1928 NSWRFL Grand Final
Saturday, 15 September 1928 · Royal Agricultural Society Grounds, Sydney, New South Wales
1928 NSWRFL Grand Final result: South Sydney def. Eastern Suburbs, 26-5, at Royal Agricultural Society Grounds, Sydney, New South Wales on Saturday, 15 September 1928.
Sourcing caveat: St. George and Eastern Suburbs tied for the minor premiership on 26 points; no playoff or right of challenge was staged, so the finals winner took the title outright. Sources differ by one day on the semi-final dates; the final's date of 15 September 1928 is consistent across both. In 1928 a try was worth 3 points and a goal 2 points; the scoring breakdown above reconciles exactly to 26-5 (South Sydney: Harry Kadwell x2, George Treweek, Reg Williams, Oscar Quinlivan and Harry Cavanough tries x 3 = 18, plus Benny Wearing 2 goals and Quinlivan 2 goals = 8, totalling 26; Eastern Suburbs: Les Steel's try x 3 = 3, plus Arthur Oxford 1 goal = 2, totalling 5). Eastern Suburbs' coach could not be independently confirmed - Wikipedia names Cyril Abotomey, but rugbyleagueproject.org's dedicated 1928 coaches page omits Eastern Suburbs entirely, so this single-source claim is not carried into the structured coach field. Squad numbers reflect standard positional numbering. Exact try minutes and goal-attempt counts could not be confirmed.
Result
| Team | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | South Sydney | 26 |
| Runner-up | Eastern Suburbs | 5 |
Attendance: 25,000
NRL 1928 — full season ladder & finals series
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Diff | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eastern Suburbs | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 192 | 116 | +76 | 26 |
| 1 | St. George | 13 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 200 | 98 | +102 | 26 |
| 3 | South Sydney | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 216 | 152 | +64 | 18 |
| 4 | North Sydney | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 157 | 149 | +8 | 16 |
| 5 | University | 13 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 184 | 176 | +8 | 14 |
| 6 | Glebe | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 94 | 149 | -55 | 12 |
| 6 | Western Suburbs | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 174 | 206 | -32 | 12 |
| 8 | Balmain | 13 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 180 | 236 | -56 | 10 |
| 9 | Newtown | 12 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 112 | 227 | -115 | 6 |
Qualified for the finals series — top 4 that season.
Finals series
Semi-Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Sep 1928 | Eastern Suburbs Roosters 26–13 North Sydney Bears | Wentworth Park, Sydney, NSW | 5,000 |
| 8 Sep 1928 | South Sydney Rabbitohs 13–5 St. George | Earl Park, Arncliffe, NSW | 14,758 |
Grand Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Sep 1928 | South Sydney Rabbitohs 26–5 Eastern Suburbs Roosters | Royal Agricultural Society Grounds, Sydney, NSW |
Match officials
| Referee | Lal Deane |
Scorers
| South Sydney | Tries: Harry Kadwell — minute unconfirmed; Harry Kadwell — minute unconfirmed; George Treweek — minute unconfirmed; Reg Williams — minute unconfirmed; Oscar Quinlivan — minute unconfirmed; Harry Cavanough — minute unconfirmed Goals: Benny Wearing (2/unconfirmed); Oscar Quinlivan (2/unconfirmed) |
| Eastern Suburbs | Tries: Les Steel — minute unconfirmed Goals: Arthur Oxford (1/unconfirmed) |
Teams
| South Sydney | Eastern Suburbs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alan Righton | Fullback | Arthur Toby (c) | 1 |
| 2 | Benny Wearing | Wing | Les Steel | 2 |
| 3 | Jack Why | Centre | Nelson Hardy | 3 |
| 4 | Harry Finch | Centre | Larry Hedger | 4 |
| 5 | Reg Williams | Wing | Vic Webber | 5 |
| 6 | Harry Kadwell | Five-eighth | Gordon Fletcher | 6 |
| 7 | Jim Breen (c) | Halfback | Joe Busch | 7 |
| 8 | Oscar Quinlivan | Lock | George Harris | 8 |
| 9 | George Treweek | Second Row | Arthur Oxford | 9 |
| 10 | Harry Cavanough | Second Row | Harry Kavanagh | 10 |
| 11 | Dave Watson | Prop | Sammy Bryant | 11 |
| 12 | Eddie Root | Hooker | Dick Brown | 12 |
| 13 | Alf Binder | Prop | Tom Fitzpatrick | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| — | no reserve/interchange players recorded — no interchange bench existed in 1928 | no reserve/interchange players recorded — no interchange bench existed in 1928 | — | |
| Charlie Lynch | Coach | — | ||
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 1928 season delivered the young finals system its first genuine controversy, and South Sydney their most remarkable premiership of the decade. For once the Rabbitohs did not dominate the home-and-away rounds: Eastern Suburbs and St. George finished locked together atop the ladder on 26 points apiece, with the three-time defending champions back in third on 18. Contentiously, no playoff was staged to split the joint minor premiers and award a right of challenge, a decision critics argued negated the leading pair's season-long work and smoothed South Sydney's path to the title. The finals bore that out. In the semi-finals Eastern Suburbs eliminated fourth-placed North Sydney 26-13 at Wentworth Park, surging away with three tries in the last eight minutes against opponents reduced to eleven men, while Souths beat St. George 13-5 at Earl Park. The decider was played on Saturday 15 September 1928 at the Royal Agricultural Society Grounds, and the 25,000 who attended made it the best-attended premiership decider of the decade. Expectation of a tight contest between the ladder-leading Tricolours and the champions lasted barely half an hour: South Sydney led 13-0 at the interval and kept pouring on points afterwards. Harry Kadwell crossed twice, with further tries to the great second-rower George Treweek, Reg Williams, Oscar Quinlivan and Harry Cavanough, six in all, while Benny Wearing and Quinlivan kicked two goals apiece for 26 points. Eastern Suburbs' reply was a solitary try to Les Steel, goaled by Arthur Oxford, in a 26-5 rout. The result carried South Sydney to a fourth successive premiership, making them the first club in the competition's history to achieve the feat and surpassing the hat-tricks of Easts and Balmain in earlier eras. For Eastern Suburbs, who had assembled arguably the season's most consistent record, it was a cruel end, beaten comprehensively on the one afternoon that decided everything, and left to wonder what a minor-premiership playoff and right of challenge might have yielded. The lopsided scoreline and the format grumbling notwithstanding, the huge crowd confirmed the grand-final concept's commercial force, and the Rabbitohs' machine, Treweek, Wearing, Kadwell, Quinlivan and company, stood unchallenged as the finest club side yet seen in Sydney.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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