The 1949 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the forty-second season of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

's top-level professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

football club competition, Australia's first. Ten teams from across the city contested the premiership during the season which culminated in a grand final between St. George and South Sydney.

Season summary

St. George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

winger Ron Roberts’ 25 tries during 1949 stands in third place behind Les Brennan's 29 in 1954 and Bob Lulham’s 28 in 1947 for the highest number of tries by a player in a debut season. The 1949 season was also the last in the NSWRFL for future

Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame The National Rugby League Hall of Fame was first established as the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2002, before being reestablished in 2018 in its current form. The hall of fame honours the contributions made to the National Rugby League ...

inductee, Vic Hey.

Teams

* Balmain, formed on 23 January 1908 at Balmain Town Hall * Canterbury-Bankstown * Eastern Suburbs, formed on 24 January 1908 at Paddington Town Hall * Manly-Warringah * Newtown, formed on 14 January 1908 *

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

, formed on 7 February 1908 *

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

, formed in November 1946 * South Sydney, formed on 17 January 1908 at Redfern Town Hall *

, formed on 8 November 1920 at Kogarah School of Arts * Western Suburbs, formed on 4 February 1908

Ladder

Finals

Minor premier South Sydney's loss to St. George in the finals meant that a grand final would be necessary.

Grand Final

In a brutal encounter, St George ran in five tries and overcame minor premiers South Sydney 19–12 to claim their second premiership in front of 56,532 people, the second biggest crowd of all time to witness a Sydney club match. Souths opened the scoring, with a converted try to Graves after 21 minutes. However the Dragons were led masterfully by their captain, Kangaroos five-eighth, Norman "Johnny" Hawke. Controlling all aspects of the match, Hawke took the game away from Souths who only got back into the contest when he was forced from the field with injury. Also injured was Saints forward George Jardine who played the match with a broken wrist. St. George led 11–5 at half time. Hawke returned to the field after treatment and was later dubbed "Man of the Match" and "the Player’s Player". The Dragons' wingers, season's top try scorer Ron Roberts (25 tries) and newcomer Noel Pidding scored two tries each. Each of the grand final winning players received a record bonus of £300 each. St. George 19
Tries: Roberts (2), Pidding (2), McCoy
Goals: McCoy, Pidding South Sydney 12
Tries: Graves, Purcell
Goals: Graves (3)

Player statistics

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 18. Top 5 point scorers Top 5 try scorers Top 5 goal scorers