1975 Brisbane Rugby League season

Last updated

1975 Brisbane Rugby League
Teams8
Premiers Wests Panthers Colours.svg Western Suburbs
Minor premiers Wests Panthers Colours.svg Western Suburbs
Player of the year Norths Devils colours.svg Steve Calder (Rothmans Medal)
Top try-scorer(s) Brothers Colours.svg Wayne Bennett
  1974
1976  

The 1975 Brisbane Rugby League season was the 67th season of Brisbane Rugby League premiership. Eight rugby league teams from across Brisbane competed for the premiership, which culminated in a grand final match between the Western Suburbs and Redcliffe clubs.

Contents

Season summary

Teams played each other three times, with 21 rounds of competition played. It resulted in a top five of Western Suburbs, Northern Suburbs, Redcliffe, Eastern Suburbs and Wynnum-Manly.

The 1975 season's Rothmans Medallist was Northern Suburbs player Steve Calder. [1]

With seconds remaining in the decider, Redcliffe were trailing 26–24 to minor premiers Western Suburbs. The Dolphins had the ball and launched a bomb hoping for the best. However, before the ball landed, fans had flooded Lang Park ensuring there was no chance for Redcliffe to pressure Wests' receiver into an error. [2] The ball ended up going into touch, ensuring that the fans did not ruin the final play of the game.

Teams

ClubHome groundCoachCaptain
Balmain colours.svg Eastern Suburbs Langlands Park Des Morris Des Morris
Valleys colours.svg Fortitude Valley Neumann Oval Henry HollowayMarty Scanlan
Norths Devils colours.svg Northern Suburbs Bishop Park Tommy Bishop Tommy Bishop
Brothers Colours.svg Past Brothers Corbett Park Brian Fitzsimmons Wayne Bennett
Redcliffe colours.svg Redcliffe Redcliffe Showgrounds Barry Muir Ian Pearce
Western Suburbs colours.svg Southern Suburbs Davies Park Harry BathGary Dobrich
Wests Panthers Colours.svg Western Suburbs Purtell Park Ron Raper Harry Cameron
Wynnum-Manly Colours.svg Wynnum-Manly Kougari Oval T. Berry Nev Hornery

Ladder

TeamPldWDLPFPAPDPts
1 Wests Panthers Colours.svg Western Suburbs 211605473296+17732
2 Norths Devils colours.svg Northern Suburbs 211317467346+12127
3 Redcliffe colours.svg Redcliffe 211308387337+5026
4 Balmain colours.svg Eastern Suburbs 211128390338+5224
5 Wynnum-Manly Colours.svg Wynnum-Manly 2110110352342+1021
6 Brothers Colours.svg Past Brothers 218112347385-3817
7 Western Suburbs colours.svg Southern Suburbs 216015331490-15912
8 Valleys colours.svg Fortitude Valley 214116289495-2069

Finals

HomeScoreAwayMatch Information
Date and TimeVenueRefereeCrowd
Qualifying Finals
Balmain colours.svg Eastern Suburbs 7-9 Wynnum-Manly Colours.svg Wynnum-Manly 30 August 1975 Lang Park Eddie Ward8,000
Norths Devils colours.svg Northern Suburbs 15–2 Redcliffe colours.svg Redcliffe 31 August 1975 Lang Park Ian Smith
Semi-finals
Redcliffe colours.svg Redcliffe 22-15 Wynnum-Manly Colours.svg Wynnum-Manly 6 September 1975 Lang Park Ian Smith
Wests Panthers Colours.svg Western Suburbs 21-11 Norths Devils colours.svg Northern Suburbs 7 September 1975 Lang Park Eddie Ward
Preliminary Final
Norths Devils colours.svg Northern Suburbs 2-25 Redcliffe colours.svg Redcliffe 13 September 1975 Lang Park Eddie Ward
Grand Final
Wests Panthers Colours.svg Western Suburbs 26-24 Redcliffe colours.svg Redcliffe 21 September 1975 Lang Park Ian Smith41,000

Grand Final

Western SuburbsPositionRedcliffe
  1. Greg McCarthy
FB
  1. Tony Obst
2. Michael Flesser WG 2. Brian Gardiner
3. Harry Cameron (c) CE 3. Peter Flanders
4. Greg Heading CE 4. Ian Pearce (c)
5. Wayne Stewart WG 5. Victor Tighe
6. Geoff Richardson FE 6. Steve Williams
7. Greg Oliphant HB 7. Brian Winney
8. Norm Carr LK 8. Ian Thinee
9. Rod Bradshaw SR 9. Rod Halley
10. Henry Williamson SR 10. Forrester Grayson
11. Max Williamson PR 11. Bevan Bleakley
12. Kel Brown HK 12. Bob Jones
13. John Young PR 13. Steve Bullow
14. Bob GreenReserves14. Chris Mason
19. Carlo CostaReserves15. Geoff Russell
20. C AndersonReserves16. Peter Leis
Reserves19. Brad McArthur
Ron Raper Coach Barry Muir

Redcliffe's storming finish was not enough, as Western Suburbs held on to claim its first premiership in 21 years.

Redcliffe were coming home strong 26–24, but Panthers held on, to win their ninth premiership and first since 1954. Redcliffe won the scrum count 7–4, the Dolphins winning the penalties 11-7 as well.

Western Suburbs 26 (Tries: H. Cameron, R. Bradshaw, G. McCarthy, G. Heading. Goals: W. Stewart)

Redcliffe 24 (Tries: T. Obst, I. Pearce, G. Russell, B. Bleakley. Goals: I. Pearce 6) [3] [4]

References

  1. QRL Media
  2. "Best 10 Brisbane or QRL grand finals in past 50 years" in Courier Mail, September 26, 2014
  3. 1975 BRL Grand Final Highlights Wests 26 v Redcliffe 24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBHXh5M4icY
  4. 1975 Brisbane Rugby League Grand Final https://web.archive.org/web/20060214040520/http://queensland.rleague.com/flashback/1975gf.php