1982 New South Wales Rugby Football League
Teams	14
Premiers	Parramatta (2nd title)
Minor premiers	Parramatta (2nd title)
Matches played	188
Points scored	5,927
Attendance	1,716,490
Top points scorer(s)	Mick Cronin (279)
Rothmans Medal	Greg Brentnall
Top try-scorer(s)	Steve Ella (23)
← 1981 1983 →

The 1982 NSWRFL season was the 75th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and saw the New South Wales Rugby Football League’s first expansion since 1967 with the introduction of the first two clubs from outside the Sydney area in over half a century: the Canberra Raiders and the Illawarra Steelers. Thus a total of 14 clubs (including 6 Sydney-based foundation teams, another 6 from Sydney, one from greater New South Wales, and one from the Australian Capital Territory) competed for the J.J. Giltinan Shield and newly-created Winfield Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Parramatta and Manly-Warringah clubs. This season, NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1982 KB Cup which was won by Manly-Warringah.

The first Charity Shield match was played before the 1982 season between St. George and South Sydney.

This year a bronze replica of “the Gladiators” – the 1963 photo taken by John O'Gready of Norm Provan and Arthur Summons’ post-game, mud-caked embrace – was first adopted to adorn the Winfield Cup, the new trophy to be awarded to the grand final winners. Because of the introduction of two new teams, twenty-six (rather than twenty-two) regular season rounds were played from February till August, resulting in a top five of Parramatta, Manly, Norths, Easts and Wests. The new teams, the Illawarra Steelers and the Canberra Raiders, would finish their debut seasons in second last and last place respectively.

The 1982 season saw the only nil-all scoreline in competition history. Newtown and Canterbury-Bankstown drew their match at Henson Park on 28 March, with neither team scoring a point. The long-standing record for the longest suspension for a player in the League's history was broken during the season. Western Suburbs' Bob Cooper was suspended for 15 months for punching Illawarra’s Lee Pomfret.

The 1982 season's Rothmans Medallist was Canterbury-Bankstown’s Greg Brentnall and the Dally M Award went to Parramatta’s lock forward, Ray Price. Rugby League Week gave their player of the year award to Eastern Suburbs’ halfback Kevin Hastings for the third consecutive season.

This year the number of clubs in the League reached a new high of fourteen, with the addition of two expansion clubs, the Illawarra Steelers and the Canberra Raiders.^[1] This saw the first inclusion of teams based outside of the Sydney area since the foundation Newcastle club departed the League in 1909. This was the first of several expansions that would take place over the next decade and a half which would see the Sydney-wide competition grow into a New South Wales-wide competition and eventually into a national league. Also, for the first time in three quarters of a century, the League's 1908 foundation teams were outnumbered by teams introduced since the inaugural season.

Balmain 75th season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Frank Stanton Captain: Neil Whittaker→Trevor Ryan	Canberra 1st season Ground: Seiffert Oval Coach: Don Furner Captain: David Grant	Canterbury-Bankstown 48th season Ground: Belmore Sports Ground Coach: Ted Glossop Captain: George Peponis	Cronulla-Sutherland 16th season Ground: Endeavour Field Coach: Greg Pierce Captain: Steve Rogers	Eastern Suburbs 75th season Ground: Sydney Sports Ground Coach: Bob Fulton Captain: Royce Ayliffe	Illawarra 1st season Ground: Wollongong Showground Coach: Allan Fitzgibbon Captain: John Dorahy	Manly-Warringah 36th season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Ray Ritchie Captain: Max Krilich
Newtown 75th season Ground: Henson Park Coach: Warren Ryan Captain: Tom Raudonikis & Ken Wilson	North Sydney 75th season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Ron Willey Captain: Mark Graham	Parramatta 36th season Ground: Belmore Sports Ground Coach: Jack Gibson Captain: Steve Edge	Penrith 16th season Ground: Penrith Stadium Coach: John Peard Captain: Darryl Brohman	South Sydney 75th season Ground: Redfern Oval Coach: Bill Anderson Captain: Mitch Brennan	St. George 62nd season Ground: Jubilee Oval Coach: Roy Masters Captain: Craig Young	Western Suburbs 75th season Ground: Lidcombe Oval Coach: Terry Fearnley Captain: Warren Boland

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Parramatta	26	21	0	5	619	242	+377	42
2	Manly	26	17	0	9	530	411	+119	34
3	North Sydney	26	16	1	9	399	360	+39	33
4	Eastern Suburbs	26	15	2	9	437	304	+133	32
5	Western Suburbs	26	16	0	10	412	349	+63	32
6	South Sydney	26	14	1	11	395	400	-5	29
7	Newtown	26	13	2	11	406	309	+97	28
8	Cronulla	26	13	1	12	400	336	+64	27
9	Canterbury	26	12	3	11	399	361	+38	27
10	St. George	26	11	2	13	408	402	+6	24
11	Balmain	26	10	1	15	383	427	-44	21
12	Penrith	26	7	1	18	375	441	-66	15
13	Illawarra	26	6	0	20	344	572	-228	12
14	Canberra	26	4	0	22	269	862	-593	8

Home	Score	Away	Match information
			Date and time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Qualifying Finals
Eastern Suburbs	11–7	Western Suburbs	4 September 1982	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack Danzey	21,167
Manly-Warringah	26–3	North Sydney	5 September 1982	Sydney Cricket Ground	John Gocher	24,690
Semi-finals
North Sydney	10–12	Eastern Suburbs	11 September 1982	Sydney Cricket Ground	Jack Danzey	19,566
Parramatta	0–20	Manly-Warringah	12 September 1982	Sydney Cricket Ground	John Gocher	31,604
Preliminary final
Parramatta	33–0	Eastern Suburbs	19 September 1982	Sydney Cricket Ground	John Gocher	24,637
Grand final
Manly-Warringah	8–21	Parramatta	26 September 1982	Sydney Cricket Ground	John Gocher	52,186

	Qualifying final					Major semi-final					Preliminary final					Grand final
						1	Parramatta	0								Manly		8
							Manly	20								Parramatta		21
	2	Manly	26								Parramatta		33
	3	North Sydney	3			Minor semi-final					Eastern Suburbs		0
						North Sydney		10
	4	Eastern Suburbs	11			Eastern Suburbs		12
	5	Western Suburbs	7

The Eels won the minor premiership with ease – eight points ahead of Manly – and breezed through the decider with the same confidence. Manly opened the scoring through Phil Blake in the opening minutes, but Parramatta replied quickly when Brett Kenny put Steve Ella over. After a quiet period, Manly collapsed in the ten minutes before half-time with Parramatta scoring three tries. The first to Eric Grothe came when Brett Kenny had shown brilliant evasive skills on the second tackle after Manly dropped the ball, the second came when a Peter Sterling bomb deflected off a Parramatta player into Kenny's arms, and the third after quick hands saw Kenny send Neil Hunt over in the corner. The Eels led 16–3 at half-time and, despite Les Boyd scoring after playing the ball forward in the 48th minute, Brett Kenny's second try in the 62nd minute sealed victory.

Parramatta 21 (Tries: Kenny 2, Ella, Grothe, Hunt. Goals: Cronin 3/5.)

Manly 8 (Tries: P Blake, Boyd. Goal: Eadie 1/2.)

The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 26.

Top 5 point scorers Points Player Tries Goals Field Goals 255 Mick Cronin 9 114 0 187 Steve Rogers 9 79 2 186 Tony Melrose 8 79 4 161 Ron Giteau 4 74 1 159 John Dorahy 6 70 1 Top 5 try scorers Tries Player 21 Steve Ella 18 John Ribot 17 Steve Broughton 17 Steve Morris 15 John Ferguson

Top 5 goal scorers Goals Player 114 Mick Cronin 79 Tony Melrose 79 Steve Rogers 74 Ron Giteau 71 Michael Eden

• Rugby League Tables – Season 1982 The World of Rugby League
• Results:1981-90 at rabbitohs.com.au
• 1982 J J Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup at rleague.com.au^{[dead link‍]}
• NSRFL season 1982 at rugbyleagueproject.org