1952 NSWRFL season

The 1952 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the forty-fifth season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Ten teams from across Sydney contested for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season which culminated in a grand final between Western Suburbs and South Sydney.

1952 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams	10
Premiers	Western Suburbs (4th title)
Minor premiers	Western Suburbs (3rd title)
Matches played	95
Points scored	3217
Top points scorer(s)	Ron Rowles (178)
Wooden spoon	Parramatta (2nd spoon)
Top try-scorer(s)	Peter O'Brien (20)
← 1951 1953 →

Teams

The tail-end of the season was played without star players selected to go on the Australian national team’s 1952–1953 Kangaroo Tour.

Balmain 45th season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Arthur Patton Captain: Stan Ponchard	Canterbury-Bankstown 18th season Ground: Belmore Oval Coach: Alby Why Captain: Ken Charlton	Eastern Suburbs 45th season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Ernie Norman Captain: Ferris Ashton	Manly-Warringah 6th season Ground: Brookvale Oval Captain-Coach: Wally O'Connell	Newtown 45th season Ground: Erskineville Oval Coach: Frank Johnson Captain: Gordon Clifford
North Sydney 45th season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Ross McKinnon Captain: Bob Sullivan	Parramatta 6th season Ground: Cumberland Oval Coach: Vic Hey Captain: Ian Johnston	South Sydney 45th season Ground: Redfern Oval Captain-Coach: Jack Rayner	St. George 32nd season Ground: Jubilee Oval Captain-coach: Johnny Hawke	Western Suburbs 45th season Ground: Pratten Park Coach: Tom McMahon Captain: Peter McLean

Regular season

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	F1	F2	F3	F4	GF
Balmain	CBY −1	STG −11	WES −9	SOU −3	NEW −1	EAS −10	MAN −10	PAR +6	NOR +7	CBY +25	STG +16	WES −2	SOU +2	NEW +30	MAN −2	PAR −1	NOR +8	EAS +51
Canterbury-Bankstown	BAL +1	NEW +1	EAS −5	MAN −23	PAR +8	NOR −21	SOU −22	STG −17	WES −2	BAL −25	NEW −11	EAS +2	MAN −8	PAR +2	SOU −12	STG −6	WES 0	NOR −34
Eastern Suburbs	PAR +10	NOR +2	CBY +5	STG −4	WES −3	BAL +10	NEW −1	SOU −50	MAN −4	PAR −16	NOR −24	CBY −2	STG −11	WES −12	NEW +20	SOU −8	MAN +1	BAL −51
Manly-Warringah	SOU +3	PAR +17	NOR +3	CBY +23	STG +17	WES −1	BAL +10	NEW +20	EAS +4	SOU −5	PAR +6	NOR −13	CBY +8	STG −3	BAL +2	NEW −8	EAS −1	WES −9	NOR −28
Newtown	NOR −5	CBY −1	STG −16	WES −1	BAL +1	SOU −4	EAS +1	MAN −20	PAR +13	NOR −4	CBY +11	STG −24	WES −10	BAL −30	EAS −20	MAN +8	PAR +9	SOU −39
North Sydney	NEW +5	EAS −2	MAN −3	PAR +32	SOU +3	CBY +21	STG +22	WES −20	BAL −7	NEW +4	EAS +24	MAN +13	PAR +22	SOU −6	STG −4	WES +5	BAL −8	CBY +34	MAN +28	X	STG +12	SOU −14
Parramatta	EAS −10	MAN −17	SOU −20	NOR −32	CBY −8	STG −12	WES −18	BAL −6	NEW −13	EAS +16	MAN −6	SOU +6	NOR −22	CBY −2	WES −4	BAL +1	NEW −9	STG −26
South Sydney	MAN −3	WES −2	PAR +20	BAL +3	NOR −3	NEW +4	CBY +22	EAS +50	STG +2	MAN +5	WES +5	PAR −6	BAL −2	NOR +6	CBY +12	EAS +8	STG −5	NEW +39	X	WES +8	X	NOR +14	WES −10
St. George	WES −1	BAL +11	NEW +16	EAS +4	MAN −17	PAR +12	NOR −22	CBY +17	SOU −2	WES +17	BAL −16	NEW +24	EAS +11	MAN +3	NOR +4	CBY +6	SOU +5	PAR +26	X	X	NOR −12
Western Suburbs	STG +1	SOU +2	BAL +9	NEW +1	EAS +3	MAN +1	PAR +18	NOR +20	CBY +2	STG −17	SOU −5	BAL +2	NEW +10	EAS +12	PAR +4	NOR −5	CBY 0	MAN +9	X	SOU −8	X	X	SOU +10
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	F1	F2	F3	F4	GF

Bold – Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Western Suburbs	18	14	1	3	331	264	+67	29
2	St. George	18	13	0	5	375	279	+96	26
3	South Sydney	18	12	0	6	344	189	+155	24
4	North Sydney	18	11	0	7	384	247	+137	22
5	Manly	18	11	0	7	334	261	+73	22
6	Balmain	18	8	0	10	351	256	+95	16
7	Newtown	18	6	0	12	210	341	-131	12
8	Eastern Suburbs	18	6	0	12	259	397	-138	12
9	Canterbury	18	5	1	12	214	386	-172	11
10	Parramatta	18	3	0	15	241	423	-182	6

Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 4.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round.

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1	Western Suburbs	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	18	18	18	20	22	24	26	26	27	29
2	St. George	0	2	4	6	6	8	8	10	10	12	12	14	16	18	20	22	24	26
3	South Sydney	0	0	2	4	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	16	16	18	20	22	22	24
4	North Sydney	2	2	2	4	6	8	10	10	10	12	14	16	18	18	18	20	20	22
5	Manly-Warringah	2	4	6	8	10	10	12	14	16	16	18	18	20	20	22	22	22	22
6	Balmain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	6	8	8	10	12	12	12	14	16
7	Newtown	0	0	0	0	2	2	4	4	6	6	8	8	8	8	8	10	12	12
8	Eastern Suburbs	2	4	6	6	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	10	10	12	12
9	Canterbury-Bankstown	2	4	4	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	8	8	10	10	10	11	11
10	Parramatta	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	6	6

Finals

The 1952 season saw North Sydney reach the finals for the first time since 1943.^[1] Their win over St. George in their semi-final would prove North Sydney’s last victory in a first grade semi-final until their 1991 major preliminary semi-final against Manly-Warringah.^[2]

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Playoff
North Sydney	36–8	Manly-Warringah	27 August 1952	Sydney Cricket Ground		8,770
Semifinals
Western Suburbs	10–18	South Sydney	30 August 1952	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack O'Brien	34,181
St. George	9–21	North Sydney	6 September 1952	Sydney Cricket Ground	George Bishop	41,976
Preliminary Final
South Sydney	26–12	North Sydney	13 September 1952	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack O'Brien	44,166
Final
Western Suburbs	22–12	South Sydney	20 September 1952	Sydney Cricket Ground	George Bishop	41,060

Grand Final

Western Suburbs	Position	South Sydney
16. George Bain	FB	13. Don Murdoch
2. Bill Callinan	WG	12. John Graves
3. Col Ratcliff	CE	11. Frank Threlfo
4. Gerry Lowe	CE	10. Malcolm Spencer
5. Jack Fitzgerald	WG	9. Cliff Smailes
24. Dev Dines	FE	8. Norm Spillane
16. Leo Trevena	HB	7. Ken Brogan
13. Kevin Hansen	PR	Denis Donoghue
51. Hec Farrell	HK	2. Ernie Hammerton
11. Bill Horder	PR	3. Bryan Orrock
9. Don Schofield	SR	5. Ken Macreadie
22. Ron Watson	SR	4. Jack Rayner (Ca./Co.)
8. Peter McLean (c)	LK	6. Ray Neilson
Tom McMahon	Coach

The rl1908 reference^[3] transcribes Sean Fagan’s 2002 interview with Souths captain-coach Jack Rayner fuelling the suggestion that dubious refereeing decisions cost the Rabbitohs the 1952 title and prevented Souths from stringing together all six premierships of 1950 to 1955. However, it cannot be argued that the Western Suburbs club were themselves a force of the 1950s, and their 1952 achievement was undeniably remarkable, as they played the whole second half of the season and the finals without their stars Frank Stanmore, Keith Holman and Arthur Collinson, who had all left with the touring Kangaroos to England and France.

Wests finished as minor premiers due in great part to their undefeated nine-game streak in the first full round of the 1952 season. In the final they met Souths who were seeking their third premiership in a row.

The controversy centered on a disallowed Rabbitohs try early in the game. Souths’ Frank Threlfo made a break and slipped the ball to Ken Macreadie who was in under the posts. Referee George Bishop ruled the pass forward and disallowed the try. In the interview Rayner also comments on the lopsided penalty count.^[3]

However the record-books show that Wests scored six tries to two, winning the match 22–12 and the club’s fourth premiership. Wests’ Hec Farrell and Souths’ Bryan Orrock were sent-off for fighting and went before the judiciary charged with kicking.^[4] Wests' coach Tom McMahon became the first coach to win a premiership in his debut coaching season.

Ironically, ten years later Wests would again threaten to break a string of premiership wins – the 1962 and 1963 Magpie sides both came close to ceasing St. George's long run – but again several refereeing controversies would affect the outcome. Both the 1962 and 1963 Grand Finals have been said to have been decided by questionable calls from referee Darcy Lawler and on those occasion Wests would be on the wrong end of disputed rulings.

Western Suburbs 22 (Tries: Schofield 2, Fitzgerald, Dines, Bain, McLean. Goals: Bain 2.)

South Sydney 12 (Tries: Smailes, Macreadie. Goals: Graves 3.)

Player statistics

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 18.

Top 5 point scorers Points Player Tries Goals Field Goals 178 Ron Rowles 8 77 0 153 Johnny Graves 13 57 0 131 George Bain 3 61 0 106 Gordon Clifford 0 53 0 97 Noel Pidding 5 41 0 Top 5 try scorers Tries Player 18 Peter O'Brien 16 John McClean 14 Bill Callinan 14 Tommy Ryan 13 Johnny Graves

Top 5 goal scorers Goals Player 77 Ron Rowles 61 George Bain 57 Johnny Graves 53 Gordon Clifford 48 Joe Jorgenson