St. George 35–25 Western Suburbs Magpies — Major Semi-Final, 1959 NRL Finals Series
1 Aug 1959 · Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, NSW · Attendance: 42,347
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Major Semi-Final, 1959 NRL finals series: St. George 35–25 Western Suburbs Magpies, at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, NSW on 1 Aug 1959.
Sourcing caveat: The largest unresolved gap in this round. St George's named scorers (Reg Gasnier 2 tries + Harry Bath 7 goals = 20) fall 15 points short of the recorded 35, roughly 5 further tries unaccounted for. Western Suburbs' named scorers (Dick Poole 2 tries + Darcy Russell 5 goals = 16) fall 9 points short of the recorded 25, roughly 3 further tries unaccounted for. This was a fast, high-scoring match (halftime 15-15) so a large number of further tries is plausible, but repeated, differently-phrased extraction attempts including a literal row-by-row transcription request could not name them -- reported honestly rather than guessed.
Scorers
| St. George | Tries: Reg Gasnier (2) Goals: Harry Bath (7/9) |
| Western Suburbs Magpies | Tries: Dick Poole (2) Goals: Darcy Russell (5) |
Team sheets
| St. George | Western Suburbs Magpies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Graham | Fullback | Darcy Russell | 1 |
| 2 | Eddie Lumsden | Wing | Ian Moir | 2 |
| 3 | Johnny Riley | Centre | Dick Poole (c) | 3 |
| 4 | Reg Gasnier | Centre | Harry Wells | 4 |
| 5 | Brian Messiter | Wing | Darcy Henry | 5 |
| 6 | Brian Clay | Five-Eighth | Roger Buttenshaw | 6 |
| 7 | Bobby Bugden | Halfback | Keith Holman | 7 |
| 8 | John Raper | Lock | Jack Bowman | 8 |
| 9 | Norm Provan | Second Row | Bill Carson | 9 |
| 10 | Monty Porter | Second Row | Kel O'Shea | 10 |
| 11 | Billy Wilson | Prop | Mark Patch | 11 |
| 12 | Ken Kearney (c) | Hooker | Bede Goff | 12 |
| 13 | Harry Bath | Prop | Neville Charlton | 13 |
| Ken Kearney | Coach | Vic Hey | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Darcy Lawler |
Match report
1 Aug 1959, SCG. Halftime: 15-15.