Redcap's BRL

Brisbane Rugby League 1945 season

League Table

Team	Played	Won	Lost	Drew	For	Against	Diff	Points
Norths	10	8	1	1	222	119	103	17
Souths	10	7	1	2	220	103	117	16
Valleys	10	5	5	0	226	123	103	10
Wests	10	4	5	1	172	192	-20	9
Brothers	10	4	6	0	111	208	-97	8
Easts	10	0	10	0	53	259	-206	0

Rounds

Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Round 9	Round 10

Finals

Stage	Date	Teams	Link
Minor Semi-Final	18 August 1945	Valleys vs Wests	Details
Major Semi-Final	25 August 1945	Norths vs Souths	Details
Preliminary Final	1 September 1945	Souths vs Valleys	Details
Grand Final	8 September 1945	Souths vs Norths	Details

Pike Cup

Stage	Date	Teams	Link
Final	23 June 1945	Norths vs Souths	Details

Skip to 1946 season

Bath smashes old ghosts and Devils

A remarkable thing happened after the clubs took control of the BRL in 1922: in the space of seven seasons, everybody won a premiership.

There was nothing like that after club districts were codified in ’33. While the old Carlton club was the forerunner to Souths, they were also a legacy artefact of Brothers’ first foray into rugby league as Merthyr back in 1918. When a choice was forced upon them, many of Carlton’s number opted for Brothers rather than Souths. The Bretheren’s 1935 premiership team had a distinct flavour of Carlton. Souths struggled for years afterward and the war didn’t help.

By mid-1945, things were settling down a bit. Easts fielded a full team all season but still lost every game. Wests didn’t field half a new team every week. Clubs were still digging deep, though. Firpo Neumann whose career started before the great depression stretched it into a 17th season. Jack Stapleton and Charlie Ryan chipped in for Norths. Gordon Macrae (by now Souths head coach) even made a couple of appearances.

There were still troops in town and Valleys were still getting the pick, including Balmain’s premiership-winning five-eighth and future Kangaroo Pat Devery and South Sydney winger Robin Smith. But Valleys were a bit off – experienced forwards Farrar, Dall and Summerell were gone, as was champion half John Grice. They couldn’t quite match it with the leaders, Norths and Souths. 

Norths were good – really good. Roy Stewart was still a powerhouse. Their half, reportedly of Chinese origin, Nelson Sue See was the season’s best newcomer. Jack Bates was still good, and Hugh Melrose had matured into arguably the best player in the league. Norths won the Pike Cup, the minor premiership and the major semi-final. They were premiers-elect, until… Souths took it back over the river for the first time since Carlton in 1930.

For once, the Southerners got stronger heading into the finals. The versatile Billy McKee who’d played through some difficult seasons in the late ’30s and always done well returned to supplement a settled and quality core – the Pegg and Johnson brothers, and future club legends Bill Tyquin and Harry Bath.

Souths had beaten Valleys and Norths during the season, and despite a hard-fought defeat to Norths in the Major Semi-Final, they bounced back, swatting Valleys aside in the Preliminary Final and blowing the Devils away in the second half of the Grand Final to win 21-11.

While Reg Pegg got many plaudits for his three tries, the ever ebullient Truth noted that “[Harry] Bath was harder to stop than a tram strike and his unsparing, inspiring smashes from rucks and open play undoubtedly fired the black pack to match the might of the bigger, battering blue pack first half, to meet and beat them at their own ruck-ramming game in the second”.

Bath would win wherever he went – Balmain, Warrington, St George – as a player and coach. While I’m not sure, there’s likely some connection between Harry Bath and Tom Bath, one of the pioneering Merthyr players who went on to have a successful career at Carlton, including winning a premiership in 1921.

As much as Souths’ long-awaited title was home-grown and the culmination of many years’ struggle, there was still a connection to the past – I think.

Skip to 1946 season