Redcap's BRL

The complete 1966 Brisbane Rugby League season is now live on Redcap’s BRL. Details of every game are available from the 1966 season page.

Late in the season, the Courier Mail’s Jack Reardon perhaps unwittingly summed up the 1966 BRL season. After Norths had won their sixth-straight game, and with Brothers, who’d been in the doldrums, getting some key players back and looking dangerous, Reardon remarked that “while Brothers were going through their shocking period of losses through injuries, Norths were building strength and will be anxiously watching Brothers’ form from now on”.

There were a few other things going on in ’66. Like Wynnum-Manly’s locals-first initiative. It wasn’t clear if this was policy, as they claimed, or just necessity, but whatever the case, the early results were not encouraging. A 49-0 embarrassment against local rivals Easts was followed by a 42-5 defeat to Souths and club President Nev Overson threatened that “we will be forced to scrap that policy and bring in some highly-priced players if you cannot improve your play”.

Nothing much worked for Wynnum around this time, with prize recruits like John Gleeson, Lionel Morgan and John Wittenberg never delivering sustained success, and the local policy delivering just two wins in ’66. But with the often controversial district scheme on its last legs, recruitment would at least become less complicated and point to a more balanced way forward.

It was a slightly different scene just up the road at Stones Corner, where Easts were running out an expensively assembled squad featuring state winger Jeff Denman, former Souths rake Reg Webster and former Toowoomba representatives Danny Ryan and John Doyle. Most expensive of all was former Norths and Kangaroos coach Clive Churchill, now in his second season at the Tigers.

Easts’ failure under Churchill certainly wasn’t for lack of resources. There were rumours of internal discord over selections and playing style. Some club officials publicly vented over poor performances in the first half of the season. Churchill did manage to prompt an impressive run of five wins from six games in the third round, but it was too little, too late and the little Master promptly packed up, headed back to Sydney and immediately led his beloved Rabbitohs to a premiership in 1967.

After their near miss in ’65, Valleys looked likely early in the season. But a poor run of form early in the second round saw what looked like a bit of panic emerge at the Diehards. Under-pressure coach Norm Pope began ringing the changes, and then kept ringing in a dizzying series of shuffles and reshuffles. While Valleys made it through to the Preliminary Final at the expense of a declining Redcliffe, they lost narrowly to Brothers. It was the end of a long marriage between Pope and the Valleys first-grade team, with the club turning to Redcliffe’s Henry Holloway as coach in ’67.

The representative calendar, especially the intercity Bulimba Cup, was becoming an increasingly fraught topic, with clubs getting increasingly antsy about releasing players for Brisbane duty. John Gleeson, by now at Brothers, was reported to have already played 26 club and representative matches by the halfway point of the season, and some at Brothers blamed representative commitments for the club’s extensive injury toll. The Bulimba Cup was not long for the calendar.

Which brings us back to Brothers and Norths. Whatever else was going on, the 1966 season was mostly about the duel between the deposed six-time premiers, Norths, and an emerging Brothers team on the cusp of premiership success, culminating in one of the most brutal and infamous grand finals in BRL history. They took very different roads to get there, though.

Norths made a slow start with Bob Bax evidently looking to renew the team by bringing in the likes of smart young half Hassell Rolph, goal-kicking fullback Peter Lobegeiger and former Toowoomba lock Bob Duncan. Bax also rested a few of his trusted veterans in reserve grade. There were some points early in the season when Norths, with Howard Whitaker, Henry Hegarty, Brian Cook, Harry Bates and Ian Massie all in the team, may have had the strongest reserve grade side ever fielded.

As was probably the plan, the Devils gathered momentum in the second round, winning both the Scott Trophy and the minor premiership over Brothers. All the ‘reserve-graders’ came back into the team to join the new recruits and the Devils won eight on the trot heading into the finals.

Brothers, by contrast, produced a strong start culminating in their victory over Redcliffe in the President’s Cup Final. But then the injuries started mounting. Peter Gallagher was out for a big chunk of the season. Wayne Abdy, John Bourke, Brian Milburn, Maurie Pinfold, Pat Maguire and Noel Cavanagh all missed time. They lost five from six between rounds 14 and 19 before the cavalry rode back just in time for the finals.

Ultimately, and it must be said with the aid of the mediocre form of Valleys and Redcliffe, Brothers pulled through and set up a replay of the 1964 Grand Final against Norths. The Devils were back at Milton and undoubtedly favourites, but still worried about the talented Bretheren.

Much of the controversy from the 1966 Grand Final centred on Brothers’ champion international five-eighth John Gleeson, who’d survived his gruelling schedule to take part on Grand Final day.

Gleeson was small, even for a half, and according to Steve Ricketts he was often “a marked man, [suffering] some horrendous head injuries at the hands of rivals who could not match his brilliance”.

As usual, Gleeson was a target in the Grand Final, and he was duly taken out by Norths’ five-eighth Grant ‘Evil’ Mould in the 30th minute, not for the first time suffering a broken jaw.

According to Steve Haddan, Bax later confessed that Mould was under orders to take out Gleeson.

Gleeson’s teammate, Dennis Manteit swore revenge, and took it, with Mould eventually waking up in hospital around 8pm that evening. But Manteit was sent off for his assault on ‘Evil’, and Brothers lost, in large part due to the dismissal of their key forward.

According to Manteit, Bax told him that, “we went after Gleeson and got you as well. You were a bonus”.

Who knows what the moral of the story is – Norths went out head-hunting and Brothers responded in kind. Whatever, the Norths hegemony had been revived, though Brothers would eventually have a more satisfying revenge.

Editor’s Note

Redcap’s BRL is back after a bit of a lull over the summer holiday period. I hope you had a nice break too.

It’s now full steam ahead to get this project done in 2026. While we’re now well past the halfway point in terms of the number of seasons, we’ve actually only just reached the halfway point in terms of the number of games.

To be precise, round 14 of the 1966 season is the halfway mark. Only another 2700-odd games to go.

Elsewhere, The Brisbane Comp is steaming ahead with plenty of new videos and interviews released in the last few weeks. You can take a look through AOB’s website, Youtube channel or Facebook channel. I highly recommend that you do.

While I generally don’t approve of anything to do with the Brisbane Broncos, Liam Callaghan’s Maroon Observer is often an interesting read. Most recently he wrote a fascinating article about the history of intercity football and beer in south-east Queensland. Beer – now that I can approve!

More complete seasons are coming soon on Redcap’s BRL.