1968 NSWRFL season

The 1968 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 61st season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Twelve teams, including six Sydney-based foundation teams and another six from around Sydney competed for the J.J. Giltinan Shield and the WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between South Sydney and Manly-Warringah.

Season summary

The 1968 season saw the introduction of an official Best and Fairest Player award in the form of the Rothmans Medal. The inaugural medal was won by Cronulla-Sutherland's Terry Hughes.

The Balmain club narrowly missed out on a place in the top four, which was made up of South Sydney, Manly-Warringah, St. George and Eastern Suburbs.

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Template:Leagueicon South Sydney	22	16	0	6	394	271	+123	32
2	Template:Leagueicon Manly	22	15	1	6	379	282	+97	31
3	Template:Leagueicon St. George	22	13	3	6	416	320	+96	29
4	Template:Leagueicon Eastern Suburbs	22	14	1	7	362	274	+88	29
5	Template:Leagueicon Balmain	22	14	0	8	393	284	+109	28
6	Template:Leagueicon Parramatta	22	12	1	9	308	284	+24	25
7	Template:Leagueicon Western Suburbs	22	12	0	10	328	279	+49	24
8	Template:Leagueicon Penrith	22	11	0	11	298	352	-54	22
9	Template:Leagueicon Canterbury	22	9	1	12	259	301	-42	19
10	Template:Leagueicon Cronulla	22	6	0	16	259	405	-146	12
11	Template:Leagueicon North Sydney	22	4	0	18	259	388	-129	8
12	Template:Leagueicon Newtown	22	2	1	19	257	472	-215	5

Finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Semi-finals
Template:Leagueicon St. George	17–10	Template:Leagueicon Eastern Suburbs Roosters	31 August 1968	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	49,747
Template:Leagueicon South Sydney	15–23	Template:Leagueicon Manly-Warringah	7 September 1968	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	49,128
Preliminary Final
Template:Leagueicon South Sydney	20–8	Template:Leagueicon St. George	14 September 1968	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	44,803
Grand Final
Template:Leagueicon Manly-Warringah	9–13	Template:Leagueicon South Sydney	21 September 1968	Sydney Cricket Ground	Col Pearce	54,255

Grand Final

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Position	South Sydney Rabbitohs
Bob Batty	FB	Eric Simms
2. Michael McLean	WG	2. Brian James
3. Alec Tennant	CE	3. Bob Honan
4. Frank Stanton	CE	4. Arthur Branighan
5. Les Hanigan	WG	5. Michael Cleary
6. Bob Fulton (c)	FE	6. Denis Pittard
7. Denis Ward	HB	7. Bob Grant
13. Bill Hamilton	PR	13. Jim Morgan
12. Fred Jones	HK	12. Elwyn Walters
11. Norm Pounder	PR	11. John O'Neill
10. David Knox	SR	19. John Sattler (c)
9. John Morgan	SR	9. Bob Moses
8. Bill Bradstreet	LK	8. Ron Coote
	Res.
George Hunter	Coach	Clive Churchill

Manly was making its fourth ever Grand Final appearance and still looking for its first title. 21-year-old captain Bob Fulton led a young Sea Eagles side, while Souths was skippered by John Sattler who that season had been honoured as "Catholic Sportsman of the Year". Neither team lineup had any players older than 29 years of age. The depth of the Souths line-up was indicated by the fact that it’s stars Kevin Longbottom, Bob McCarthy and Ray Branighan were all named and played in the Rabbitohs' reserve grade side which ominously won its grand final match-up also against Manly.

The first-grade match began furiously with the toughening-up period resulting in four cautions by referee Pearce in the first four minutes. Ron Coote clashed with Bill Bradstreet and the opposing giants Hamilton and John O'Neill also measured up. Souths, with a strong breeze at its back, was the first to score when Michael Cleary intercepted a pass meant for Manly winger Les Hanigan and raced 80 yards to score. Simms punished Manly with a conversion and three successful penalty goals in the first half and at the break Souths led 11–2.

The Sea Eagles refused to lay down and mid-way through the second half second-rower John Morgan crashed over for a try which was converted by Bob Batty. Then a Bob Fulton field goal with fourteen minutes left brought Manly within reach. But despite the Manly fightback Souths was too resilient and hung on to win its second successive premiership and the club's 18th title.

South Sydney 13 (Tries: Cleary. Goals: Simms 5.)

Manly-Warringah 9 (Tries: Morgan. Goals: Batty 2. Fld Goals: Fulton 1.)

Player statistics

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 22.

Top 5 point scorers

Points	Player	Tries	Goals	Field Goals
184	Template:Leagueicon Eric Simms	0	65	27
181	Template:Leagueicon Dennis Preston	7	80	0
167	Template:Leagueicon Terry Hughes	7	67	6
152	Template:Leagueicon Len Killeen	8	64	0
136	Template:Leagueicon Allan McKean	0	67	1

Top 5 try scorers

Tries	Player
20	Template:Leagueicon Stan Gorton
13	Template:Leagueicon Les Hanigan
12	Template:Leagueicon Mick Alchin
11	Template:Leagueicon George Ruebner
9	Template:Leagueicon Ron Coote
9	Template:Leagueicon Bob Mara
9	Template:Leagueicon Johnny Rhodes

Top 5 goal scorers

Goals	Player
80	Template:Leagueicon Dennis Preston
67	Template:Leagueicon Allan McKean
67	Template:Leagueicon Terry Hughes
65	Template:Leagueicon Eric Simms
64	Template:Leagueicon Len Killeen

External links

• Rugby League Tables – Season 1968 The World of Rugby League
• Results:1961-70 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1968 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com
• NSWRFL season 1968 at rugbyleagueproject.com