| 1982 New South Wales Rugby Football League | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 14 |
| Premiers |  Parramatta (2nd title) |
| Minor premiers | Parramatta (2nd title) |
| Matches played | 188 |
| Points scored | 5,927 |
| Attendance | 1,716,490 |
| Top points scorer | Mick Cronin (279) |
| Rothmans Medal |  Greg Brentnall |
| Top try-scorer | Steve Ella (23) |
The1982 NSWRFL season was the 75th season of professionalrugby league football in Australia and saw theNew South Wales Rugby Football League’s first expansion since1967 with the introduction of the first two clubs from outside theSydney area in over half a century: theCanberra Raiders and theIllawarra Steelers. Thus a total of 14 clubs (including 6 Sydney-based foundation teams, another 6 from Sydney, one from greaterNew South Wales, and one from theAustralian Capital Territory) competed for theJ.J. Giltinan Shield and newly-createdWinfield Cup during the season, which culminated in agrand final between theParramatta andManly-Warringah clubs. This season, NSWRFL teams also competed for the1982 KB Cup which was won by Manly-Warringah.
The firstCharity Shield match was played before the 1982 season betweenSt. George andSouth Sydney.
This year a bronze replica of “the Gladiators” – the 1963 photo taken by John O'Gready ofNorm Provan andArthur Summons’ post-game, mud-caked embrace – was first adopted to adorn theWinfield Cup, the new trophy to be awarded to the grand final winners. Because of the introduction of two new teams, twenty-six (rather than twenty-two) regular season rounds were played from February till August, resulting in a top five of Parramatta, Manly, Norths, Easts and Wests. The new teams, theIllawarra Steelers and theCanberra Raiders, would finish their debut seasons in second last and last place respectively.
The 1982 season saw the only nil-all scoreline in competition history.Newtown andCanterbury-Bankstown drew their match atHenson Park on 28 March, with neither team scoring a point. The long-standing record for the longest suspension for a player in the League's history was broken during the season. Western Suburbs'Bob Cooper was suspended for 15 months for punching Illawarra’sLee Pomfret.
The 1982 season'sRothmans Medallist was Canterbury-Bankstown’sGreg Brentnall and theDally M Award went to Parramatta’s lock forward,Ray Price.Rugby League Week gave their player of the year award to Eastern Suburbs’ halfbackKevin Hastings for the third consecutive season.
This year the number of clubs in the League reached a new high of fourteen, with the addition of two expansion clubs, theIllawarra Steelers and theCanberra Raiders.[1] This saw the first inclusion of teams based outside of theSydney area since the foundationNewcastle club departed the League in1909. This was the first of several expansions that would take place over the next decade and a half which would see the Sydney-wide competition grow into a New South Wales-wide competition and eventually into a national league. Also, for the first time in three quarters of a century, the League's 1908 foundation teams were outnumbered by teams introduced since the inaugural season.
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parramatta | 26 | 21 | 0 | 5 | 619 | 242 | +377 | 42 |
| 2 |  Manly | 26 | 17 | 0 | 9 | 530 | 411 | +119 | 34 |
| 3 |  North Sydney | 26 | 16 | 1 | 9 | 399 | 360 | +39 | 33 |
| 4 |  Eastern Suburbs | 26 | 15 | 2 | 9 | 437 | 304 | +133 | 32 |
| 5 |  Western Suburbs | 26 | 16 | 0 | 10 | 412 | 349 | +63 | 32 |
| 6 |  South Sydney | 26 | 14 | 1 | 11 | 395 | 400 | -5 | 29 |
| 7 |  Newtown | 26 | 13 | 2 | 11 | 406 | 309 | +97 | 28 |
| 8 |  Cronulla | 26 | 13 | 1 | 12 | 400 | 336 | +64 | 27 |
| 9 | Canterbury | 26 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 399 | 361 | +38 | 27 |
| 10 |  St. George | 26 | 11 | 2 | 13 | 408 | 402 | +6 | 24 |
| 11 |  Balmain | 26 | 10 | 1 | 15 | 383 | 427 | -44 | 21 |
| 12 |  Penrith | 26 | 7 | 1 | 18 | 375 | 441 | -66 | 15 |
| 13 |  Illawarra | 26 | 6 | 0 | 20 | 344 | 572 | -228 | 12 |
| 14 |  Canberra | 26 | 4 | 0 | 22 | 269 | 862 | -593 | 8 |
| Home | Score | Away | Match information | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date and time | Venue | Referee | Crowd | |||||
| Qualifying Finals | ||||||||
| Eastern Suburbs | 11–7 | Western Suburbs | 4 September 1982 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Jack Danzey | 21,167 | ||
| Manly-Warringah | 26–3 | North Sydney | 5 September 1982 | Sydney Cricket Ground | John Gocher | 24,690 | ||
| Semi-finals | ||||||||
| North Sydney | 10–12 | Eastern Suburbs | 11 September 1982 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Jack Danzey | 19,566 | ||
| Parramatta | 0–20 | Manly-Warringah | 12 September 1982 | Sydney Cricket Ground | John Gocher | 31,604 | ||
| Preliminary final | ||||||||
| Parramatta | 33–0 | Eastern Suburbs | 19 September 1982 | Sydney Cricket Ground | John Gocher | 24,637 | ||
| Grand final | ||||||||
| Manly-Warringah | 8–21 | Parramatta | 26 September 1982 | Sydney Cricket Ground | John Gocher | 52,186 | ||
| Qualifying final | Major semi-final | Preliminary final | Grand final | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | Parramatta | 0 | Manly | 8 | ||||||||||||||
| Manly | 20 | Parramatta | 21 | |||||||||||||||
| 2 | Manly | 26 | Parramatta | 33 | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | North Sydney | 3 | Minor semi-final | Eastern Suburbs | 0 | |||||||||||||
| North Sydney | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Eastern Suburbs | 11 | Eastern Suburbs | 12 | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | Western Suburbs | 7 | ||||||||||||||||
| Manly-Warringah | Position | Parramatta |
|---|---|---|
| FB | ||
| 2.John Ribot | WG | 2.Neil Hunt |
| 3.Chris Close | CE | 3.Mick Cronin |
| 4.Michael Blake | CE | 4.Steve Ella |
| 5.Phil Carey | WG | 5.Eric Grothe |
| 6.Alan Thompson (c) | FE | 6.Brett Kenny |
| 7.Phil Blake | HB | 7.Peter Sterling |
| 13.Geoff Gerard | PR | 13.Geoff Bugden |
| 12.Ray Brown | HK | 12.Steve Edge (c) |
| 11.Terry Randall | PR | 11.Chris Phelan |
| 10.Paul Vautin | SR | 10.Steve Sharp |
| 14.Les Boyd | SR | 9.John Muggleton |
| 8.Paul McCabe | LK | 8.Ray Price |
| 9.Bruce Walker | Reserve | 14.Peter Wynn |
| 15.Max Krillich | Reserve | 17.Gary Martine |
| 18.Ian Thomson | Reserve | 19.Mark Laurie |
| Reserve | 19.Steve Halliwell | |
| Ray Ritchie | Coach | Jack Gibson |
The Eels won theminor premiership with ease – eight points ahead of Manly – and breezed through the decider with the same confidence. Manly opened the scoring through Phil Blake in the opening minutes, but Parramatta replied quickly when Brett Kenny put Steve Ella over. After a quiet period, Manly collapsed in the ten minutes before half-time with Parramatta scoring three tries. The first to Eric Grothe came when Brett Kenny had shown brilliant evasive skills on the second tackle after Manly dropped the ball, the second came when a Peter Sterlingbomb deflected off a Parramatta player into Kenny's arms, and the third after quick hands saw Kenny send Neil Hunt over in the corner. The Eels led 16–3 at half-time and, despite Les Boyd scoring after playing the ball forward in the 48th minute, Brett Kenny's second try in the 62nd minute sealed victory.
Parramatta 21 (Tries: Kenny 2, Ella, Grothe, Hunt. Goals: Cronin 3/5.)
Manly 8 (Tries: P Blake, Boyd. Goal: Eadie 1/2.)
The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 26.
Top 5 point scorers
Top 5 try scorers
| Top 5 goal scorers
|
