League Table
| Team | Played | Won | Lost | Drew | For | Against | Diff | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wests | 14 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 356 | 140 | 216 | 24 |
| Brothers | 14 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 370 | 227 | 143 | 22 |
| Norths | 14 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 323 | 196 | 127 | 16 |
| Easts | 14 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 271 | 214 | 57 | 16 |
| Valleys | 14 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 217 | 337 | -120 | 10 |
| Wynnum-Manly | 14 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 180 | 358 | -178 | 10 |
| Souths | 14 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 188 | 230 | -42 | 8 |
| South Coast | 14 | 3 | 11 | 0 | 155 | 358 | -203 | 6 |
Rounds
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 8 | Round 9 | Round 10 | Round 11 | Round 12 | Round 13 | Round 14 |
Finals
| Stage | Date | Teams | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minor Semi-Final | 9 August 1952 | Easts vs Norths | Details |
| Major Semi-Final | 16 August 1952 | Wests vs Brothers | Details |
| Preliminary Final | 23 August 1952 | Brothers vs Easts | Details |
| Grand Final | 30 August 1952 | Wests vs Brothers | Details |
Pike Cup Final
| Stage | Date | Teams | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final | 9 July 1952 | Wests vs Brothers | Details |
Unpredictably predictable
When the dust settled on the 1951 season, many observers thought that the two grand finalists, Souths and Easts, a dangerous Wests team and a re-emergent Norths would likely remain contenders, at least for one more year.
There was always change – semi-professional careers were rarely long, opportunities in Sydney and, especially around this time, potentially lucrative gigs in bush footy were a lure – but all four teams seemed young and deep enough to stay ahead of a mediocre chasing pack.
And those who predicted a return to the status quo were mostly right – though few could’ve predicted exactly how it would play out in 1952.
The defending premiers, Souths lost Nev Wilson and Bob White, then saw boom centre Leo Fallon suffer a season-ending injury during the trial matches. Fullback Roy Hogarth and key forward Harold Crocker were rarely available and the champs had a miserable season, slumping all the way to second last.
Easts lost almost their entire team over the offseason. Veteran hooker Charlie Martin, prop Merv Polley and a bunch of kids were all that was left after champion lock Tom Drysdale left for Norths and a host of players took up offers in the bush. There would be no seventh-straight grand final for the Tigers, but in the circumstances, they did very well to finish fourth and make the preliminary final.
Norths failed to build on a promising campaign in ’51, despite the considerable addition of Drysdale. The Devils had little trouble with teams at the bottom end of the table but mostly struggled against the leaders and were quickly bundled out by Easts in the minor semi-final.
Valleys had one of the stranger seasons in their history. With some promising new faces on board, including fullback Max Bradley and five-eighth George Bruce, they began the season with eye-catching victories over Souths and Wests, before surprise defeats to the new South Coast team and strugglers Wynnum-Manly on back-to-back weekends in May. By the end of the season they’d unravelled completely, copping 50-point thrashings against Easts and Brothers to round-out another disappointing campaign.
Speaking of South Coast, the new boys from the Glitter Strip produced some promising performances, most notably that 11-10 win over Valleys in round three, led by captain-coach and former Souths premiership-winner Nev Brough. But they too faded badly in the second half of the season and picked up the wooden spoon in their first campaign.
Wynnum-Manly produced a modest improvement in their second season, and even finished above Souths thanks to a 15-12 victory over the defending premiers in round 12. Veteran prop Charlie Roff, fiery young hooker Richard Lachlan and exciting half Jimmy Glass won plenty of praise for their performances.
Brothers were the season’s biggest improvers behind some smart recruitment, including Toowoomba fullback Dinny Dall, former Kangaroo centre Jack Horrigan, hooker Ken Fogarty and rugby union converts Doug Semple and Ron O’Malley. Young halfback Mick McNamara also emerged as an able replacement for Bob Bax and led the Brethren all the way to the Grand Final against Wests.
But by then, Brothers were without Horrigan, injured prop Fred Proberts and back-rower Brian Davies, who was away with the Kangaroos, and despite a brave fight in the Grand Final resulting in a narrow 15-14 defeat, a stacked Wests team beat them to take premiership honours.
After coming close in ’51, Wests returned with a stronger and very well-balanced team. Veteran fullback Pat Mohr had a career year. State winger Wally McDonald was joined by another flyer in Keith McPherson, who finished the season’s top try-scorer.
Future Kangaroo Alex Watson came of age in the centres, as did Johnny Flynn, Bill Dempsey and Garry Cannon in the pack. Another future Kangaroo, hooker Alan Hornery came from the Sydney version of Wests. The loss of representative half Dave Smith to injury was barely felt because of the form of his teenage replacement Peter McIntosh. Utility man Des O’Brien covered all over the place. There wasn’t really a weakness.
But for all their brilliance over the course of the season, Wests were perilously close to losing the Grand Final to the gallant Brethren. They trailed the game throughout, only pulling in front thanks to a penalty goal by Mohr with under three minutes to go. The better team on the day lost; the best team over the season won.
By 1953, things would look different again. McDonald, Cannon, five-eighth Merv Long and captain Col McAllister left for retirement or the bush. Allan Hornery would win another premiership in 1953, just not for Wests.
Editor’s note
As I’m sure you’ll note, there’s significantly less detail in the 1952 season pages than there has been previously – very few complete team lists, and even a few games where point-scorers were unavailable.
Thankfully, games without a scorers list will be rare, but the lack of complete team lists will be very common from here until the mid-to-late 1970s.
There are a few reasons for this, including:
- The Telegraph became the Brisbane Telegraph (a tabloid) in the late 1940s, and its coverage of rugby league, among other things, became bigger in font size and therefore smaller in content
- The expanded number of teams in 1951-52 and expanded competition format from 1953 meant that rather than taking extended breaks during representative season, the BRL competed for attention with intercity, interstate and international rugby league, with press coverage naturally prioritising representative games
- There was also a lot more international rugby league played from the early 1950s compared to the 1930s and ’40s, for obvious reasons
- Further to the previous points, the insights which could be gleaned from mid-week editions of the Courier Mail (yes, there was a time when insight could be gleaned from the Courier) about teams and players was much diminished
- From the early ’50’s, there were gradually more games played on Sundays, and then later a shift to most games being played on Sundays, which took the Sunday Mail and Truth out of the equation. Remaining hard copy editions of Rugby League News are helpful, but not all editions are available.
Bear with me for the next few decades…
Leave a Reply