competitions/NSWRL_1967.html NSWRFL season 1967]