1966 NSWRFL season

1966 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams	10
Premiers	St. George (13th title)
Minor premiers	St. George (12th title)
Matches played	95
Points scored	2715 (total) 28.579 (per match)
Attendance	1,293,261 (total) 13,613 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Bob Lanigan (185)
Top try scorer(s)	Ken Irvine (13)

1966's New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 59th season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Ten clubs from across the city competed for the J J Giltinan Shield and the WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a replay of the 1964 grand final between St. George and Balmain.

Season summary

1966 was the last season played under the unlimited tackle rule. Balmain, with their talented raw rookie recruit Arthur Beetson, appeared to be about to topple the Dragons from their long-held perch when the Tigers won eleven consecutive regular season games. However a late season slump saw them pegged back to the rest of the field and an eventual second place on the minor-premiership ladder behind the Dragons, who were being led by new captain-coach Ian Walsh.

Eastern Suburbs did not win a single match in 1966, continuing a losing streak that started in round 14, 1965 and which would run till round 2, 1967. This marked the second-most consecutive losses in NSWRFL premiership history at 25 behind University’s 42 in the mid-1930s. Their winless streak ran a total of 29 games between their 11–9 win over Canterbury in Round 12, 1965 and beating North Sydney 17–11 in Round 6 of 1967

Teams

Balmain 59th season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Harry Bath Captain: Keith Barnes	Canterbury-Bankstown 32nd season Ground: Belmore Sports Ground Captain-coach: Roger Pearman→George Taylforth	Eastern Suburbs 59th season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Bert Holcroft Captains: Ron Saddler / Ken Ashcroft	Manly-Warringah 20th season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Wally O'Connell Captains: Frank Stanton / Ken Day
Newtown 59th season Ground: Henson Park Coach: Dick Poole Captain: Paul Quinn	North Sydney 59th season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Fred Griffiths Captain: Billy Wilson	Parramatta 20th season Ground: Cumberland Oval Captain-coach: Ken Thornett	South Sydney 59th season Ground: Redfern Oval Coach: Bernie Purcell Captain(s): Jim Lisle / Bob Moses
	St. George 46th season Ground: Jubilee Oval Captain-coach: Ian Walsh	Western Suburbs 59th season Ground: Pratten Park Captain-Coach: Noel Kelly

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	St. George	18	13	1	4	331	156	+175	27
2	Balmain	18	12	0	6	279	203	+76	24
3	Manly	18	11	0	7	348	256	+92	22
4	Newtown	18	10	0	8	261	249	+12	20
5	Western Suburbs	18	10	0	8	228	241	-13	20
6	South Sydney	18	9	0	9	263	228	+35	18
7	Parramatta	18	8	2	8	236	232	+4	18
8	Canterbury	18	8	0	10	244	295	-51	16
9	North Sydney	18	7	1	10	282	313	-31	15
10	Eastern Suburbs	18	0	0	18	147	446	-299	0

Finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Playoff
Newtown	20-5	Western Suburbs	23 August 1966	Sydney Sports Ground	W.Kelly	10,724
Semi Finals
Manly-Warringah	10-9	Newtown	27 August 1966	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	31,803
St. George	10-2	Balmain	3 September 1966	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	46,531
Preliminary Final
Balmain	8-5	Manly-Warringah	10 September 1966	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	39,461
Grand Final
St. George	23-4	Balmain	18 September 1966	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	61,129

Grand Final

Balmain had beaten St. George twice in the regular season and in their coach Harry Bath, who had helped design the Dragons premiership winning formula, had a tactician well placed to counter it. They had a number of young players in Beetson, Kevin Yow Yeh and Denis Tutty who could trouble the Dragons, plus the experience of Dave Bolton, Peter Provan and the unrivalled goal-kicking brilliance of Keith Barnes.

The opening skirmishes on the day of the decider were balanced. Balmain took an early lead when Barnes kicked a penalty goal. St. George's Billy Smith struck back when he set up a run around movement with Brian Clay, which led to a try to Bruce Pollard.

The turning point of the match came soon after when the Dragons' English import Dick Huddart and Ian Walsh put on a set move as the Tigers' defence rushed up too early. Walsh bust through the line and with only the fullback to beat and passed the ball to Huddart who raced 30 yards to score.

On the other side of half-time Billy Smith sliced through and found Johnny Raper who got to the Balmain 25-yard line before finding prop Kevin Ryan in support. It was a spectacular run from the evergreen forward who out-raced his pursuers and dived through the air to score and put the match beyond doubt.

Balmain had tried to slow down the Dragons with stifling tactics but this backfired and resulted in an unfavourable penalty count. Classy Dragons fullback Graeme Langlands capitalised on this, kicking seven goals.

Huddart was dominant for the clinical Saints who did not concede a try for a staggering seventh time in eight grand final victories. He had been niggled early in the game by the Balmain forwards and responded by running freely all match and crashing the Tigers with fiery tackles.

With the full-time siren St George had won their 11th successive Grand Final, setting a record^[1] that is unlikely to be ever broken in first grade rugby league or perhaps in any top-grade world team sport.

It was the last game played for the club by Dragons enforcer Kevin Ryan after seven Grand Final wins and also the farewell match for winger Eddie Lumsden who had appeared in nine of the victories.

St. George 23 (Tries: Pollard, Huddart, Ryan. Goals: Langlands 7.)

Balmain 4 ( Goals: Barnes 2.)

References

External links

• Writer, Larry (1995) Never Before, Never Again, Pan MacMillan, Sydney
• Rugby League Tables - Season 1966 The World of Rugby League
• Results:1961-70 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1966 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com
• NSWRFL season 1966 at rugbyleagueproject.com
• St. George 1966 season at showroom.com.au