1935 New South Wales Rugby Football League | |
---|---|
Teams | 9 |
Premiers | Eastern Suburbs (5th title) |
Minor premiers | Eastern Suburbs (6th title) |
Matches played | 75 |
Top points scorer(s) | Dave Brown (244) |
Top try-scorer(s) | Dave Brown (38) |
The 1935 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the twenty-eighth season of Sydney’s top-grade rugby league club competition, Australia’s first. The season culminated in Eastern Suburbs’ victory over South Sydney in the final.
The addition of Canterbury-Bankstown meant that the League involved nine clubs for the first time since 1929.
The University club did not win a single match in 1935, continuing a losing streak that started in round 2, 1934 and which would run till round 14, 1936, and which marks the most consecutive losses in NSWRL/NRL premiership history at 42.
On 11 May at Earl Park, St. George defeated newcomers Canterbury 91–6, this remaining the biggest winning margin and most points scored by one team in the history of the NSWRFL/NSWRL/ARL/NRL, beating South Sydney’s 67–nil win over Western Suburbs in 1910. The following weekend on 18 May, Eastern Suburbs defeated the “Cantabs” (as Canterbury were initially known) 87–7, this remaining the second-highest score and winning margin in the history of the competition. The record in any grade occurred on 19 July 1913 when South Sydney reserves defeated Mosman by 102 points to 2.
In the second half of the Earl Park match, St. George scored fourteen tries and sixty-eight points, this being the most scored in one half of any match.
Eastern Suburbs winger Rod O'Loan scored a club record of seven tries in a 61–5 win over University. This tally stands second (behind Frank Burge's eight tries in 1920) on the list of most individual tries in a premiership match. Dave Brown’s six tries in a 1935 game against Canterbury stands in equal third place in that same list, Easts winning the match 65–10.
The standing record for most tries in one season also comes from 1935, being 38 by Brown. Brown’s 45 points in the 87–7 victory against Canterbury also stands as the record for most points in a match and the 15 goals he kicked in that match stands in equal first place as the most goals scored in a match. The other equal place holder is St George’s Les Griffen who kicked 15 goals in the Dragons’ 91–6 victory against Canterbury.