Redcap's BRL

Brisbane Rugby League 1950 season

League Table

Team	Played	Won	Lost	Drew	For	Against	Diff	Points
Wests	10	8	2	0	222	107	115	16
Easts	10	6	4	0	138	186	-48	12
Souths	10	5	4	1	164	140	24	11
Valleys	10	4	5	1	119	181	-62	9
Brothers	10	4	6	0	155	132	23	8
Norths	10	2	8	0	132	184	-52	4

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	26 August 1950	Souths vs Valleys	Details
Major Semi-Final	2 September 1950	Wests vs Easts	Details
Preliminary Final	9 September 1950	Easts vs Souths	Details
Grand Final	16 September 1950	Easts vs Wests	Details

Pike Cup

Stage	Date	Teams	Link
Final	12 June 1950	Wests vs Souths	Details

Skip to 1951 season

The impossibles

In late May, four-time grand finalists Easts ran into a revitalised Wests team and slumped to a 25-3 defeat at the Gabba. It was Wests’ third straight win – signifying they were contenders – and the first of what would be four straight defeats for Easts – signifying they probably weren’t.

And it wasn’t just that Easts were losing, it was how and to whom. The following weekend, they went down to a mediocre Valleys outfit. In round six they were thumped by an even more mediocre Brothers outfit. Worst of all was a 15-50 evisceration at the hands of Souths in round five.

Teams with this sort of form don’t win things. In the entire history of the NRL and its predecessor competitions going back to 1908, no team has ever conceded 50 points in a game and gone on to win the premiership (though Newcastle did concede 49 to Cronulla on the way to their 2001 premiership).

Easts, it seems, hadn’t read the memo.

After a few weeks off during the height of representative season in June and early July, the Tigers scraped home 20-18 over Norths. The following weekend, five-eighth Keith Brown and back-rower Bruce Baker engineered an impressive 19-11 win over Wests. Valleys and Souths were then dispatched on back-to-back weekends and Easts headed into the finals in fine form.

But minor premiers Wests weren’t about to roll over and they seemingly put Easts back in their place in the Major Semi-Final on 2 September. Wests’ captain Col McAllister scored a brilliant brace and fullback Jack White booted the ‘mud and bloods’ into another Grand Final.

Easts had little trouble with a patched-up Souths team in the Preliminary Final. The West Enders were in the midst of an injury crisis, with fullback Nev Lesina, back-up fullback Marcel Van de Velde, lock Tom Tyquin, half Bob White and prop Frank McLennan all unavailable, and were simply no match.

So, it all came down to a rematch between Wests and Easts at the Gabba on 16 September, by all accounts one of the hardest Grand Finals the BRL had seen to that point.

Easts shuffled their pack, bringing in veteran prop Ted Dempsey to help out hooker Charlie Martin after the latter had been soundly beaten by young Wests rake Johnny Flynn two weeks earlier.

According to Steve Haddan it was a “masterstroke”. Martin won the scrums convincingly and Easts gained enough territory for Bruce Baker’s boot to be the difference in a gripping decider.

And Dempsey’s was a nice story. He debuted for Easts all the way back in 1938 and played through some dark years for the club in the early ’40s, including surely the worst single season any BRL club recorded in 1940.

After five seasons at a declining Norths club from 1943 to ’48, Dempsey returned to Easts in 1949 and finally found success alongside fellow veterans Martin and Ernie Bright.

Ted Dempsey might’ve thrown it in much earlier after all that losing, but he didn’t. If at first you don’t succeed, and if you continue to not succeed repeatedly over many years, just keep trying!

Skip to 1951 season