1958 NSWRFL season

1958 NSWRFL season
Teams	10
Premiers	St. George (5th title)
Minor premiers	St. George (5th title)
Matches played	95
Points scored	3050 (total) 32.105 (per match)
Attendance	1,030,272 (total) 10,845 (per match)
Top try scorer(s)	Eddie Lumsden (18)

1958's New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the fifty-first season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Ten teams from across the city competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final between St. George and Western Suburbs.

Season summary

Having been wooden spooners in NSWRFL season 1955, Wests embarked on a massive spending spree to recruit internationals Harry Wells, Kel O'Shea, Arthur Summons, Dick Poole, Darcy Henry and Ian Moir over a five-year period. The fruits of this labour began to show in 1958 when they finished in second place for the minor premiership and posed a challenge to St George in the finals.

Harry Bath was the competition's leading goal scorer in 1958, with his St George teammate Eddie Lumsden the leading try scorer. Bath shattered the Dragons club's point scoring record with 225 season points from three tries and 108 goals.

19-year-old Reg Gasnier, later to be honoured as one of the Australian game's Immortals, made his 3rd grade debut in 1958 and was immediately noticed, regularly scoring length-of-the-field tries.

The 1958 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Clive Churchill.

Teams

Balmain	Canterbury-Bankstown	Eastern Suburbs	Manly-Warringah
Newtown	North Sydney	Parramatta	South Sydney
	St. George	Western Suburbs

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	St. George	18	16	0	2	480	187	+293	32
2	Western Suburbs	18	12	0	6	379	263	+116	24
3	Manly	18	11	1	6	291	251	+40	23
4	Newtown	18	10	0	8	297	252	+45	20
5	Balmain	18	10	0	8	254	273	−19	20
6	North Sydney	18	9	0	9	279	322	−43	18
7	Eastern Suburbs	18	8	0	10	244	252	−8	16
8	South Sydney	18	6	0	12	246	391	−145	12
9	Canterbury	18	4	1	13	207	276	−69	9
10	Parramatta	18	3	0	15	202	412	−210	6

Finals

The developing Western Suburbs side which would become such a force at the beginning of the 60s, was already building around the class of internationals Keith "Yappy" Holman, Harry "Dealer" Wells, Kel "Twigs" O'Shea along with their hard men Neville "Boxhead" Charlton, Mark Patch and fiery 19-year-old Peter Dimond. With a simple game plan of "retaliate first", the Magpies' aggression in the semi-final stunned St George who were coming off a coasting run through the end of the season. In spite of having beaten Wests twice in the regular season, the Dragons were mauled by them 34-10 in the major-semi final with Dimond dominating his opposite five-eighth Peter Carroll and forcing the Dragons to a sudden death final against Balmain for the right to defend their title.

The lessons from this loss sat heavily with St George - how an early forward onslaught designed to knock the spirit of the rival pack could determine the course of the entire game. For the next eight years, in all of their finals appearances, the Dragons would play a deliberate tactic of giving the opposition the ball in the first 15 minutes and setting about demoralising them with brutal defence.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Playoff
Newtown	4-15	Balmain	19 August 1958	Redfern Oval		10,430
Semi Finals
Manly-Warringah	10-22	Balmain	23 August 1958	Sydney Cricket Ground	Darcy Lawler	27,985
St. George	10-34	Western Suburbs	30 August 1958	Sydney Cricket Ground	Darcy Lawler	38,857
Preliminary Final
St. George	26-21	Balmain	6 September 1958	Sydney Cricket Ground	Darcy Lawler	39,132
Grand Final
Western Suburbs	9-20	St. George	13 September 1958	Sydney Cricket Ground	Darcy Lawler	62,283

Grand Final

St. George	Position	Western Suburbs
Brian Graham	FB	Darcy Russell
Eddie Lumsden	WG	Bernard Kelly
Ray Smith	CE	Harry Wells (c)
Geoff Weekes	CE	Darcy Henry
Brian Messiter	WG	Don Malone
Brian Clay	FE	Peter Dimond
Bob Bugden	HB	Keith Holman
Harry Bath	PR	Mark Patch
Ken Kearney (Ca./Co.)	HK	Bede Goff
Billy Wilson	PR	Neville Charlton
Monty Porter	SR	Bill Carson
Norm Provan	SR	Jack "Buddy" Bowman
Peter Provan	LK	Doug Jones
	Coach	Vic Hey

In an effort to negate Peter Dimond, Saints' dropped Peter Carroll for the Grand Final, selecting lock and hard hitting defender, Brian Clay at five-eighth. From the kick-off, the record crowd saw a furious St George team lay into Wests. High tackles and punches were the order of the day and referee Darcy Lawler penalised the Dragons seventeen times to Wests seven.

Wests were unable to counter the onslaught which saw a ruthless Dragons' defence advancing upon them at every opportunity although the score remained close for most of the match. Eventually with the Magpies subdued, Norm Provan and Bob Bugden cut loose, with Provan scroing two tries and Bugden snatching an intercept try near the end. Saints won the fight, and the match. For 80 minutes Clay was all over Dimond who ended the match dazed and bleeding.

The Sydney Morning Herald described the match as the most 'savage' game of the season.

St George 20 (Tries: N. Provan 2, Bugden, Lumsden. Goals: Bath 4.)

Wests 9 (Tries: Russell. Goals: Russell 3 )

References

• 1958 Season Rugby League Tables
• Writer, Larry (1995) Never Before, Never Again, Pan MacMillan, Sydney
• Results:1951-60 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1958 J J Giltinan Shield at rleague.com
• NSWRFL season 1958 at rugbyleagueproject.com
• 1958 Final at Dragons History site