Brisbane Rugby League 1969 season
League Table
| Team | Played | Won | Lost | Drew | For | Against | +/- | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norths | 21 | 15 | 6 | 0 | 335 | 205 | 130 | 30 |
| Valleys | 21 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 343 | 271 | 72 | 27 |
| Wests | 21 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 343 | 278 | 65 | 25 |
| Easts | 21 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 319 | 268 | 51 | 24 |
| Brothers | 21 | 11 | 9 | 1 | 388 | 290 | 98 | 23 |
| Wynnum-Manly | 21 | 8 | 12 | 1 | 287 | 364 | -77 | 17 |
| Redcliffe | 21 | 6 | 14 | 1 | 272 | 354 | -82 | 13 |
| Souths | 21 | 4 | 16 | 1 | 214 | 471 | -257 | 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 | 30 August 1969 | Norths vs Valleys | Details |
| Minor Semi-Final | 31 August 1969 | Wests vs Easts | Details |
| Preliminary Final | 6 September 1969 | Valleys vs Wests | Details |
| Grand Final | 13 September 1969 | Norths vs Valleys | Details |
President’s Cup
| Stage | Date | Teams | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final | 15 June 1969 | Wests vs Easts | Details |
Peter Scott Memorial Trophy
| Stage | Date | Teams | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final | 26 July 1969 | Easts vs Norths | Details |
The Devils rise in Spring-time
There were a few story lines running through the 1969 BRL season.
Brothers, the two-time defending premiers, suffered through an epic injury crisis. Eric Gelling was named to start round one before suffering yet another injury and retiring on the spot. Barry Dowling, Barry Kenning and Wayne Abdy all went down early in the season. Abdy and Dowling missed 11 weeks each, Kenning was done for the year after round 10.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Kenning’s replacement at fullback, Terry Stephens went down as well. Hooker John Bourke suffered a shoulder injury which was immediately pronounced ‘career-ending’. Thankfully, it wasn’t that bad, but it certainly ended his season as well. The Brethren were down to their bare bones. They tried to lure John Gleeson and John Lohman out of retirement, but to no avail. They then turned to chunky former Valleys prop Des Mannion, who was brought in as the ‘world’s biggest five-eighth’. Remarkably, Brothers fought on and only narrowly missed the finals.
Easts were the beneficiary of Brothers’ misfortune, scraping into the top four despite another season of turmoil. The Easts selectors and players evidently decided that 1968 had been far too peaceful and successful, and launched into another internecine dispute after respected captain-coach Les Geeves was dropped following round seven.
1968 had been the Tigers’ best season in years as they made it back to the Grand Final under the calm stewardship of Geeves, and then won five of their first seven in ’69, putting themselves right back in contention. That obviously couldn’t be allowed to continue. The selectors intervened, Easts’ form slipped, they scraped into the finals and bowed out to Wests at the first hurdle. Geeves was gone shortly thereafter. Even so, the immediate future was somehow still bright at the dysfunctional Tigers.
Wests shed the baggage of the Barry Muir era with a bright new dawn in ’69. New fullback Errol Stock, formerly of Valleys, was a steady presence at the back, complementing talented youngsters like Rob Thompson, Richie Twist, Wayne Stewart and Ian Robson. The Panthers cruised through the first round and took the President’s Cup from in Easts in round 10, their first silverware since 1958.
But the long season seemed to get on top of Wests, and they weren’t helped by Robson and Twist going to New Zealand with the Kangaroos. A thrashing at Wynnum in round 14 was a warning sign, before a string of defeats in the third round saw them limp into the finals. They saw off the dysfunctional Tigers and put up a game fight against Valleys in the Preliminary Final, but it wasn’t quite enough.
Souths had one of their worst seasons since since the 1930s, finishing bottom with just four wins all year. This was despite the arrival of the great Elton Rasmussen as captain-coach after he’d spent seven years and won five premierships with the great St George team in Sydney.
Rasmussen had been brought in to turn things around and as coach was given sole discretion over selections, which was unusual at the time. Strangely enough, Souths produced their best form after Rasmussen was injured in round 10, winning back-to-back games over Valleys and Easts, and briefly looking like they’d turned a corner. Rasmussen did come back and play in the win over Redcliffe in round 14, so he wasn’t quite a hex on Souths, but they did lose their last seven games, and the great forward may well have been past his best as a player.
But really, the big story in 1969 was Norths and their interesting new fullback, former Aussie rules player Barry Spring.
What Spring lacked in rugby league experience he made up for with a booming and accurate boot, and Norths’ coach Bob Bax immediately saw the potential for Spring to take advantage of the two-point field goal, which was all the rage at the time.
According to Spring, he signed for $200 after a meeting with Bax at the Exhibition Hotel, and having consulted Valleys centre Mick Retchless on what would be a fair sign-on fee. Turns out it was a bargain for Norths.
Spring kicked 35 field goals across the season, including four against Valleys in round one, another five against Brothers in round 14, and the 35th-and-last in Norths’ 14-2 win over Valleys in the Grand Final. 35 field goals was more than South Sydney’s Eric Simms ever managed in a single season.
Useful as those field goals were, there was a little more to it. Such was Spring’s range and accuracy – there were multiple reports of field goals from the other side of halfway – that he drove some opponents to distraction and opened up other avenues for Norths to attack. And those other avenues and the teammates who went down them deserve some credit too.
Veterans Fonda Metassa on the wing and Ray Cattanach at five-eighth came back into the team for one last premiership hurrah. Prop Peter Hall had matured into one of the best forwards in Queensland. Back-rower Glen Harrison moved into the centres to great effect. John Brown was his usual steady hand at halfback.
I’ve said a few times before that the Norths hegemony wasn’t quite over, and it still wasn’t – they were clearly the best team in the league in 1970, making yet another grand final – but this was the last of the premierships won in the era of Churchill, Bax, Pearson, Hannam, Brown, Weier, Metassa and many others. Eight titles in eleven seasons is an extraordinary achievement.
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