Eastern Suburbs Roosters 41–5 Western Suburbs Magpies — Preliminary Final, 1980 NRL Finals Series
20 Sep 1980 · Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, NSW · Attendance: 28,596
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Preliminary Final, 1980 NRL finals series: Eastern Suburbs Roosters 41–5 Western Suburbs Magpies, at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, NSW on 20 Sep 1980.
Sourcing caveat: Confirmed named scorers exactly reconcile Easts' 41 points (8 tries + 8 goals + 1 field goal). Western Suburbs' side is genuinely uncertain: the source alternated between crediting Alan Neil and Ron Giteau with the sole try across two extraction passes, and gave no clear conversion denominator for the goal — recorded as-is with the ambiguity noted rather than guessed.
Scorers
| Eastern Suburbs Roosters | Tries: Kerry Boustead; Noel Cleal; Kevin Hastings; Steve McFarlane; Des O'Reilly; John Tobin; Gary Warnecke; Ken Wright Goals: Ken Wright (8/11) Drop goals: Kevin Hastings |
| Western Suburbs Magpies | Tries: Alan Neil |
Team sheets
| Eastern Suburbs Roosters | Western Suburbs Magpies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marty Gurr | Fullback | Wayne Smith | 1 |
| 2 | David Michael | Wing | John Ribot | 2 |
| 3 | Kerry Boustead | Centre | Ron Giteau | 3 |
| 4 | Noel Cleal | Centre | Ted Goodwin | 4 |
| 5 | Steve McFarlane | Wing | Warren Boland (c) | 5 |
| 6 | Ken Wright | Five-Eighth | Terry Lamb | 6 |
| 7 | Kevin Hastings | Halfback | Alan Neil | 7 |
| 8 | Gary Warnecke | Prop | Jim Leis | 8 |
| 9 | Des O'Reilly | Hooker | John McLeod | 9 |
| 10 | John Tobin | Prop | Bob Cooper | 10 |
| 11 | Royce Ayliffe (c) | Second Row | Bruce Gibbs | 11 |
| 12 | John Lang | Second Row | Alan Latham | 12 |
| 13 | John Harvey | Lock | Tom Arber | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 18 | Paul Jelfs | Paul Merlo | 14 | |
| 20 | Kel Sherry | |||
| Bob Fulton | Coach | Roy Masters | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Greg Hartley |
Match report
Halftime 17-0.