1947 NSWRFL season

1947 NSWRFL season
Teams	10
Premiers	Balmain[1] (10th title)
Minor premiers	Canterbury (3rd title)
Matches played	95
Points scored	3238 (total) 34.084 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Pat Devery (142)
Top try scorer(s)	Bob Lulham (28)

The 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the fortieth season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football competition, Australia's first. The addition of two teams, Manly-Warringah and Parramatta, saw ten teams from across the city contest during the 1947 premiership, the first expansion of the League since Canterbury's introduction in 1935. The season culminated in a grand final between the Balmain and Canterbury-Bankstown clubs.^[2]

Season summary

For the first time since NSWRFL season 1937, more than eight clubs competed in the Sydney premiership due to the admission of Manly-Warringah and Parramatta to the first grade competition.

Mid way through the season the Balmain club looked out of touch winning only 6 of their first 12 games. Five consecutive wins to end the regular season left them in position to make a finals assault. Balmain's Bob Lulham's set a new record for the highest number of tries by a player in a debut season with a tally of 28 tries in 18 matches. This remains that club's standing record for tries in a season.

Teams

• Balmain, formed on January 23, 1908 at Balmain Town Hall
• Canterbury-Bankstown
• Eastern Suburbs, formed on January 24, 1908 at Paddington Town Hall
• Manly-Warringah admitted in 1947
• Newtown, formed on January 14, 1908
• North Sydney, formed on February 7, 1908
• Parramatta, formed in November 1946
• South Sydney, formed on January 17, 1908 at Redfern Town Hall
• St. George, formed on November 8, 1920 at Kogarah School of Arts
• Western Suburbs, formed on February 4, 1908

Balmain	Canterbury-Bankstown	Eastern Suburbs	Manly-Warringah
Newtown	North Sydney	Parramatta	South Sydney
	St. George	Western Suburbs

Balmain's Harry Bath

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Canterbury	18	13	1	4	366	272	+94	27
2	Balmain	18	12	0	6	342	265	+77	24
3	Newtown	18	11	1	6	375	302	+73	23
4	St. George	18	11	0	7	353	272	+81	22
5	Western Suburbs	18	11	0	7	295	253	+42	22
6	North Sydney	18	9	1	8	287	278	+9	19
7	South Sydney	18	9	0	9	314	328	-14	18
8	Eastern Suburbs	18	5	1	12	270	316	-46	11
9	Manly-Warringah	18	4	0	14	242	364	-122	8
10	Parramatta	18	3	0	15	230	424	-194	6

Finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Playoff
St. George	5 - 10	Western Suburbs	27 August 1947	Sydney Sports Ground		13,552
Semi Finals
Canterbury	25 - 15	Newtown	30 August 1947	Sydney Cricket Ground	George Bishop	36,303
Balmain	27 - 16	Western Suburbs	6 September 1947	Sydney Sports Ground	Tom McMahon	29,375
Final
Canterbury	19 - 25	Balmain	13 September 1947	Sydney Sports Ground	Jack O'Brien	34,994
Grand Final
Canterbury	9 - 13	Balmain	20 September 1947[3]	Sydney Sports Ground	Jack O'Brien	29,292

Grand final

Canterbury-Bankstown	Position	Balmain
Richard Johnson	FB	Jack McCullough
Jeff Simmonds	WG	Robert Lulham
Eddie Tracy	CE	Pat Devery
Norm Young	CE	Joe Jorgenson
Morrie Murphy	WG	Arthur Patton
Ray Hasson	FE	George Williams
Bruce Hopkins	HB	Des Bryan
Eddie Burns	PR	Jack Branighan
Roy Kirkaldy	HK	Herb Gilbert Jnr
Henry Porter (c)	PR	Jack Spencer
Alister Clarke	SR	Sid Ryan
Ken Charlton	SR	Harry Bath
Len Holmes	LK	Tom Bourke (c)
Ross McKinnon	Coach	Norm Robinson

The Tigers had strung together seven consecutive wins including a preliminary final victory over minor premiers Canterbury in their attempt at a second straight premiership. Canterbury exercised their "right of challenge" after losing the final and called for a Grand Final decider.

The formidable Canterbury front row of Eddie Burns, Roy Kirkaldy and Henry Porter were combining in their tenth season for close to 100 appearances as a scrum front trio. They led a punishing Berries defence and gave their side a better-than-even chance of possession in the scrum contests.

Balmain's international star centre and Kangaroo captain Joe Jorgenson had played and coached on a country contract in Junee in 1947 but returned to the Tigers reserve-grade in time for the semi-finals. The Grand Final marked his sole first-grade appearance of the season. Balmain's Test five-eighth Pat Devery was the nominated match kicker but after several misses he passed over to Jorgenson who kicked three penalties to keep Balmain in the game and trailing 9-6 with ten minutes to go.

Then Jorgenson crashed over for a try under the posts and after receiving medical attention he converted his own goal to give the Tigers an 11-9 lead. A final 45 yard penalty goal then sealed the match for the Tigers at 13-9 with Jorgenson scoring all of Balmain's points and being chaired victorious from the field.

Balmain's Joe Jorgenson

Balmain 13 (Tries: Jorgenson. Goals: Jorgenson 5 )

defeated

Canterbury-Bankstown 9 (Tries: Hasson. Goals: Johnson 2, Hasson)

References

1. ^ Premiership Roll of Honour at rl1908.com
2. ^ "Canterbury wants Kilham back". The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): pp. 8. 1947-09-15. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZH0QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wZMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5775,1981252. Retrieved 2009-11-20. 
3. ^ 1947 Grand Final at nrlstats.com

• Rugby League Tables - Notes The World of Rugby League
• Rugby League Tables - Season 1947 The World of Rugby League
• Premiership History and Statistics RL1908
• Finals lineups and results Hunterlink site
• Balmain Official History Tigers History Site
• Whiticker, Alan(2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney
• Results:1941-1950 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1947 Labor Daily Cup at rleague.com
• 1947 NSWRFL season at rugbyleagueproject.com