1978 NSWRFL season
| 1978 New South Wales Rugby Football League | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers |
 Manly-Warringah (4th title) |
| Minor premiers |
 Western Suburbs (5th title) |
| Matches played | 140 |
| Points scored | 4375 |
| Attendance | 1582914 |
| Top points scorer(s) |
 Mick Cronin (282) |
| Player of the year |
Mick Cronin (Rothmans Medal) |
| Top try-scorer(s) |
 Larry Corowa (24) |
The 1978 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the seventy-first season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Twelve clubs, including six of 1908's foundation teams and another six from around Sydney competed for the J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Manly-Warringah and Cronulla-Sutherland clubs that was drawn and had to be re-played. NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1978 Amco Cup.
This season video citing was introduced for incidents of foul play that are not detected on the field. Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Western Suburbs, Cronulla-Sutherland, Manly-Warringah, Parramatta and Canterbury-Bankstown who battled it out in the finals.
Mick Cronin set a new record for most points scored by an individual in Australian club rugby league history with his tally of 282 points from 25 games in 1978. This record would stand for another twenty years. He also broke Arthur Oxford's 1920 record for consecutive goals with 26 in a row.
In a tragic accident during the match between Penrith and Newtown at Penrith Park on 28 May, Panther prop John Farragher broke his neck in a scrum and was left a quadriplegic.
The 1978 season's Rothmans Medallist was Parramatta centre Mick Cronin. Rugby League Week gave their player of the year award to Parramatta forward Geoff Gerard.
The 1978 season was also the last in the playing career of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Ron Coote.
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