1978 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Duration	March 25 – September 19, 1978
Teams	12
Premiers	Manly-Warringah (4th title)
Minor premiers	Western Suburbs (5th title)
Matches played	140
Points scored	4375
Attendance	1,582,914
Top points scorer(s)	Mick Cronin (282)
Rothmans Medal	Mick Cronin
Top try-scorer(s)	Larry Corowa (24)
← 1977 1979 →

The 1978 NSWRFL season was the 71st season of the NSWRFL Premiership, Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, and Australia's first. Twelve clubs, including six of 1908's foundation teams 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 Cronulla-Sutherland clubs that was drawn and had to be re-played. NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1978 Amco Cup.

This season video citing was introduced for incidents of foul play that are not detected on the field.^[1] Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Western Suburbs, Cronulla-Sutherland, Manly-Warringah, Parramatta and Canterbury-Bankstown who battled it out in the finals.

Mick Cronin set a new record for most points scored by an individual in Australian club rugby league history with his tally of 282 points from 25 games in 1978. This record would stand for another twenty years. He also broke Arthur Oxford's 1920 record for consecutive goals with 26 in a row.

In a tragic accident during the match between Penrith and Newtown at Henson Park on 28 May, rookie Panther prop John Farragher broke his neck in a scrum and was left a quadriplegic.^[2]

The 1978 Rothmans Medallist was Parramatta centre Mick Cronin. Rugby League Week gave their player of the year award to Parramatta forward Geoff Gerard.

The 1978 season was also the last in the playing career of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Ron Coote.

Balmain 71st season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Ron Willey Captain: Trevor Ryan	Canterbury-Bankstown 44th season Ground: Belmore Sports Ground Coach: Ted Glossop Captain: George Peponis	Cronulla-Sutherland 12th season Ground: Endeavour Field Coach: Norm Provan Captain: Greg Pierce	Eastern Suburbs 71st season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Captain-Coach: Arthur Beetson
Manly-Warringah 32nd season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Frank Stanton Captain: Max Krilich	Newtown 71st season Ground: Henson Park Coach: John Raper Captain: Col Casey	North Sydney 71st season Ground: North Sydney Oval Captain-Coach: Bill Hamilton	Parramatta 32nd season Ground: Cumberland Oval Coach: Terry Fearnley Captain: Ray Price
Penrith 12th season Ground: Penrith Park Coach: Don Parish Captain: Ken Wilson	South Sydney 71st season Ground: Redfern Oval Coach: Jack Gibson Captain: Paul Sait, Darrell Bampton	St. George 58th season Ground: Kogarah Oval Coach: Harry Bath Captain: Steve Edge	Western Suburbs 71st season Ground: Lidcombe Oval Coach: Roy Masters Captain: Tom Raudonikis

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

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Western Suburbs	22	16	1	5	426	288	+138	33
2	Cronulla	22	15	0	7	418	261	+157	30
3	Manly	22	15	0	7	427	287	+140	30
4	Parramatta	22	14	0	8	525	306	+219	28
5	Canterbury	22	13	2	7	307	273	+34	28
6	Eastern Suburbs	22	13	0	9	337	280	+57	26
7	South Sydney	22	12	1	9	298	300	-2	25
8	St. George	22	10	1	11	367	354	+13	21
9	Balmain	22	9	1	12	337	344	-7	19
10	Penrith	22	4	2	16	206	463	-257	10
11	North Sydney	22	4	1	17	325	439	-114	9
12	Newtown	22	2	1	19	199	577	-378	5

• 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.

	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	Western Suburbs Magpies	0	2	4	6	6	8	10	12	13	15	17	19	19	21	23	25	25	25	25	27	29	31	33
2	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	16	16	16	18	20	20	22	24	24	26	28	30	30	30
3	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	2	4	6	6	8	10	10	10	12	14	16	16	18	20	20	20	20	20	22	24	26	28	30
4	Parramatta Eels	2	4	4	4	4	4	6	6	8	10	12	14	16	16	18	20	20	20	22	22	24	26	28
5	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	2	2	4	6	8	8	10	12	14	14	15	17	17	17	19	21	23	23	25	25	25	27	28
6	Eastern Suburbs Roosters	2	2	4	4	6	8	8	10	10	12	12	12	12	14	16	16	18	18	20	22	24	26	26
7	South Sydney Rabbitohs	0	2	4	6	6	8	8	10	11	11	13	15	17	17	19	19	21	21	23	23	23	23	25
8	St. George Dragons	0	0	0	2	2	2	2	4	5	7	9	11	13	15	15	17	17	17	17	19	21	21	21
9	Balmain Tigers	2	4	4	6	8	8	10	11	11	11	11	11	13	15	15	15	17	17	17	17	17	17	19
10	Penrith Panthers	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	4	4	6	7	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	10
11	North Sydney Bears	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	5	7	7	9	9	9	9
12	Newtown Jets	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	3	3	3	3	3	3	5	5

Manly finished the regular season in the relatively strong position of equal second with Cronulla, three points behind minor premiers Wests. However after Cronulla beat Manly 17-12 in the qualifying final, every game from that point was a sudden-death fixture for the Sea Eagles.

The second week of finals saw Manly come from 3-13 behind Parramatta to draw 13-13 in the semi-final requiring a mid-week replay. Again in that match Parramatta led (11-2 this time), before Manly stormed home with three late tries in ten minutes to win 17-11. In the week following the game, Parramatta unsuccessfully attempted to have the match annulled and replayed due to Manly scoring a try on what was discovered to be a seventh tackle, a mistake by referee Greg Hartley.

Manly then had to back up a few days later to play a fresh Wests side in the preliminary final. Thus far the Magpies had only played one final to Manly's three. Wests had two tries disallowed by referee Greg Hartley. Manly coach Frank Stanton somehow coaxed a courageous effort out of his exhausted players and on field, five-eighth Alan Thompson was inspirational as they triumphed 14-7 and reached the grand final.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Qualifying Finals
Cronulla-Sutherland	17-12	Manly-Warringah	26 August 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack Danzey	17,718
Parramatta	22-15	Canterbury-Bankstown	27 August 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	24,967
Semi-finals
Western Suburbs	10-14	Cronulla-Sutherland	2 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack Danzey	22,789
Manly-Warringah	13-13	Parramatta	3 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	30,850
Manly-Warringah	17-11	Parramatta	6 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	42,678
Preliminary final
Western Suburbs	7-14	Manly-Warringah	9 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	27,345
Grand final
Cronulla-Sutherland	11-11	Manly-Warringah	16 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	51,510
Grand final re-play
Cronulla-Sutherland	0-16	Manly-Warringah	19 September 1978	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Hartley	33,552

Qualifying final

Major semi-final

Preliminary final

Grand final

1

Western Suburbs

10

Cronulla-Sutherland

0*

Cronulla-Sutherland

14

Manly

16*

2

Cronulla-Sutherland

17

Western Suburbs

7

3

Manly

12

Minor semi-final

Manly

14

Manly

17*

4

Parramatta

22

Parramatta

11*

5

Canterbury

15

* - Indicates only the replay match, and not the match ending in a draw.

In the grand final, Cronulla went to a 9-4 lead in the second half before Manly came back to hit the front 11-9. A Steve Rogers penalty goal squared the scores at 11-11 but he then missed a desperate late field-goal attempt and at full-time the scores remained locked. Thus, for the second consecutive season, the weary grand finalists were required to play a rematch. Although, on this occasion, the NSWRFL were forced to hold the replay three days later on the Tuesday instead of the following weekend due to the imminent 1978 Kangaroo tour, with the Australian team due to leave for England that weekend. The drawn grand final also forced the Australian Rugby League to hold off on naming the touring Kangaroos squad until after the replay, with as many as twelve players from Manly and Cronulla in contention to be selected.

Manly 11 (Tries: Mooney. Goals: Eadie 4.)

Cronulla 11 (Tries: Edmonds. Goals: Rogers 4.)

The Tuesday rematch in front of 33,552 was Manly's sixth game in twenty-four days. It was the second Grand final in a row to end up going into a mid-week replay with the 1977 Grand final between St George and Parramatta also needing a re-match to decide the Premiers after the original game had been a 9-9 draw.

In the first half Cronulla had no answer to Graham Eadie's blind-side bursts. His display completely routed the hapless Sharks and Manly went to the break holding a 15-0 lead thanks to a try by Eadie in the scoreboard corner, one he set up for centre Russel Gartner in the same corner, and another 65 metre effort by Gartner after a sweeping backline movement saw him run into open space and easily outpace the Sharks’ defence to score in front of the Sheridan Stand.

The only point in the second half came from a field goal by Eadie.

In the replay, as throughout their extraordinary finals campaign, Manly were inspired by the leadership of captain Max Krilich and coach Frank Stanton, their iron-man Terry Randall who had required numerous pain killing injections before every game of the finals just to be able take the field in what Frank Stanton called sheer mind over matter, their cool five eighth Alan Thompson and classy fullback and Man of the Match Graham Eadie.

As of the 2019 NRL Grand final, no player since Eadie has scored the combination of a try, a goal and a field-goal in a grand final.

The refereeing of Greg "Hollywood" Hartley in the replay and throughout the 1978 Finals series attracted criticism from coaches Roy Masters, Jack Gibson and Terry Fearnley, all of whom appealed to the NSWRFL to prohibit Hartley from refereeing their clubs' matches the following season.^[3]

Manly-Warringah 16 (Tries: Gartner 2, Eadie. Goals: Eadie 3. Field Goal: Eadie.)

Cronulla-Sutherland 0

Man of the Match: Graham Eadie
Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground
Attendance: 33,552
Referee: Greg Hartley

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

Top 5 point scorers Points Player Tries Goals Field Goals 260 Mick Cronin 14 109 0 216 Peter Rowles 8 94 4 133 Barry Andrews 5 59 0 130 John Gray 4 59 0 127 Kevin Stevens 3 59 0 127 Peter Schofield 3 59 0 Top 5 try scorers Tries Player 24 Larry Corowa 14 Mick Cronin 14 Mitch Brennan 14 Peter Craig 12 Neville Glover 12 John Ribot

Top 5 goal scorers Goals Player 109 Mick Cronin 94 Peter Rowles 59 Barry Andrews 59 John Gray 59 Kevin Stevens 59 Peter Schofield

• Rugby League Tables - Season 1978 Rugby League Tables
• Results: 1971-80 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1978 J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup at rleague.com^{[dead link‍]}
• NSWRFL season 1978 at rugbyleagueproject.org