1947 NSWRFL Grand Final
Saturday, 20 September 1947 · Sydney Sports Ground, Sydney, New South Wales
1947 NSWRFL Grand Final result: Balmain def. Canterbury-Bankstown, 13-9, at Sydney Sports Ground, Sydney, New South Wales on Saturday, 20 September 1947.
Sourcing caveat: Two-match decider: Balmain won 'the Final' 25-19 over Canterbury-Bankstown at the Sydney Sports Ground on 13 September 1947, but minor premiers Canterbury exercised their right of challenge, and the resulting challenge Grand Final on 20 September (recorded on this page) decided the premiership. In 1947 a try was worth 3 points and a goal 2 points; the scoring breakdown above reconciles exactly to 13-9 (Balmain: Joe Jorgenson's try x 3 = 3, plus his own 5 goals = 10, totalling 13; Canterbury-Bankstown: Roy Hasson's try x 3 = 3, plus Dick Johnson 2 goals and Hasson 1 goal = 6, totalling 9). Both full 13-man lineups below were supplied manually by the site owner after two exhaustive automated research passes (direct match-page fetches, alternate URL/subpath navigation, season-index and player/coach sub-pages, club official histories, Trove and proxy attempts) had left 10 of the 26 places unconfirmed. Several players carry no squad number in the source supplied (Jack McCullough for Balmain, Eddie Burns for Canterbury-Bankstown) and are recorded with an unconfirmed-number placeholder rather than a guessed number. Note: earlier automated research had also flagged uncertainty over whether Pat Devery had already departed for Huddersfield before this match; the site owner's supplied lineup lists him at centre for Balmain, which is treated as resolving that doubt. Robert Lulham is the same player as 'Bobby Lulham' referenced in earlier drafts of this page. Referee Jack O'Brien and both clubs' coaches (Balmain: Norm Robinson; Canterbury-Bankstown: Ross McKinnon) were confirmed via rugbyleagueproject.org's season-level pages in the earlier research passes.
Result
| Team | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | Balmain | 13 |
| Runner-up | Canterbury-Bankstown | 9 |
Attendance: 29,292
NRL 1947 — full season ladder & finals series
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Diff | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canterbury-Bankstown | 18 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 366 | 272 | +94 | 27 |
| 2 | Balmain | 18 | 12 | 0 | 6 | 342 | 265 | +77 | 24 |
| 3 | Newtown | 18 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 375 | 302 | +73 | 23 |
| 4 | Western Suburbs | 18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 295 | 253 | +42 | 22 |
| 4 | St. George | 18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 353 | 272 | +81 | 22 |
| 6 | North Sydney | 18 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 287 | 278 | +9 | 19 |
| 7 | South Sydney | 18 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 314 | 328 | -14 | 18 |
| 8 | Eastern Suburbs | 18 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 270 | 316 | -46 | 11 |
| 9 | Manly-Warringah | 18 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 242 | 364 | -122 | 8 |
| 10 | Parramatta | 18 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 230 | 424 | -194 | 6 |
Qualified for the finals series — top 4 that season.
Finals series
Playoff
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug 1947 | Western Suburbs Magpies 10–5 St. George | Sydney Sports Ground, Sydney, NSW | 13,552 |
Semi-Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug 1947 | Canterbury-Bankstown 25–15 Newtown | Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, NSW | 36,303 |
| 6 Sep 1947 | Balmain Tigers 27–16 Western Suburbs Magpies | Sydney Sports Ground, Sydney, NSW | 29,375 |
Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Sep 1947 | Balmain Tigers 25–19 Canterbury-Bankstown | Sydney Sports Ground, Sydney, NSW | 34,994 |
Grand Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Sep 1947 | Balmain Tigers 13–9 Canterbury-Bankstown | Sydney Sports Ground, Sydney, NSW |
Match officials
| Referee | Jack O'Brien |
Scorers
| Balmain | Tries: Joe Jorgenson — minute unconfirmed Goals: Joe Jorgenson (5/unconfirmed) |
| Canterbury-Bankstown | Tries: Roy Hasson — minute unconfirmed Goals: Dick Johnson (2/unconfirmed); Roy Hasson (1/unconfirmed) |
Teams
| Balmain | Canterbury-Bankstown | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Jack McCullough | Fullback | Dick Johnson | 13 |
| 2 | Robert Lulham | Wing | Jeff Simmonds | 14 |
| 3 | Pat Devery | Centre | Eddie Tracey | 11 |
| 14 | Joe Jorgenson | Centre | Norm Young | 10 |
| 15 | Arthur Patton | Wing | Morrie Murphy | 9 |
| 4 | George Williams | Five-eighth | Roy Hasson | 8 |
| 32 | Des Bryan | Halfback | Bruce Hopkins | 7 |
| 34 | John Brannigan | Prop | Eddie Burns | — |
| 9 | Herb Gilbert Jnr | Hooker | Roy Kirkaldy | 56 |
| 8 | Jack Spencer | Prop | Henry Porter (c) | 3 |
| 24 | Sid Ryan | Second Row | Alister Clarke | 25 |
| 11 | Harry Bath | Second Row | Ken Charlton | 58 |
| 7 | Tom Bourke (c) | Lock | Len Holmes | 6 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| — | no reserve/interchange players recorded — no interchange bench existed in 1947 | no reserve/interchange players recorded — no interchange bench existed in 1947 | — | |
| Norm Robinson | Coach | Ross McKinnon | ||
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 1947 season was the first with the competition in double figures, Manly-Warringah and Parramatta having been admitted to take the NSWRFL to ten clubs, and it ended with the second successive premiership being decided by a challenge Grand Final. Canterbury-Bankstown, built on a punishing defence and a famous long-serving front row, took the minor premiership with 27 competition points. The Berries beat Newtown 25-15 in their semi-final, while defending premiers Balmain accounted for Western Suburbs 27-16 after Wests had won a playoff against St. George. In 'the Final' at the Sydney Sports Ground on 13 September, Balmain outgunned Canterbury 25-19 before 34,994, but because Canterbury were minor premiers they exercised their right of challenge and called for a Grand Final decider at the same ground a week later. Before 29,292, the rematch was an altogether tighter affair, Canterbury leading 7-4 at half-time and defending grimly. The second half, though, became a one-man show from Balmain's veteran Test centre Joe Jorgenson. Jorgenson crashed over for a try beside the posts, and after receiving medical attention picked himself up to convert his own try and put the Tigers ahead 11-9. He then sealed the premiership with a 45-yard penalty goal, closing the match at 13-9 with every one of Balmain's thirteen points, one try and five goals, beside his name; the Monday press hailed him as the 'hero of the League final' and he was chaired from the field by teammates. Canterbury's points came from a Hasson try, with Hasson and Johnson sharing three goals, but the minor premiers had been denied twice in eight days by the same opponent. For Balmain, captained again by Tom Bourke and with stars such as Harry Bath in their ranks, it was a tenth premiership and back-to-back titles, achieved the hard way: the Tigers won the Final and were then required to defend the crown all over again when the challenge was invoked, becoming the only club of the era to win both the Final and a challenge Grand Final in the same season.
Sources
- Wikipedia - 1947 NSWRFL season
- Rugby League Project - NSWRFL 1947 Grand Final Challenge
- Trove - contemporary newspaper report
- User-supplied lineup research, sourced manually after the automated research passes could not complete this page
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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