1909 NSWRFL Season

The second NSWRFL season featured the same eight clubs as 1908, including 'Newcastle', playing its final season before withdrawing from the competition. South Sydney finished as minor premiers with only one loss all season (to Newcastle). The premiership decider produced one of the competition's strangest results: Balmain, who finished second, refused to take the field for the Grand Final at the Agricultural Ground in protest at the fixture being scheduled as an undercard to international matches and at players effectively subsidising league finances unpaid. South Sydney kicked off, scored uncontested, and were awarded the premiership by forfeit. The episode compounded a financial crisis that saw several of the League's founders removed from office, and a North Sydney official who had encouraged the forfeit hoping to bankrupt the League and start a rival body was subsequently banned for life. This early 'Newcastle' club (labelled 'Newcastle (1908-1909)' here to distinguish it from the unrelated modern Newcastle Knights, who joined the competition in 1988) withdrew after this season. Eastern Suburbs and Newcastle tied for third on 10 competition points behind Balmain's runner-up finish, while Glebe, Newtown, North Sydney and Western Suburbs occupied the bottom four positions, none managing more than four wins across the ten-round schedule.