The premiers that never were: Wests Magpies 1963

As part of a series on some of the best individual teams who never to went on to win the Premiership, NRL.com takes a look at the 1963 Western Suburbs Magpies, who beat the all-conquering St George three times during the season but came up short in a muddy classic on grand final day...

Running second to the all-conquering St George side of the 50s and 60s was nothing to be sneezed at, but losing four grand finals in six years to a posse of future Immortals started to wear a bit thin with the proud men of the Magpie breed.

Foundation club Western Suburbs had won four premierships of their own between 1930 and ’52 but try as they might, they couldn’t find way past the Red V in 1958, 1961, 1962 and 1963.

It’s fair to say the ’58 and ’61 grand finals were all one way traffic for the men from Kogarah but dual international Arthur Summons and Hall of Famer Noel Kelly rallied the troops and their third shot at the Saints in ’62 was decided by a single Johnny King try, the Red V prevailing 9-6.

The stage was set for another epic battle in ’63, with the Dragons chasing a scarcely believable eighth straight title and the Magpies strong in their conviction that they had a team capable of putting an end to the run.

With Summons calling the shots and Kelly dishing them out, Wests had the brains and the brawn to be a serious contender. Throw in fearsome winger Peter Dimond, scorer of 83 tries in 155 games for the club, powerhouse second-rower Kel O’Shea, Kangaroo fullback Don Parish and a tough nut prop named Gibson who would go on to become a fairly handy coach, and this was a team that demanded respect.

Not that they needed any convincing, but the 8-5 win over Saints in Round 4 and a 12-5 triumph in Round 13, both at the Sydney Cricket Ground, only served to strengthen their belief that ’63 could be the year of the Magpie.

These were dour struggles where tries were at a premium and defence was king.

The Dragons conceded a paltry 95 points across 18 games in the regular season, the Magpies only slightly less stingy with 160.

Men like John Raper, Ian Walsh and Kevin Ryan gave no quarter and expected none in return as they defended the Dragons’ line for all they were worth.

In Kelly, O’Shea and John ‘Chow’ Hayes they found men cut from the same cloth, men who considered one try given up to be one too many.

By the time the major semi-final rolled around, minor premiers Saints and runners-up Wests had established themselves yet again as the game’s most formidable forces.

In front of 42,000 fans at the game’s spiritual home the Magpies made it three from three against the Dragons for the year with a 10-8 victory, tries to Gil MacDougall and Kevin Smyth and two goals to Parish catapulting Wests into a third straight decider.

The Red V regrouped a week later to down Ken Kearney’s Eels in the preliminary final, ensuring they would get a crack at keeping the dynasty alive.

The events of August 24, 1963 have become the stuff of legend, from the controversy surrounding referee Darcy Lawler to the atrocious conditions to the post-game embrace between Summons and Provan that lives on forever as the symbol of supremacy in the NRL.

Photographer John O’Gready’s immortal image captured the camaraderie, mutual respect and mateship that is the lifeblood of our game – two gladiators who had given their all in pursuit of glory, Provan humble in victory and Summons gracious in defeat, although he was in no mood to swap jerseys with his rival skipper.

Perhaps he was dirty about King’s match-winning try being awarded. Perhaps he was too damn dirty and tired to worry about exchanging the mud splattered jerseys.

“I thought we won fair and square,” Provan said years later. “I don’t recall feeling that there was any doubt about it as we left the ground.”

Speaking to weststigers.com in 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the epic decider, John Hayes conceded the Magpies had been beaten by “a great side, probably the greatest club team ever”.

“We beat the Dragons three times before the decider. The worst thing we probably did do was beating them in the last minute in the semi-final,” he said.

“Jack Gibson seemed to think there was some wagering on the grand final. Maybe we would have got a fairer shake had we not won the semi-final.
“Having said that, I never said we would have won, never said we could have won, or never said we should have won.”

In the final wash-up, the Magpies had held the might of the Red V to just 26 points across four meetings in 1963, getting the better of the champs on three occasions but not on the one day that mattered most.

Perhaps stung by the pain of a third straight grand final defeat, Wests fell out of the finals the following two seasons, waited 11 years to make another preliminary final and would never play in another decider before the foundation club merged with Balmain in 2000.