1940 NSWRFL Grand Final
Saturday, 31 August 1940 · Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, New South Wales
1940 NSWRFL Grand Final result: Eastern Suburbs def. Canterbury-Bankstown, 24-14, at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, New South Wales on Saturday, 31 August 1940.
Sourcing caveat: Minor premiers Eastern Suburbs won this Final outright, so no challenge Grand Final was required. Captain-coach Dave Brown was ruled out on the morning of the match with a leg injury; Bill Brew came into the side and scored the opening try, with Ray Stehr taking on-field captaincy. In 1940 a try was worth 3 points and a goal 2 points. GENUINE SOURCING CONFLICT, flagged after two research passes: sources disagree on Eastern Suburbs' goal-kicker and count. Wikipedia's grand-final infobox credits 'Dunn 2' goals, but rugbyleagueproject.org's match page and a separate, independent Wikipedia biography of Doug Bartlett both instead credit Bartlett (fullback) with the goal-kicking. Neither source states 3 goals, but the reported 24-14 scoreline only reconciles arithmetically with 6 tries (Bill Brew, Harry Pierce x2, Rod O'Loan, Sid Pearce, John Clarke = 18 points) plus 3 goals (6 points) = 24; the scoring breakdown above uses this arithmetically-required total (Bartlett, 3 goals, weighted toward the two independent sources naming him over the single infobox naming Dunn) but the exact figure could not be independently confirmed via a contemporary newspaper report, since Trove remained inaccessible throughout. Canterbury-Bankstown's scoring (Jack Bonnyman and Merv Denton tries, Lin Johnson 4 goals, totalling 14) is solidly confirmed and uncontested. Squad numbers reflect rugbyleagueproject.org's positional listing; genuine on-field jersey numbers for this era are not independently documented. Exact try minutes and goal-attempt counts could not be confirmed.
Result
| Team | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | Eastern Suburbs | 24 |
| Runner-up | Canterbury-Bankstown | 14 |
Attendance: 24,167
NRL 1940 — full season ladder & finals series
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Diff | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eastern Suburbs | 14 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 250 | 136 | +114 | 19 |
| 2 | Newtown | 14 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 261 | 200 | +61 | 18 |
| 3 | Canterbury-Bankstown | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 204 | 195 | +9 | 16 |
| 4 | St. George | 14 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 263 | 203 | +60 | 16 |
| 5 | Balmain | 14 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 199 | 162 | +37 | 15 |
| 6 | South Sydney | 14 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 165 | 259 | -94 | 14 |
| 7 | North Sydney | 14 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 156 | 243 | -87 | 8 |
| 8 | Western Suburbs | 14 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 159 | 259 | -100 | 6 |
Qualified for the finals series — top 4 that season.
Finals series
Semi-Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Aug 1940 | Eastern Suburbs Roosters 10–3 St. George | Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, NSW | 17,473 |
| 24 Aug 1940 | Canterbury-Bankstown 19–11 Newtown | Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, NSW | 22,061 |
Grand Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Aug 1940 | Eastern Suburbs Roosters 24–14 Canterbury-Bankstown | Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, NSW |
Match officials
| Referee | Jack O'Brien |
Scorers
| Eastern Suburbs | Tries: Bill Brew — early in the match, opening try; Harry Pierce — minute unconfirmed; Harry Pierce — minute unconfirmed; Rod O'Loan — minute unconfirmed; Sid Pearce — minute unconfirmed; John Clarke — minute unconfirmed Goals: Doug Bartlett (3/unconfirmed) |
| Canterbury-Bankstown | Tries: Jack Bonnyman — minute unconfirmed; Merv Denton — minute unconfirmed Goals: Lin Johnson (4/unconfirmed) |
Teams
| Eastern Suburbs | Canterbury-Bankstown | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doug Bartlett | Fullback | Lin Johnson | 1 |
| 2 | Rod O'Loan | Wing | Edgar Newham | 2 |
| 3 | Stan Callaghan | Centre | Merv Denton | 3 |
| 4 | Dick Dunn | Centre | Bob Russell | 4 |
| 5 | Bill Brew | Wing | Jack Bonnyman (c) | 5 |
| 6 | Fred May | Five-eighth | Ted Anderson | 6 |
| 7 | Sel Lisle | Halfback | Roy McCarter | 7 |
| 8 | Andy Norval | Lock | Gordon Clunas | 8 |
| 9 | Sid Pearce | Second Row | Bob Farrar | 9 |
| 10 | Harry Pierce | Second Row | Bob Allison | 10 |
| 11 | John Clarke | Prop | Jack Reilly | 11 |
| 12 | Noel Hollingdale | Hooker | Roy Kirkaldy | 12 |
| 13 | Ray Stehr (c) | Prop | Jim Gibbs | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| — | no reserve/interchange players recorded — no interchange bench existed in 1940; Bill Brew replaced injured captain-coach Dave Brown before kickoff | no reserve/interchange players recorded — no interchange bench existed in 1940 | — | |
| Dave Brown | Coach | Alan Brady | ||
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 1940 season was the first played entirely under the shadow of the Second World War, and while enlistments had begun to thin playing ranks across Sydney, the NSWRFL premiership carried on uninterrupted, as it would through every year of the conflict. Eastern Suburbs, led by their champion captain-coach Dave Brown, claimed the minor premiership and opened the finals by beating St. George 10-3 in the first semi-final, while Canterbury-Bankstown, premiers only two seasons earlier in 1938, accounted for second-placed Newtown 19-11 a week later. That set up the decider of 31 August at the Sydney Cricket Ground before 24,167 spectators; because minor premiers Easts were themselves contesting it, victory would make the result final, with no challenge match possible. The build-up was thrown into disarray on the morning of the game when Brown, the great goal-kicking centre of the 1930s, was ruled out with a leg injury. His replacement, Bill Brew, wrote himself into the story almost immediately, scoring the opening try early in the match. The remarkable feature of the Eastern Suburbs side was its youth, the team averaging just twenty years of age, yet the young Tricolours played with the poise of veterans, running Canterbury-Bankstown ragged out wide and finishing with six tries to two. Among their scorers were second-rower Sid 'Joe' Pearce, one of the club's finest forwards of the era, along with O'Loan and Clarke, with Dick Dunn adding goals. Canterbury-Bankstown fought on gamely through tries to Bonnyman and Denton and four goals from Lin Johnson, the sharpshooter who would exact a measure of revenge in the 1942 decider, but they could not bridge the gap, and Eastern Suburbs ran out 24-14 winners. It was the club's eighth premiership and their fourth in six seasons, following the celebrated hat-trick of 1935-37, and it confirmed the Tricolours as the dominant club of the pre-war and early wartime era. For the injured Brown, watching his young side triumph without him, it was a bittersweet triumph; he would play on into 1941 before retiring after that season's decider.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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