1966 NSWRFL season
The 1966 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 59th season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Ten clubs from across the city competed for the J.J. Giltinan Shield and the WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a replay of the 1964 grand final between St. George and Balmain.
Season summary
1966 was the last season played under the unlimited tackle rule. Balmain, with their talented raw rookie recruit Arthur Beetson, appeared to be about to topple the Dragons from their long-held perch when the Tigers won eleven consecutive regular season games. However a late season slump saw them pegged back to the rest of the field and an eventual second place on the minor-premiership ladder behind the Dragons, who were being led by new captain-coach Ian Walsh.Eastern Suburbs did not win a single match in 1966, continuing a losing streak that started in round 14, 1965 and which would run till round 2, 1967. This marked the second-most consecutive losses in NSWRFL premiership history at 25 behind University’s 42 in the middle 1930s. Their winless streak ran a total of 29 games between their 11–9 win over Canterbury in Round 12, 1965 and beating North Sydney 17–11 in Round 6 of 1967., this remains the last time any team would go through an Australian rugby league season winless.
No team would finish a season on zero points again until the Melbourne Storm finished last in the 2010 NRL season as punishment for gross salary cap breaches uncovered by the NRL in April that year.
Regular season
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | F1 | F2 | F3 | F4 | GF |
| Balmain | STG +3 | EAS +6 | CBY +4 | MAN +5 | SOU +4 | PAR +9 | NOR +20 | NEW +3 | WES +5 | STG +7 | EAS +23 | CBY −4 | MAN +13 | SOU −8 | X | PAR −2 | NOR −5 | NEW −2 | WES −5 | X | X | STG −8 | MAN +3 | STG −19 |
| Canterbury-Bankstown | WES −10 | NEW −7 | BAL −4 | EAS +15 | STG −2 | MAN −23 | SOU +4 | NOR −9 | PAR +2 | WES +3 | NEW +5 | BAL +4 | EAS +2 | STG −2 | X | MAN −4 | SOU −19 | NOR +6 | PAR −12 | |||||
| Eastern Suburbs | NEW −7 | BAL −6 | STG −26 | CBY −15 | MAN −17 | SOU −7 | PAR −12 | WES −9 | NOR −18 | NEW −6 | BAL −23 | STG −15 | CBY −2 | MAN −53 | NOR −13 | SOU −30 | PAR −9 | WES −31 | X | |||||
| Manly-Warringah | NOR +10 | WES −7 | NEW −8 | BAL −5 | EAS +17 | CBY +23 | STG −19 | PAR −7 | SOU −11 | NOR +6 | WES +21 | NEW +16 | BAL −13 | EAS +53 | X | CBY +4 | STG +2 | PAR +4 | SOU +6 | X | NEW +1 | X | BAL −3 | |
| Newtown | EAS +7 | CBY +7 | MAN +8 | SOU +4 | PAR +7 | NOR +8 | WES −1 | BAL −3 | STG −17 | EAS +6 | CBY −5 | MAN −16 | SOU +10 | PAR −7 | X | NOR +9 | WES −5 | BAL +2 | STG −2 | WES +15 | MAN −1 | |||
| North Sydney | MAN −10 | SOU +5 | PAR +8 | STG −1 | WES −5 | NEW −8 | BAL −20 | CBY +9 | EAS +18 | MAN −6 | SOU −22 | PAR 0 | STG −11 | WES +9 | EAS +13 | NEW −9 | BAL +5 | CBY −6 | X | |||||
| Parramatta | SOU −10 | STG 0 | NOR −8 | WES +11 | NEW −7 | BAL −9 | EAS +12 | MAN +7 | CBY −2 | SOU −16 | STG −10 | NOR 0 | WES +10 | NEW +7 | X | BAL +2 | EAS +9 | MAN −4 | CBY +12 | |||||
| South Sydney | PAR +10 | NOR −5 | WES +6 | NEW −4 | BAL −4 | EAS +7 | CBY −4 | STG −28 | MAN +11 | PAR +16 | NOR +22 | WES −4 | NEW −10 | BAL +8 | X | EAS +30 | CBY +19 | STG −29 | MAN −6 | |||||
| St. George | BAL −3 | PAR 0 | EAS +26 | NOR +1 | CBY +2 | WES +28 | MAN +19 | SOU +28 | NEW +17 | BAL −7 | PAR +10 | EAS +15 | NOR +11 | CBY +2 | X | WES −3 | MAN −2 | SOU +29 | NEW +2 | X | X | BAL +8 | X | BAL +19 |
| Western Suburbs | CBY +10 | MAN +7 | SOU −6 | PAR −11 | NOR +5 | STG −28 | NEW +1 | EAS +9 | BAL −5 | CBY −3 | MAN −21 | SOU +4 | PAR −10 | NOR −9 | X | STG +3 | NEW +5 | EAS +31 | BAL +5 | NEW −15 | ||||
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | F1 | F2 | F3 | F4 | GF |
Bold – Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin
Ladder progression
- Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 4.
- Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
- Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round.
- Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | |
| 1 | St. George | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 21 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 25 | 27 |
| 2 | Balmain | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| 3 | Manly-Warringah | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 |
| 4 | Newtown | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 20 |
| 5 | Western Suburbs | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 |
| 6 | South Sydney | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
| 7 | Parramatta | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 18 |
| 8 | Canterbury-Bankstown | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 16 |
| 9 | North Sydney | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| 10 | Eastern Suburbs | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Grand Final
Teams
Balmain had to replace John Spencer and George Piper in the days before the match after they suffered injuries in their win over Manly the previous week. Ken Maddison, Dick Huddart, and Trevor Levin made their Grand Final debuts for St. George. Brian Clay equalled Norm Provan's record of ten Grand Final appearances, having played two with Newtown before joining St. George.Match details
Balmain had beaten St. George twice in the regular season and in their coach Harry Bath, who had helped design the Dragons premiership winning formula, had a tactician well placed to counter it. They had a number of young players in Arthur Beetson, Kevin Yow Yeh and Dennis Tutty who could trouble the Dragons, plus the experience of Dave Bolton, Peter Provan and the unrivalled goal-kicking brilliance of captain Keith Barnes.The opening skirmishes on the day of the decider were balanced. Balmain took an early lead when Barnes kicked a penalty goal, while Graeme Langlands levelled the scores with a penalty goal a few minutes later following an injury break when Balmain Dave Bolton needed medical attention. Bolton limped back into position, but was hampered by a leg injury. A couple of minutes later St. George's Billy Smith struck back when he set up a run around movement with Brian Clay, which led to a try to Bruce Pollard. Langlands kicked the conversion from the sideline to take the Dragons lead to 7–2.
The turning point of the match came soon after when the Dragons' English import Dick Huddart and Ian Walsh put on a set move as the Tigers' defence rushed up too early. Walsh bust through the line and with only the fullback to beat and passed the ball to Huddart who raced 30 yards to score. Due to the injury he sustained earlier in the match, Balmain halfback Dave Bolton left the field following the Huddart try receiving a pain-killing injection, but did return with bandages around his leg a few minutes later.
Trevor Levin came on after halftime for St. George in place of Robin Gourley, while for Balmain Sid Williams and Dave Cooper came on for Bolton and Brian Sullivan.
After about 12 minutes of the second half, Dragons halfback Billy Smith sliced through and found Johnny Raper who got to the Balmain 25-yard line before finding Kevin Ryan in support. It was a spectacular run from the evergreen forward who out-raced his pursuers and dived through the air to score and put the match beyond doubt.
Balmain had tried to slow down the Dragons with stifling tactics but this backfired and resulted in a lopsided penalty count. Classy Dragons Graeme Langlands capitalised on this, kicking seven goals from 13 attempts, including 10 penalty goal attempts.
Huddart was dominant for the clinical Saints who did not concede a try for a staggering seventh time in eight grand final victories. He had been niggled early in the game by the Balmain forwards and responded by running freely all match and crashing the Tigers with fiery tackles.
With the full-time siren St George had won their 11th successive Grand Final, setting a record that is unlikely to be ever broken in first grade rugby league. It was their most convincing Grand Final win since 1961.
It was the last game played for the club by Dragons enforcer Kevin Ryan after seven Grand Final wins and also the farewell match for Eddie Lumsden who had appeared in nine of the victories.
After the match Balmain coach Harry Bath said "I knew we were gone after 15 minutes. Lack of experience... was a big factor."
Scoreboard
Other matches
South Sydney won the reserve grade Grand Final 12–5 against Balmain. Souths scored two converted tries and a penalty goal, while Balmain scored one converted try. It was Souths first reserve grade premiership in 10 years.In the third grade Grand Final, St. George convincingly defeated South Sydney 12–4, scoring two tries in the first half.
Player statistics
The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 18.Top 5 point scorers
| Points | Player | Tries | Goals | Field Goals |
| 168 | Bob Lanigan | 2 | 81 | 0 |
| 167 | Bob Batty | 5 | 76 | 0 |
| 120 | Keith Barnes | 0 | 60 | 0 |
| 113 | Fred Griffiths | 3 | 52 | 0 |
| 110 | Graeme Langlands | 6 | 46 | 0 |
Top 5 try scorers
| Tries | Player |
| 13 | Ken Irvine |
| 11 | Johnny King |
| 11 | Alec Tennant |
| 11 | Michael Cleary |
| 10 | John Mowbray |
| 10 | Fred Pickup |
Top 5 goal scorers
| Goals | Player |
| 81 | Bob Lanigan |
| 76 | Bob Batty |
| 60 | Keith Barnes |
| 52 | Fred Griffiths |
| 48 | George Taylforth |