1975 New South Wales Rugby Football League | |
---|---|
Teams | 12 |
Premiers | Eastern Suburbs (11th title) |
Minor premiers | Eastern Suburbs (14th title) |
Matches played | 140 |
Points scored | 4444 |
Attendance | 1528180 |
Top points scorer(s) | Graham Eadie (242) |
Player of the year | Steve Rogers (Rothmans Medal) |
Top try-scorer(s) | Johnny Mayes (16) |
The 1975 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 68th season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Twelve teams, including six of 1908's foundation clubs and another six from across Sydney competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final match for the WD & HO Wills Cup between the Eastern Suburbs and St. George clubs. NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1975 Amco Cup.
The season saw the introduction of differential penalties for scrum offences. Each side faced each other twice in twenty-two regular season rounds from March to August, resulting in a top five of Eastern Suburbs, Manly-Warringah, St. George, Canterbury-Bankstown and Western Suburbs who battled it out for the premiership over six finals matches. With three sides finishing in equal fifth place, two elimination finals playoffs also had to be played.
Western Suburbs had 1 point deducted for fielding an ineligible player in round 8. After losing two consecutive matches in rounds 2 and 3, defending premiers Eastern Suburbs posted 19 consecutive wins in 1975 to close out the regular season; a streak than ran from round 4 to round 22 and remains the record for the most consecutive wins in premiership history.
The 1975 season's Rothmans Medallist was Cronulla-Sutherland centre Steve Rogers. Rugby League Week gave their player of the year award to Manly-Warringah back Bob Fulton.
Balmain, Parramatta and Western Suburbs tied for fifth place, necessitating a play-off drawn from a hat.
This was the first grand final to be telecast in colour. The star-studded Eastern Suburbs line up had lost only 2 matches in the 22-game regular season and were clear starting favourites. However, St. George looked a chance early on when utility back "Lord Ted" Goodwin put on a chip and chase. Goodwin collided with Eastern Suburbs' fullback Ian Schubert, came off second best and was out of touch for the remainder of the match. Things were also wrong with captain-coach Graeme Langlands who was struggling with his coordination following an ill-directed pain killing injection that numbed his right leg and severely affected his form.