1930 was Wests’ year. The hard work of previous seasons was culminating into a formidable combination and under the tutelage of Captain-Coach Jim Craig, Wests won its first nine competition games and a Country Carnival match against Newcastle. The team had twelve wins and two losses during the competition rounds. It beat its nemesis, South Sydney, in both competition rounds and then beat them again in the semi-final to put that great Club out of the competition.
The final series created some surprises from the St George team which was lucky to make the semi finals. It knocked out the highly rated Eastern Suburbs team in the semi-final with an 11-10 victory, then beat Wests 14-6 in the final. As Wests were the “minor premiers” they had the right to play St George again in a Grand Final challenge. Wests were not letting this one get away and comprehensively defeated St George 27-2 to take out the 1930 NSWRL premiership.
It was Wests’ first premiership and rightly deserved after years of building the Club from the cellar of the competition to a competition force. It wasn’t an easy road, particularly after losing many of its established players when St George entered the competition in 1921. But persistence paid off with the Club inching its way forward in the intervening years.
However, sentiment and wishful thinking doesn’t win premierships. It was the preparation, discipline and application that won the 1930 premiership for Wests. Underlying the win, the statistics tell the story. Wests were the second highest point scorer behind Easts in 1930, but what really stood out was the team’s defensive record. The team only had 130 points scored against them during the competition rounds, with an average of just over 9 points per game, just eclipsing the effort in 1929, also under the guidance of Coach Jim Craig. The influence of Jim Craig cannot be underestimated and it clearly wasn’t going into the 1930 season. The Wests coaching fees for 1930 were 140 pounds of which Jim Craig received 120 pounds, A Smith (Reserve Grade Coach) received 20 pounds, with Roy Liston coaching Third Grade in an honorary capacity.
