Brisbane Rugby League 1964 season
League Table
| Team | Played | Won | Lost | Drew | For | Against | +/- | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valleys | 21 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 375 | 275 | 100 | 32 |
| Brothers | 21 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 432 | 304 | 128 | 31 |
| Norths | 21 | 13 | 8 | 0 | 402 | 287 | 115 | 26 |
| Redcliffe | 21 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 358 | 290 | 68 | 24 |
| Wests | 21 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 341 | 346 | -5 | 22 |
| Souths | 21 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 338 | 423 | -85 | 14 |
| Easts | 21 | 5 | 16 | 0 | 227 | 441 | -214 | 10 |
| Wynnum-Manly | 21 | 4 | 16 | 1 | 276 | 383 | -107 | 9 |
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 | Round 15 | Round 16 | Round 17 | Round 18 |
| Round 19 | Round 20 | Round 21 |
Finals
| Stage | Date | Teams | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major Semi-Final | 29 August 1964 | Brothers vs Valleys | Details |
| Minor Semi-Final | 30 August 1964 | Norths vs Redcliffe | Details |
| Preliminary Final | 5 September 1964 | Norths vs Valleys | Details |
| Grand Final | 12 September 1964 | Norths vs Brothers | Details |
President’s Cup
| Stage | Date | Teams | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final | 6 June 1964 | Valleys vs Norths | Details |
Peter Scott Memorial Trophy
| Stage | Date | Teams | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final | 25 July 1964 | Brothers vs Valleys | Details |
Hubris and the Bax supremacy
The great Norths team, now five-time premiers, came back to the field in 1964. This was understandable given the departure of two of their all-time greats, captain Bill Pearson who left for Bundaberg and forward leader Lloyd Weier who went to North Sydney. It was also a pretty strong field.
The BRL already had some serious quality. The addition of some returning veterans and a rookie crop which featured a future Immortal, another future international and the next King of the Valley made it one of the deepest fields since the war. While some clubs were stronger than others, everybody had a potential game-breaker in their ranks.
Wynnum-Manly may have finished last but they were no easy-beats, at least not when future BRL Team of the Century winger Lionel Morgan and Kangaroo John Gleeson were in the team.
Easts welcomed international centre Bob Hagan back for a full season after his posting in Townsville and saw hooker Brian Blowes blossom into the league’s best rake and a Queensland representative. They also continued their good form against Valleys. For some reason, the Diehards often had trouble with Easts around this time. Unfortunately, Easts’ big upset win over the league leaders in round 16 was followed by a meltdown against Wynnum the following weekend. Plus ça change.
Souths naturally suffered a letdown after the departures of Mick Veivers and Frank Drake. But Stan McDonald matured into one of the league’s best custodians and its leading point-scorer. Young lock Stan Gayton had a big second season and Souths put together a strong run of form in the second round, including wins over Brothers and Norths, but didn’t have the depth to sustain it and faded badly down the stretch.
Wests still had their holy trinity of international half Barry Muir, international back-rower Ken Day and formidable centre Col Weir. Their problem was getting them all on the same field at the same time. Day struggled with leg injuries throughout the second half of the season. When they finally got him back for a do-or-die clash with Brothers in round 21, he broke his arm in the first half, Wests lost and narrowly missed the finals.
Redcliffe already had the brilliant Kevin Yow Yeh and the forward pack which would take them to their first premiership. They added some quality local products in David Knight and Trevor Harken, along with a precociously talented 19-year-old from Roma called Arthur Beetson.
In a moment of hubris before the round 16 game against Norths, Redcliffe captain-coach Henry Holloway opined about his team going the rest of the way undefeated. They lost to Norths, of course, and dropped their next two games as well. Despite some improved form heading into the finals, Redcliffe bowed out meekly against Norths in the Minor Semi-Final.
Brothers had Brian Davies back for one last season after stints in Sydney and St George and the great one joined Peter Gallagher, Noel Cavanagh and smart young half Peter Hanna to lead the Bretheren to second place just a year after their unexpected wooden spoon in ’63. Brothers saw off minor premiers Valleys to make the Grand Final but weren’t quite good enough on the big day.
Valleys’ selectors dropped captain-coach Norm Pope after just two games and the club legend barely played again in ’64. What could have been an awkward situation worked out spectacularly well, with Jim Lingard excelling at fullback, former five-eighth Des Mannion becoming a very good forward and goal kicker, and Ross Threlfo, a halfback from Newcastle, excelling. With Pope as coach, Valleys won 14 of their first 15 games, the President’s Cup and a virtually unassailable lead in the minor premiership race, before that surprise defeat to Easts.
But hubris struck again before the Scott Trophy final against Brothers when Valleys secretary George Dziewicki declared that the club’s priority was to clinch the minor premiership so they could rest players in preparation for the finals. They lost to Brothers, of course, then to Wests the following weekend. A limp 18-3 defeat to Redcliffe in the final round did not bode well and the Diehards duly departed the finals after defeats to Brothers and Norths.
Still, 1964 was significant for the debut of future Diehard legend Marty Scanlan in that Scott Trophy Final. Valleys had a series of king-like figures – Ken Mackay, Ted McGrath, Arthur Donovan, Firpo Neumann and Pope – and it seems something in the club’s identity needed a dominant presence on-field. With Pope abdicating, a new leader was needed and Scanlan would eventually take the throne.
Hubris and monarchic machinations in the Valley aside, Norths had a lot to overcome if they wanted a sixth-straight premiership. And they never really looked like premiers during the regular season. A morale-boosting win would be followed by a surprise defeat. Their capitulation to Brothers in round 15 looked like the end of the hegemony.
It wasn’t just the Pearson and Weier shaped holes in their team either. Fullback Harry Bates spent a year in the bush. Champion lock Ian Massie was injured early. Prolific winger Fonda Metassa, centre Henry Hegarty and half Jim Hannam were all out of sorts.
There were silver linings, though. Alan McLean was back after a year away. The talented Brian Cook came back from injury late in the season to plug the gap at fullback. A young back-rower/hooker from the Tweed called Elwyn Walters who would go on to win six premierships in Sydney added a new dimension. They had a pretty handy coach too, and 1964 was perhaps Bob Bax’s finest achievement in the BRL.
The tactical element to Norths’ triumph was more expedient than brilliant. It was the dying days of the unlimited tackles era and Norths doubled down on what all the best teams were doing – wear down their opponent through relentless possession and field position and use their excess energy to attack with defence. It’s not all that different to what Penrith and others have done in recent years.
Credit where it’s due, though, Bax was the preeminent coach of his era and one of the best ever, and he refined the attritional style of the era to an art form.
Bax was also a complicated character. While he was abrasive and sometimes unpleasant – he was sacked by Brothers essentially for his foul-mouthed tendencies – he also inspired loyalty. He was ruthless, too.
Unlike other coaches, he wasn’t prepared to wait for senior and very successful players to find form. Hannam, Hegarty and Metassa were all dropped during the season. Metassa was actually dropped twice, and these were not popular decisions. One suspects that this was, at least in part, precisely why Bax did it.
In Greg Mallory’s book Voices of Brisbane Rugby League, Metassa reflected on this, “He was a bugger of a man. He used to give me heaps, and then under my breath I’d say ‘I’ll show you Baxie’, and I’d go out and do my job. He could reach players.”
Metassa and company sure showed him. After finishing a distant third, Norths disposed of a Redcliffe team on the slide, had a little luck against Valleys in the Preliminary Final – Hannam kicked his goals and Des Mannion didn’t – and then wore down Brothers in the Grand Final, with Hannam, Hegarty and Metassa all playing key roles.
Norths had delivered their own ‘terrible six’. While they wouldn’t make it seven, the hegemony wasn’t really over. Far from it.
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