Brisbane Rugby League 1946 season
League Table
| Team | Played | Won | Lost | Drew | For | Against | Diff | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easts | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 224 | 146 | 78 | 15 |
| Valleys | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 196 | 166 | 30 | 15 |
| Souths | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 162 | 159 | 3 | 15 |
| Brothers | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 170 | 199 | -29 | 8 |
| Norths | 10 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 146 | 138 | 8 | 7 |
| Wests | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 100 | 190 | -90 | 0 |
Rounds
Finals
| Stage | Date | Teams | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minor Semi-Final | 24 August 1946 | Brothers vs Souths | Details |
| Major Semi-Final | 31 August 1946 | Easts vs Valleys | Details |
| Preliminary Final | 7 September 1946 | Valleys vs Brothers | Details |
| Grand Final | 14 September 1946 | Valleys vs Easts | Details |
Pike Cup
| Stage | Date | Teams | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final | 17 June 1946 | Souths vs Valleys | Details |
Valleys quell an uprising in the east
When the 1946 season began, Eastern Suburbs hadn’t won a single premiership game since July 1943.
They’d been awful – the gradual decline of Coorparoo/Easts in the early 1930s had continued unabated, many of their best players left for greener pastures and then World War II hit and Easts hit rock bottom. Their 1940 season was one of the all-time stinkers and there were times later in the war years when it looked like they might fold.
Easts desperately needed some new blood, and they got plenty of it. The 1946 Tigers were almost unrecognisable in terms of form and personnel. The Johnson brothers and Jack Jager joined from the premiers Souths. Jack Ryrie returned to the club from Brothers and brought his brother Nev with him from Valleys. Representative hooker Cliff Green came over from Wests and former Brother Ernie Weaver gave them enviable depth in the halves.
When on back-to-back weekends in late July and early August 1946, Easts beat Souths, the defending premiers and Pike Cup winners, and then thrashed Valleys, the eventual premiers in ’46, they firmed as favourites.
Easts’ mid-season surge effectively eliminated Souths, who’d gone through the first half of the season undefeated and won the Pike Cup, but faded badly on the run home and lost to an ordinary Brothers team in the Minor Semi-Final.
Valleys struck back with victory over Souths in the penultimate round, and as the Sunday Paper Truth noted, with Williamson and Jack Kellaway back, Valleys would be hard to beat in the finals. But then, Easts went out and blew the Diehards away 20-5 in the Major Semi-Final and it was seemingly the Tigers’ premiership for the taking.
Arguably the decisive moment of the season actually occurred in that Major Semi-Final when Easts’ brilliant halfback Bernie Johnson fractured his collarbone. He took the field on Grand Final day but clearly wasn’t himself. As Truth noted, “[Johnson] played as if crocked and vis-a-vis Bobby Williamson stole the ball from him, stole the march in quick thinking and moving, and stole the show with his vastly superior generalship”.
Williamson arrived back at Valleys mid season after a long absence during the war years and seemed to have barely missed a beat. According to to the Sunday Mail he’d “distinguished himself playing for Queensland in the two Services tests against New South Wales at Bougainville”. Valleys’ 5-2 Grand Final win was his third premiership at the Diehards.
Elsewhere, Tigers hooker Green lost the scrums to Valleys’ rake Clarke, with the considerable assistance of test prop Roy Westaway, while Easts fullback Jim Doonar was panned for a faulty kicking performance which “got the Tigers into tons of trouble… with his repeated out-on-the-full kicks [in the] first half”.
It was Valleys’ 14th first-grade premiership and one back for the old firm after Souths’ triumph in ’45. Future test centre Jack Horrigan played a starring role. Ivan Blow was also back after a war-disrupted few years. Old-stagers Danny O’Connor and Westaway were rock solid, while young forwards Jim Arundell and Lew Brohman, grandfather of Darryl, came of age.
But Easts had re-emerged as a force. Could they overcome the disappointment of their Grand Final failure, regroup and renew their long-awaited uprising? Why yes, yes they could.
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