Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of St. George, Parramatta, Cronulla-Sutherland, Western Suburbs and Canterbury-Bankstown who battled it out in the finals.

Parramatta's Ray Price was the 1979 season's Rothmans Medallist, and also won Rugby League Week’s player of the year award.

Under this agreement, the networks had rights to each broadcast and/or simulcast all six of the finals series games, under which they could either accept or decline the matches.

The scene was set by an industrial relations dispute between camera and production crews and commercial broadcasting networks towards the end of 1979.

ATN-7, wore the financial costs as the designated broadcaster of the preliminary final, and provided the ABC with a clean feed of the match as agreed.

The ABC then sued ATN-7, and the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal became involved, but ultimately the match remained exclusive to Seven's Big League.

The first half belonged to St. George with new fullback Brian Johnson scoring an easy opening try after taking a pass 10 metres out from the Canterbury line.

Brian Johnson was on hand to field the ball and returned it with a 60-metre run ended by a copybook tackle from his opposing fullback Stan Cutler.