1924 NSWRFL Grand Final
Tuesday, 29 July 1924 · Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, New South Wales
1924 NSWRFL Grand Final result: Balmain def. South Sydney, 3-0, at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, New South Wales on Tuesday, 29 July 1924.
Sourcing caveat: Contemporarily styled 'the Final' - a playoff forced by the 15-point tie; 'Grand Final' is retrospective. Both Wikipedia and Rugby League Project date the match Tuesday 29 July 1924 (the season having been compressed by the Lions tour); the midweek date is correct, not an error. Attendance is an estimate ('around 15,000'). In 1924 a try was worth 3 points and a goal 2 points; the scoring breakdown above reconciles exactly to 3-0 (Balmain: Reg Latta's try x 3 = 3, no goals; South Sydney: nothing). Balmain's Charles Fraser was a playing captain-coach; South Sydney's coach was Owen McCarthy. This was the first rugby league match ever broadcast on radio, with commentary by Balmain club secretary Bob Savage, and the first time a team had been held scoreless in a Final. Squad numbers reflect standard positional numbering; genuine printed jersey numbers were not independently confirmed. Exact try minute could not be confirmed.
Result
| Team | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | Balmain | 3 |
| Runner-up | South Sydney | 0 |
Attendance: 15,000
NRL 1924 — full season ladder & finals series
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Diff | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Balmain | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 124 | 53 | +71 | 15 |
| 2 | South Sydney | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 104 | 60 | +44 | 15 |
| 3 | Glebe | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 87 | 95 | -8 | 10 |
| 3 | St. George | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 94 | 125 | -31 | 10 |
| 3 | Western Suburbs | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 130 | 103 | +27 | 10 |
| 6 | Eastern Suburbs | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 85 | 106 | -21 | 8 |
| 6 | North Sydney | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 107 | 128 | -21 | 8 |
| 8 | Newtown | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 98 | 129 | -31 | 7 |
| 8 | University | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 85 | 115 | -30 | 7 |
No finals series this season — the minor premier was awarded the premiership outright.
Finals series
Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jul 1924 | Balmain Tigers 3–0 South Sydney Rabbitohs | Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, NSW | 15,000 |
Match officials
| Referee | William Neill |
Scorers
| Balmain | Tries: Reg Latta — minute unconfirmed |
| South Sydney | No scorers recorded. |
Teams
| Balmain | South Sydney | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Ponchard | Fullback | Howard Hallett | 1 |
| 2 | Jimmy Love | Wing | Cec Blinkhorn | 2 |
| 3 | Billy Craig | Centre | Oscar Quinlivan | 3 |
| 4 | Dud Millard | Centre | Harold Horder (c) | 4 |
| 5 | Tommy Kennedy | Wing | Benny Wearing | 5 |
| 6 | Charles Fraser (c) | Five-eighth | Alf Blair | 6 |
| 7 | Norm Robinson | Halfback | Frank Brogan | 7 |
| 8 | Reg Latta | Lock | Eddie Root | 8 |
| 9 | Alf Fraser | Second Row | Alby Why | 9 |
| 10 | Roy Liston | Second Row | Pat Murphy | 10 |
| 11 | Les Hayes | Prop | Jack Lawrence | 11 |
| 12 | Horace Watt | Hooker | Ern Willmott | 12 |
| 13 | Bill Schultz | Prop | Dave Watson | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| — | no reserve/interchange players recorded — no interchange bench existed in 1924 | no reserve/interchange players recorded — no interchange bench existed in 1924; Jack Lawrence replaced originally-named Roy Beiber before kickoff | — | |
| Charles Fraser | Coach | Owen McCarthy | ||
Clive Churchill Medal
The Clive Churchill Medal was first awarded in 1986; no official best-on-ground medal existed for this Grand Final.
Match context
The 1924 season was squeezed almost to breaking point by the Great Britain Lions' tour of Australia and the attendant representative program, forcing the NSWRFL to compress the premiership into a single round of just eight matches per club before handing the rest of winter to the City Cup. Even in that abbreviated sprint the ladder could not split the top two: Balmain and South Sydney finished with identical records of six wins, a draw and a single loss for 15 competition points apiece, the draw, fittingly, a 10-10 stalemate between the pair in Round 5 before some 16,000 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. So, for the third consecutive year, a playoff final was required, staged midweek on Tuesday 29 July 1924 at the SCG before a crowd of around 15,000. What followed was the tensest, tightest decider yet played. In a grinding forward struggle, Balmain's only breakthrough came via a try to Reg Latta, giving the Tigers a 3-0 half-time lead; the entire second half then passed without a point as South Sydney hurled themselves at a defensive line that would not yield. At full-time the scoreboard still read 3-0, at that time the lowest-scoring final since the premiership began in 1908, and the first occasion on which a team had been held scoreless in a final. The match earned a second, more far-reaching distinction: it was the first rugby league game ever broadcast on radio, with Balmain club secretary Bob Savage providing the commentary, a modest experiment that inaugurated the medium through which the game would reach millions in the decades ahead. The premiership was Balmain's sixth within ten seasons, capping the club's extraordinary 1915-1924 era, though none of those present could have known it would also be their last until 1939. For South Sydney the shutout was a galvanising humiliation: the Rabbitohs responded with the perfect unbeaten season of 1925 and then five consecutive premierships from 1925 to 1929, a dynasty this Balmain victory immediately preceded. The 1924 playoff thus closed the first-past-the-post era's run of emergency deciders; within two seasons the league conceded the point and introduced a permanent finals series.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
← Rugby League · Champions list · All-time records · World Cup · All competitions · Venues · Teams · Players