1979 NSWRFL season

Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of St. George, Parramatta, Cronulla-Sutherland, Western Suburbs and Canterbury-Bankstown who battled it out in the finals.

Parramatta's Ray Price was the 1979 season's Rothmans Medallist, and also won Rugby League Week’s player of the year award.

The 1979 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Bob Fulton.

Twelve clubs, including six of 1908's foundation teams and another six from around Sydney competed for the NSWRFL premiership.

Balmain   72nd season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Ron Willey Captain: Allan McMahon	Canterbury-Bankstown   45th season Ground: Belmore Oval Coach: Ted Glossop Captain: George Peponis	Cronulla-Sutherland   13th season Ground: Endeavour Field Coach: Norm Provan Captain: Greg Pierce	Eastern Suburbs   72nd season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Captain/Coach: Bob Fulton
Manly-Warringah   33rd season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Frank Stanton Captain: Max Krilich	Newtown   72nd season Ground: Henson Park Coach: Warren Ryan Captain: Trevor Ryan→ Ken Wilson	North Sydney   72nd season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Tommy Bishop Captain: Keith Harris	Parramatta   33rd season Ground: Cumberland Oval Coach: Terry Fearnley Captain: Ray Price
Penrith   13th season Ground: Penrith Park Coach: Len Stacker Captain: Gary Pethybridge	South Sydney   72nd season Ground: Redfern Oval Coach: Jack Gibson Captain: Bob McMillan, Darrell Bampton, Terry Fahey	St. George Dragons   59th season Ground: Kogarah Oval Coach: Harry Bath Captain: Steve Edge→Craig Young	Western Suburbs   72nd season Ground: Lidcombe Oval Coach: Roy Masters Captain: Tom Raudonikis

Bold – Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	St. George	22	17	0	5	476	309	+167	34
2	Parramatta	22	16	0	6	490	317	+173	32
3	Cronulla	22	14	1	7	367	270	+97	29
4	Western Suburbs	22	14	0	8	396	312	+84	28
5	Canterbury	22	13	0	9	379	310	+69	26
6	Balmain	22	12	1	9	358	313	+45	25
7	Manly	22	11	1	10	341	353	-12	23
8	Eastern Suburbs	22	9	1	12	250	321	-71	19
9	South Sydney	22	9	0	13	286	329	-43	18
10	Penrith	22	6	2	14	311	473	-162	14
11	Newtown	22	6	0	16	321	423	-102	12
12	North Sydney	22	2	0	20	302	547	-245	4

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 5.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round.
• Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
1	St. George Dragons	2	2	4	6	6	8	10	10	12	14	16	18	20	20	22	22	24	26	26	28	30	32	34
2	Parramatta Eels	0	0	2	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	16	18	18	18	20	22	24	26	28	30	30	32
3	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	2	4	4	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	14	16	16	16	18	20	20	22	24	24	26	28	29
4	Western Suburbs Magpies	2	4	6	8	8	8	8	10	12	14	16	18	20	20	20	20	20	20	22	24	26	26	28
5	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	2	4	4	6	8	10	10	12	12	14	14	14	16	18	20	20	22	22	24	24	26	26	26
6	Balmain Tigers	2	2	4	4	6	8	10	11	13	13	15	17	17	17	17	19	21	21	23	25	25	25	25
7	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	0	2	4	6	6	6	6	7	7	9	11	11	13	13	15	17	17	19	21	21	21	21	23
8	Eastern Suburbs Roosters	0	0	0	2	2	2	4	5	7	7	7	7	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	17	19	19	19
9	South Sydney Rabbitohs	0	2	2	2	4	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	8	10	12	14	14	14	14	16	18
10	Penrith Panthers	0	2	4	4	4	6	6	7	7	7	9	11	11	11	11	11	13	13	13	13	13	13	14
11	Newtown Jets	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	6	6	8	10	10	10	10	10	12	12	12	12
12	North Sydney Bears	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Minor semi-finals
Parramatta	24–4	Cronulla-Sutherland	1 September 1979	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	28,335
Western Suburbs	6–20	Canterbury-Bankstown	2 September 1979	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	22,104
Major semi-finals
St. George	15–11	Parramatta	8 September 1979	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	38,531
Cronulla-Sutherland	15–30	Canterbury-Bankstown	9 September 1979	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	24,132
Preliminary final
Parramatta	14–20	Canterbury-Bankstown	15 September 1979	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	33,291
Grand final
St. George	17–13	Canterbury-Bankstown	22 September 1979	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	50,911

	Qualifying final					Major semi-final					Preliminary final					Grand final
						1	St. George	15								St. George		17
							Parramatta	11								Canterbury		13
	2	Parramatta	24								Parramatta		14
	3	Cronulla-Sutherland	4			Minor semi-final					Canterbury		20
						Cronulla-Sutherland		15
	4	Western Suburbs	6			Canterbury		30
	5	Canterbury	20

St. George finished 22 rounds as minor premiers with 17 wins and were straight into the grand final after defeating Parramatta in the major semi. Their Grand final opponents Canterbury, qualified after defeating Wests, Cronulla and Parramatta.

Under agreements in place at the time, the broadcast rights to the season saw one to two games on ABC TV on Saturday and/or Sunday afternoons, and a Sunday Night primetime replay and highlights of other matches on ATN-7 (part of the Seven's Big League programming). Under this agreement, the networks had rights to each broadcast and/or simulcast all six of the finals series games, under which they could either accept or decline the matches.

The scene was set by an industrial relations dispute between camera and production crews and commercial broadcasting networks towards the end of 1979. This forced ATN-7 and the ABC into a shared feed arrangement using ABC production crew, but separate network commentary teams calling the game.

ATN-7, wore the financial costs as the designated broadcaster of the preliminary final, and provided the ABC with a clean feed of the match as agreed. However, the ABC refused to offer a clean feed to ATN-7 for the grand final, which caused massive controversy. ATN-7 then exercised their right as the primary broadcaster of the competition to broadcast the match between St George and Canterbury exclusively, deciding to source their own freelance crew and cover the match. The ABC then sued ATN-7, and the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal became involved, but ultimately the match remained exclusive to Seven's Big League.^[1]

The pre-game talk had been about the match-up of opposing half-backs Steve Morris and Steve Mortimer and the game didn't disappoint, beginning with a 40-metre flying break on a last tackle by Morris from deep in Dragons territory before he was cut down in a classic covering tackle by Mortimer.

The first half belonged to St. George with new fullback Brian Johnson scoring an easy opening try after taking a pass 10 metres out from the Canterbury line. Soon after, Rod Reddy, who was subduing his opponents with his experience and ruthlessness, put Morris into a gap. “Slippery” kicked ahead and the race was on. Mortimer had a head start and got there first but Morris tackled him into touch.

Soon afterwards Canterbury put a bomb up and toward the St. George in-goal. Brian Johnson was on hand to field the ball and returned it with a 60-metre run ended by a copybook tackle from his opposing fullback Stan Cutler. However the defence was opening up and it wasn't long before the Dragons scored their second try, with winger Mitch Brennan venturing infield and finding a gap courtesy of centre Robert Finch who slipped a short ball to Brennan 30 metres out. The strapping winger made a powerful run to score.

By now, Saints were carving Canterbury up with Morris, on his 20-metre line, putting Graeme Wynn into a gap. The lanky back rower ran 40 metres, leaving defenders in his wake. Next it was “Rocket” Reddy's turn when Morris, Wynn and Reddy combined down the right flank and exposed the Bulldogs defence. 'Rocket' handled twice in scoring a try under the posts. At half time the score was St George 17 – Canterbury 2.

Canterbury fought back gamely after the break. Steve Gearin and then Peter Mortimer crossed, with two further tries being disallowed. The St. George defence rallied and held from that point until Stan Cutler scored a third try out wide late in the match. St. George's goal-kicking second rower George Grant was the difference on the day, kicking four to ensure a 17–13 victory. Grant had kicked brilliantly all season, scoring 211 points in 1979.

The Dave Brown Medal for the best player on field, went to Steve Morris.

St. George 17 (Tries: Johnson, Brennan, Reddy. Goals: Grant 4.)

Canterbury-Bankstown 13 (Tries: Gearin, Mortimer, Cutler. Goals: Gearin 2.)

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 22.

Top 5 point scorers Points Player Tries Goals Field Goals 229   Mick Cronin 13 95 0 206   Steve Gearin 10 88 0 203   George Grant 1 100 0 155   Graham Eadie 6 68 1 145   John Dorahy 6 63 1 Top 5 try scorers Tries Player 16   Tom Mooney 14   Mitch Brennan 14   Larry Corowa 13   Steve Morris 13   Mick Cronin 13   Garry Dowling 13   Steve Edmonds 13   Wayne Smith 13   Wayne Wigham 13   Stephen Martin

Top 5 goal scorers Goals Player 100   George Grant 95   Mick Cronin 88   Steve Gearin 68   Graham Eadie 65   Rod Henniker

• Mortimer family

• Rugby League Tables – Season 1979 The World of Rugby League
• Results:1971-80 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1979 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com^{[dead link‍]}
• NSWRFL season 1979 at rugbyleagueproject.org
• 1979 Grand final at Dragons History site