The Clive Churchill Medal was first awarded in 1986; no official best-on-ground medal existed for this Grand Final.
Match context
The 1983 Grand Final completed rugby league's last great three-peat. Bob Fulton's Manly-Warringah arrived as raging-hot minor premiers with a 22-4 record that left them well clear of second-placed Parramatta, but once hostilities began at the Sydney Cricket Ground, before 40,285 fans, the form book meant nothing. In a rematch of the 1982 decider, and in the first Grand Final played under the new four-point try, Jack Gibson's Eels simply overpowered their opponents from the outset. Brett Kenny opened the scoring after swooping on a loose pass, and inside a quarter of an hour Eric Grothe had bulldozed his way over in the corner, running straight through Manly fullback Graham Eadie, to make it 10-0. Parramatta led 12-0 at half-time and never looked remotely troubled. In the second half Kenny rose to a perfectly placed bomb from prop Paul Mares to grab his second try, an extraordinary third consecutive Grand Final in which the five-eighth scored a double, and Mick Cronin's three goals stretched the lead beyond reach. Phil Sigsworth's try, converted by Eadie, was Manly's only reply in an 18-6 defeat, their second straight Grand Final loss to the same opponent. Retrospective match reports rate Kenny the game's best player, while noting that the ever-reliable Cronin was almost equally deserving. Steve Edge lifted the trophy as captain for the third year running, and Parramatta became the first club since St. George's record dynasty ended in 1966 to win three consecutive premierships, a feat not repeated for decades afterward. It was also a fitting farewell for Gibson, who stood down after the season with three titles from three years in charge; John Monie inherited the side for 1984. The Eels' bid for a fourth straight crown the following September would end in agonising fashion, two points short against Canterbury-Bankstown, marking 1983 as the summit of the club's golden age.
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