1978 Amco Cup

The 1978 Amco Cup was a rugby league football tournament featuring teams from around the Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, Northern Territory as well as New Zealand.

Format

The format of the fifth midweek cup competition operated on a straight knock-out format consisting of 38 teams. 3 new teams were introduced. They were Gold Coast, Wellington NZ and Wynnum-Manly whilst Ryde-Eastwood and Canterbury NZ were left out after playing in the 1977 competition.

The competition was composed of the 12 Sydney premiership teams (Balmain, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cronulla-Sutherland, Eastern Suburbs, Manly-Warringah, Newtown, North Sydney, Parramatta, Penrith, St George, South Sydney and Western Suburbs), 9 Brisbane Premiership teams (Brothers, Easts BRL, Fortitude Valley, Ipswich, Norths BRL, Redcliffe, Souths BRL), Wests BRL and Wynnum-Manly), the 8 New South Wales divisional teams (Illawarra, Monaro, Newcastle, North Coast, Northern Division, Riverina, Southern Division and Western Division), Auckland, Central Queensland, Gold Coast, North Queensland, Northern Territory, Toowoomba, Wellington NZ, Western Australia and Wide Bay.

Some teams received byes through to the second, third or even fourth round.

Round 1

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue
15/03/78	Illawarra	63	Wellington	5	Wollongong Showground
26/03/78	Toowoomba	22	Ipswich	12	North Ipswich Reserve
30/03/78	Gold Coast	18	North Queensland	16	Chris Cunningham Field
2/04/78	Western Australia	21	Northern Territory	18	Richardson Park
5/04/78	Wide Bay	12	Central Queensland	3	Eskdale Park
8/04/78	Western Division	12	Southern Division	4	Orana Park

Round 2

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue
30/03/78	Wests BRL*	8	Wynnum-Manly	8	Lang Park
30/03/78	Newtown	49	Brothers	0	Leichhardt Oval
5/04/78	Souths BRL	10	Gold Coast	4	Chris Cunningham Field
5/04/78	Illawarra	35	Fortitude Valley	7	Lang Park
12/04/78	Riverina	43	Wide Bay	4	Griffith
12/04/78	Newcastle	51	Western Australia	5	Newcastle ISC
17/05/78	South Sydney	22	Western Division	9	Leichhardt Oval
24/05/78	North Coast	22	Toowoomba	13	Oakes Oval

Round 3

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue
12/04/78	Newtown	13	Canterbury-Bankstown	4	Leichhardt Oval
19/04/78	Western Suburbs	25	Souths BRL	5	Leichhardt Oval
26/04/78	Wests BRL	4	Redcliffe	3	Lang Park
3/05/78	Riverina	36	Penrith	2	Eric Weissel Oval
10/05/78	Cronulla-Sutherland	57	Newcastle	5	Leichhardt Oval
24/05/78	Illawarra	44	Norths BRL	5	Wollongong Showground
31/05/78	South Sydney	9	Northern Division	5	Scully Park
14/06/78	North Sydney	46	North Coast	3	Coffs Harbour

Round 4

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue
3/05/78	Eastern Suburbs	16	Western Suburbs	10	Leichhardt Oval
24/05/78	Auckland	39	Riverina	3	Leichhardt Oval
7/06/78	Parramatta	28	Wests BRL	0	Leichhardt Oval
14/06/78	Cronulla-Sutherland	15	Monaro	8	Seiffert Oval
14/06/78	Illawarra	19	Balmain	10	Leichhardt Oval
27/06/78	St George	35	Newtown	11	Leichhardt Oval
4/07/78	Manly-Warringah	11	South Sydney	9	Lang Park
5/07/78	Easts BRL	27	North Sydney	6	Lang Park

Quarter finals

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue
5/07/78	Eastern Suburbs	12	Illawarra	2	Leichhardt Oval
12/07/78	St George	27	Parramatta	2	Leichhardt Oval
19/07/78	Manly-Warringah	27	Easts BRL	10	Lang Park
26/07/78	Cronulla-Sutherland	22	Auckland	6	Leichhardt Oval

Semi finals

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue
2/08/78	Eastern Suburbs	14	Manly-Warringah	2	Leichhardt Oval
9/08/78	St George	21	Cronulla-Sutherland	7	Leichhardt Oval

Final

Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Venue
16/08/78	Eastern Suburbs	16	St George	4	Leichhardt Oval

As with all mid-season Cup games, the Final of the 1978 Amco Cup was broadcast into NSW by 0–10 with commentary from Ray Warren, Keith Barnes and in his first ever co-commentating role on television, legendary rugby league broadcaster Frank Hyde.

Player of the Series

Kevin Hastings (Eastern Suburbs).

Notes

• *- Advanced on penalty count-back