1976 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams	12
Premiers	Manly-Warringah (3rd title)
Minor premiers	Manly-Warringah (4th title)
Matches played	138
Points scored	4390
Attendance	1,594,183
Top points scorer(s)	Graham Eadie (233)
Rothmans Medal	Ray Higgs
Top try-scorer(s)	Bob Fulton (24)
← 1975 1977 →

The 1976 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 69th season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Twelve teams, including six of 1908's foundation clubs and another six from around Sydney, competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Manly-Warringah and Parramatta clubs. NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1976 Amco Cup.

This season Eastern Suburbs became the first rugby league team, and one of the first in Australian sport, to have a sponsor's name appear on their jersey.^[1]

Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August resulting in a top five of Manly-Warringah, Parramatta, St. George, Eastern Suburbs and Canterbury-Bankstown, who battled it out in the finals.

In a one-off match that would form the foundation of the modern World Club Challenge, the previous season's premiers, Eastern Suburbs played British Champions St Helens R.F.C. on the 29th of June at the Sydney Cricket Ground. 26,865 turned out to see the Roosters beat the Saints 25 to 2.

This season Parramatta front-rower and captain Ray Higgs won both the Rothmans Medal and the Rugby League Week player of the year award.

The 1976 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Graeme Langlands.

Balmain Tigers 69th season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Paul Broughton Captain: Dennis Manteit	Canterbury-Bankstown 42nd season Ground: Belmore Sports Ground Coach: Malcolm Clift Captain: Tim Pickup	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 10th season Ground: Endeavour Field Coach: John Raper Captain: Greg Pierce Roger Millward	Eastern Suburbs Roosters 69th season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Jack Gibson Captain: Arthur Beetson
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 30th season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Frank Stanton Captain: Bob Fulton	Newtown Jets 69th season Ground: Henson Park Coach: Clarrie Jeffries Captain: John Floyd	North Sydney Bears 69th season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Noel Kelly Captain: Bruce Walker	Parramatta Eels 30th season Ground: Cumberland Oval Coach: Terry Fearnley Captain: Ray Higgs
Penrith Panthers 10th season Ground: Penrith Park Coach: Barry Harris Captain: Mike Stephenson	South Sydney Rabbitohs 69th season Ground: Redfern Oval Coach: Johnny King Captain: Gary Stevens	St. George Dragons 56th season Ground: Jubilee Oval Captain-coach: Graeme Langlands Captain(from May 76): Steve Edge	Western Suburbs Magpies 69th season Ground: Lidcombe Oval Coach: Don Parish Captain: Tom Raudonikis

Bold – Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Manly	22	16	0	6	499	252	+247	32
2	Parramatta	22	14	2	6	347	238	+109	30
3	St. George	22	14	0	8	328	298	+30	28
4	Eastern Suburbs	22	13	1	8	399	250	+149	27
5	Canterbury	22	12	3	7	361	337	+24	27
6	Balmain	22	12	1	9	318	287	+31	25
7	Western Suburbs	22	11	2	9	379	313	+66	24
8	Cronulla	22	9	1	12	378	393	-15	19
9	Penrith	22	8	1	13	352	333	+19	17
10	South Sydney	22	8	0	14	297	421	-124	16
11	North Sydney	22	6	1	15	272	526	-254	13
12	Newtown	22	3	0	19	264	546	-282	6

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 5.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round.
• Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
1	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	2	4	6	8	8	10	10	12	14	16	18	20	22	24	24	24	24	26	26	26	28	30	32
2	Parramatta Eels	0	2	2	4	6	6	6	8	10	11	13	15	17	19	21	23	25	26	26	26	26	28	30
3	St. George Dragons	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	12	12	14	14	16	18	18	20	22	22	24	26	28
4	Eastern Suburbs Roosters	0	2	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	11	13	13	15	17	19	21	21	23	25	25	25	25	27
5	Canterbury-Bankstown	2	3	3	3	5	7	9	9	9	11	13	14	16	16	18	20	22	23	23	23	23	25	27
6	Balmain Tigers	0	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	17	19	19	21	23	25	25
7	Western Suburbs Magpies	2	2	3	5	7	9	11	11	12	14	16	18	18	18	18	18	20	20	20	22	22	24	24
8	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	0	1	1	1	3	3	5	5	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	13	15	15	17	17	17	17	19
9	Penrith Panthers	2	2	3	5	5	5	5	5	7	9	9	9	9	9	11	13	13	13	13	15	17	17	17
10	South Sydney Rabbitohs	0	0	2	4	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	10	10	12	14	14	14	16	16	16
11	North Sydney Bears	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	5	7	7	9	9	9	9	11	13	13	13
12	Newtown Jets	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

Parramatta were first into the Grand final, triumphing 23–17 in a bloody and brutal major semi-final against Manly. Manly earned a grand final berth the following week, surviving a Canterbury comeback to win 15–12.^[2]

Home	Score	Away	Match information
			Date and time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Qualifying Finals
Parramatta	31–6	St. George	28 August 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	28,264
Eastern Suburbs Roosters	13–22	Canterbury-Bankstown	29 August 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	27,203
Semi-finals
Manly-Warringah	17–23	Parramatta	4 September 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	30,999
St. George	9–25	Canterbury-Bankstown	5 September 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	27,261
Preliminary final
Manly-Warringah	15–12	Canterbury-Bankstown	11 September 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	31,381
Grand final
Parramatta	10–13	Manly-Warringah	18 September 1976	Sydney Cricket Ground	Gary Cook	57,343

	Qualifying final					Major semi-final					Preliminary final					Grand final
						1	Manly	17								Parramatta		10
							Parramatta	23								Manly		13
	2	Parramatta	31								Manly		15
	3	St. George	6			Minor semi-final					Canterbury		12
						St. George		9
	4	Eastern Suburbs	13			Canterbury		25
	5	Canterbury	22

In 1976, after 30 years of competition, Parramatta reached their first grand final since their admission into the NSWRFL premiership in 1947. Their opponents were Manly-Warringah, who had also joined the premiership in 1947, but were playing in their eighth Grand final, having previously won in 1972 and 1973 with captain Bob Fulton, fullback Graham Eadie, forward Terry Randall and lock Ian Martin having played in those two premiership teams.

Jim Porter scored first, getting Parramatta to a 5–0 lead. A penalty goal to Graham Eadie closed the score to 5–2 before Alan Thompson sidestepped through to send Phil Lowe in for Manly's first and only try. Scores were locked 7–7 at half time.

Geoff Gerard scored an unconverted try for the Eels early in the second half, then two penalties gave Manly an 11–10 lead.

Parramatta missed a critical opportunity to win the game and their first ever premiership with ten minutes of the match remaining: 15 metres out from a wide-open tryline,^[3] Eels winger Neville Glover dropped the pass from John Moran which would have given the Eels the match-winning try in the Paddington Hill corner.^[4][5][6]

Another penalty gave Manly a 13–10 lead. In the frantic dying minutes Parramatta threw everything they had at the Manly defence including the infamous "flying wedge" of dubious legality which had Ron Hilditch at the apex of a phalanx of players driving him towards the line. The wedge was somehow stopped by Eadie a foot short of the try line.^{[citation needed]}

The Manly defence held and the Sea Eagles secured their third premiership in five seasons, while the Eels would have to wait five more years for their first.

It was Bob Fulton's 213rd and final match for Manly after a brilliant ten-year career with the club and the grand final victory was largely credited to his experience and brilliance.^[7] He was full of emotion as he accepted the J.J. Giltinan Shield and was able to end his playing career at Manly on the highest note. He would later return to the club as a successful coach in the 1980s but first he would finish his playing years and then commence coaching at Eastern Suburbs (Fulton would join Easts in 1977, unable to resist a big-money offer from the club that was backed by one of Australia's richest men and a big supporter of the future rugby league Immortal, Kerry Packer).

Manly's win was a triumph for the powerful triumvirate of Fulton, coach Frank Stanton and Secretary Ken Arthurson who would all go on to higher honours in the game. For Stanton, it was his first success in a coaching career which was to bring two premierships and two Ashes-winning Kangaroo tours. Arthurson had brought to the club players of a calibre to enable five Grand final appearances in the 1970s for four victories. He would go on to become the Chairman of the New South Wales Rugby League and later the Australian Rugby League.

Manly-Warringah 13 (Tries: Lowe. Goals: Eadie 5/6)

Parramatta 10 (Tries: Porter, Gerard. Goals: Peard 2/3)

Referee: Gary Cook
Attendance: 57,343

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 22.

Top 5 point scorers Points Player Tries Goals Field Goals 207 Graham Eadie 9 90 0 161 Ron Giteau 7 70 0 143 John Brass 5 64 0 136 Don Moseley 2 65 0 130 Ken Wilson 3 60 1 Top 5 try scorers Tries Player 18 Bob Fulton 18 Tom Mooney 16 Terry Fahey 14 Martin Raftery 12 Bruce Walker

Top 5 goal scorers Goals Player 90 Graham Eadie 70 Ron Giteau 65 Don Moseley 64 John Brass 60 Ken Wilson

• Heads, Ian (1992) True Blue The Story of the NSW Rugby League, Ironbark Press, Randwick, NSW
• Whiticker, Alan (1994) Grand finals of the NSW Rugby League, Gary Allen Pty Ltd, Smithfield, NSW
• Rugby League Tables – Season 1976 The World of Rugby League
• Results: 1971-80 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1976 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com^{[dead link‍]}
• NSWRFL season 1976 at rugbyleagueproject.org
• 1976 Grand final at soaringseaeagles.tripod.com