Cessnock's first premiership, and the crowd that came to see it
In September 1941 Cessnock beat South Newcastle 18-3 to win the Newcastle Rugby League premiership for the first time, eleven seasons after joining the competition.
By Craig Dunstan · First published
Cessnock won the Newcastle Rugby League premiership for the first time on Saturday 6 September 1941, beating South Newcastle 18-3 in the final at the Newcastle Sports Ground.
The club had joined the competition in 1930. The Newcastle Morning Herald called the win “a just reward for 12 years of systematic team-building and showmanship which turned Cessnock from a Soccer stronghold into one of the most enthusiastic League centres in the State”. In those years, the paper counted, Cessnock had played in ten finals and two grand finals without winning one.
A minute in
The Cessnock Eagle had Cessnock scoring a minute after the Mayor of Newcastle kicked off. Askie short-punted over a scrum, Souths could not clean up the bouncing ball, and in the scramble McCallum fell on it for a try that the coach and captain, Ross McKinnon, converted.
From there, the Herald wrote, Cessnock “not only won the scrums, but dominated the rucks, with the result that it enjoyed almost constant possession”. The Eagle put it more simply: “Souths were never in the hunt.”
The crowd
Both papers marked the crowd. The Herald called it “the greatest crowd ever to see a club match in the North”. The Eagle put it at 13,000, paying a record £686 at the gate, against a previous best of £530.
There was probably no happier man in Australia on Saturday night than Ross McKinnon.
So wrote the Eagle of the coach and captain. It was Cessnock’s year twice over: the club had already won the minor premiership.
What came next
The 1941 title was the first of nine. Cessnock’s next came in 1950, at Maitland Showground. Every Cessnock grand final since is on the club record.
Sources
- Cessnock wins league premiership, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 8 September 1941, p. 6.
- Cessnock win Rugby League premiership, Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder, 9 September 1941, p. 4.
- Score, date and venue also in the NSWRL honour roll and Wikipedia, Newcastle Rugby League.
