- "NRL" redirects here. For other uses see NRL
The
National Rugby League (NRL) is the top
league of professional
rugby league football clubs in
Australasia. The NRL's main competition,
which is called as the
Telstra
Premiership due to sponsorship reasons, is contested by
sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one
based in New Zealand. It is the Southern Hemisphere's elite rugby
league championship and the most attended rugby football
competition in the world.
The National Rugby League is the present-day embodiment of
Australia's top-level domestic rugby league competition, which in
turn grew from Sydney's club competition, and which has been
running continuously since 1908. The NRL formed in the aftermath of
the 1990s'
Super League war as a
joint partnership between the sport's already-existing national
governing body, the
Australian
Rugby League (ARL) and
News
Corporation-controlled
Super League, after both
organisations ran premierships parallel to each other in
1997.
NRL matches are played throughout Australia as well as New Zealand
from Autumn until Spring, culminating in a
Grand Final match, traditionally one of
Australia's most popular sporting events, to determine the season's
premiers. Each year the NRL champions play an additional game
against the premiers of the European
Super
League competition in the
World
Club Challenge.
Teams
Since 2007 the NRL has consisted of ten clubs based in New South
Wales, three in Queensland, one in Victoria, one in the Australian
Capital Territory and one in New Zealand. The league operates on a
single group system, with no divisions or conferences and no
relegation and promotion from other leagues.
The map below indicates the locations of teams currently competing
in the National Rugby League competition. The inset is of greater
Sydney.
The following sixteen clubs are competing in the National Rugby
League during the
2009 season.
| Club |
Location |
Home Ground(s) |
First season |
| Brisbane
Broncos |
Brisbane, QLD |
Suncorp Stadium |
1988 |
| Canterbury-Bankstown
Bulldogs |
Sydney, NSW |
ANZ Stadium |
1935 |
| Canberra
Raiders |
Canberra, ACT |
Canberra Stadium |
1982 |
| Cronulla-Sutherland
Sharks |
Sydney, NSW |
Toyota Stadium |
1967 |
| Gold Coast
Titans |
Gold Coast, QLD |
Skilled Park |
2007 |
| Manly-Warringah
Sea Eagles |
Sydney, NSW |
Brookvale Oval |
1947 |
| Melbourne
Storm |
Melbourne, VIC |
Melbourne Rectangular Stadium |
1998 |
| New Zealand
Warriors |
Auckland, NZ |
Mt Smart Stadium |
1995 |
| Newcastle
Knights |
Newcastle, NSW |
EnergyAustralia Stadium |
1988 |
| North Queensland
Cowboys |
Townsville,QLD |
Dairy Farmers Stadium |
1995 |
| Parramatta
Eels |
Sydney, NSW |
Parramatta Stadium |
1947 |
| Penrith
Panthers |
Penrith, NSW |
CUA Stadium |
1967 |
| St. George
Illawarra Dragons |
Sydney, NSW
Wollongong, NSW |
WIN Jubilee Oval and WIN
Stadium |
1999 |
| South Sydney
Rabbitohs |
Sydney, NSW |
ANZ Stadium |
1908 |
| Sydney
Roosters |
Sydney, NSW |
Sydney Football Stadium |
1908 |
| Wests Tigers |
Sydney, NSW |
Campbelltown Stadium , Leichhardt Oval and Sydney Football Stadium |
2000 |
A total of twenty-three clubs have played in the National Rugby
League since its first season in 1998. For a list of all clubs past
and present see
National
Rugby League Teams. For a complete list of all teams no longer
competing in the NRL
see here
Eleven clubs have been members of the National Rugby League for
every season since its inception in 1998. This group includes
Brisbane, Bulldogs, Canberra, Cronulla, Melbourne, New Zealand,
Newcastle, North Queensland, Parramatta, Penrith and
Roosters.
Foundation clubs
Two current NRL teams have existed since the 1908 foundation of the
NSWRL, the predecessor of the NRL. These teams are the
South Sydney Rabbitohs and the
Sydney Roosters (founded as 'Eastern
Suburbs').
Wests Tigers could also be
considered a foundation club, although it has only existed as a
merged entity since 2000. The Wests Tigers team resulted from a
merger between the
Western
Suburbs Magpies and the
Balmain
Tigers, both of which were foundation clubs which played in the
first grade competition between 1908 and 1999. Despite sharing a
common NRL team, Western Suburbs and Balmain remain independent
clubs and field their own teams in lower-level competitions.
The
North Sydney Bears were also
a foundation club of the NSWRL in 1908 though are currently playing
in the NSW Cup instead of the top level of Rugby League. This was
due to a failed merger with arch rivals the Manly Warringah
Sea-Eagles in 2000 which they ran under the banner of the now
defunct Northern Eagles. The North Sydney Bears have proposed
readmission to the NRL for the 2013 season which they will be
called the Central Coast Bears and play their home games at Gosford
where they built their homeground Graham Park.
List of Premiers
History
Origins
The
New South Wales Rugby
League (NSWRL) ran the major rugby league competition of New
South Wales from its
inception in 1908
until
1994,
by which time its powers had expanded to run the code nationally.
Following the introduction of a new format for interstate rugby
league,
State of Origin
in 1980, the decade of the 1980s brought about expansion of the
NSWRL
premiership, with the introduction of commercial sponsorship,
the
Winfield Cup, and the addition of
non-Sydney-based teams,
Canberra
and
Illawarra in 1982.
Although
this move brought more interest in the competition statewide in
New South
Wales
, it would spell the beginning of the demise of some
of the traditional Sydney-based clubs as well as the Brisbane Rugby League
premiership. Following the 1983 season, foundation club
Newtown Jets were ultimately forced to
withdraw from the competition because of financial
difficulties.
Further expansion of the league followed in
1988, with another
three teams based outside Sydney introduced to the competition; the
Newcastle Knights and the first
two Queensland teams, the
Brisbane
Broncos and
Gold Coast-Tweed
Giants. The Brisbane and Newcastle sides proved to be
successful and popular and paved the way towards a push for a truly
national competition. This was undertaken in
1995 with control of the
premiership passing from the NSWRFL to the
Australian Rugby League (ARL), who
invited four more teams from outside NSW to participate in
1995.
Establishment
The prospect of a truly national rugby league competition in
addition to the introduction of pay television in Australia
attracted the attention of global media organisation,
News Corporation, and it followed that
professional rugby league was shaken to its very foundations in the
mid-1990s with the advent of the
Super
League war. Initially a conflict over broadcasting rights, it
became a dispute as to who controlled the sport, as News Limited
formed their own
Super
League and admitted some former ARL clubs, poaching players
from the original ARL league with high salaries. With twenty-two
teams of highly varying quality playing in two competitions that
year, crowd attendances and corporate sponsorships were spread very
thinly, and many teams found themselves in financial difficulty.
The ARL undertook moves to invite the traditional clubs that had
moved to the Super League competition back into a re-unified
competition. Following a period of negotiation with News
Corporation, on 23 September 1997 the ARL announced that it was
forming a new company to conduct the competition in 1998. On 7
October News'
Rupert Murdoch
announced that he was confident that there would be a single
competition in 1998.
On the 19th of December, representatives of
clubs affiliated with the Australian Rugby League gathered at the
Sydney
Football Stadium to decide whether to accept News Limited's offer of
a settlement - eventually voting in favour by 36 votes to 4.
As a result, in the following months the National Rugby League,
jointly owned by the
ARL and
News Limited, was formed.
It was announced that the inaugural National Rugby League (NRL)
season of
1998
would have 20 teams competing, 19 remaining Super League and ARL
teams plus the
Melbourne Storm, who
were created by Super League for their 1998 season. Clubs on both
sides of the war were shut down. Super League decided to close the
Hunter Mariners and the financially
ruined
Perth Reds, who were $10 million in
debt at the end of 1997 , while the ARL decided to close down the
South Queensland Crushers,
who were also in severe financial trouble . Additionally, at the
end of 1998 the NRL decided to close down former Super League club,
the
Adelaide Rams and former ARL club,
the
Gold Coast Chargers, despite
the Gold Coast franchise being one of the few clubs to make a
profit during the Super League war .
1998-2002: Rationalisation
One condition of the peace agreement between the ARL and News
Limited was that there would be a 14 team competition in 2000. The
20 clubs that played in 1998 would be assessed on various items
such as sponsorship, crowds, on-field success and the like. It was
also announced that clubs that merged would receive a large sum of
money, as well as a guaranteed position in the 2000 NRL
Competition.
St. George were the
first club to take up the offer, and they merged with the
Illawarra Steelers at the end of 1998.
The Bulldogs continued in their present form without merging in
1999, however dropped the
Canterbury from their club name
to simply become known as the
Bulldogs.
The
1999
NRL Grand Final brought about a new official world record
attendance for a game of rugby league.
107,999 spectators
saw the Melbourne Storm play the newly-merged St. George Illawarra
Dragons in the decider at Stadium Australia.
Balmain and
Western Suburbs formed the joint
venture club, the
Wests Tigers at the
end of 1999, while
North Sydney
and
Manly-Warringah
merged to form the ill-fated
Northern
Eagles. As part of another image makeover, a number of teams
also released new club logos. The most notable of these was the
Sydney Roosters, dropping the
City section of their name
for the 2000 season and beyond.
Souths were controversially axed from
the competition at the end of 1999 for failing to meet the
criteria.
This move was highly controversial and on 12 November 2000
approximately 80,000 marched in protest at their continued
exclusion. South Sydney challenged the decision in the Federal
Court claiming that the NRL agreement was exclusionary, intended to
unfairly exclude South Sydney, and breached the Trade Practices
Act. Justice Paul Finn ruled that the agreement did not
specifically exclude any club and dismissed the Rabbitohs' claims
for re-instatement into the national competition. Souths appealed
this decision and were re-admitted into the competition in
2002.
The Auckland Warriors experienced much financial hardship in the
early part of the decade, ultimately collapsing before being
resurrected as the New Zealand Warriors for the 2001 season. They
made the Grand Final in 2002.
In 2001, Australia's largest telecommunications provider Telstra
became naming rights sponsor of the NRL, with the competition's
name becoming the NRL Telstra Premiership, while in 2002
David Gallop took over the CEO role from
David Moffett, and the competition has
become more and more popular each season.
In 2001 the NRL Grand Final started to be played on Sunday nights,
a shift from the traditional Sunday afternoon slot used for over a
decade prior.
2003-2005: Record popularity
The 2003 season was widely regarded as the most successful since
the beginning of the National Rugby League in 1998.
The Penrith Panthers
rose from the bottom of the table to win the Premiership, while the
Broncos returned to Suncorp Stadium mid-year. Season 2004 proved even more
successful than 2003, with the
North Queensland Cowboys going from
11th position in 2003 to 3rd in 2004, narrowly missing out on a
maiden Grand Final berth.
Crowd average records were broken in 2003, 2004 and 2005. In 2005,
the NRL reached record levels of popularity for its competition.
Total crowds for the competition season almost reached the figures
for the last year of the competition conducted by the ARL
competition of 1995, prior to the Super League war. From 2004 to
2005, there was a 39% increase in sponsorship, a 41% increase in
merchandise royalties, and a 12% increase in playing participation.
In 2005,
Business Review
Weekly ranked the NRL 497 in revenue of Australian private
companies, with revenue of A$66.1m (+7%) with 35 employees. In
2005, a record national audience of 4.1 million tuned into watch
the grand final between the
Wests
Tigers and the
North
Queensland Cowboys.
2006: A unique year
The
2006 National Rugby League
season kicked off on Friday, March 10, between defending premiers
Wests Tigers and early favourites
St. George Illawarra
Dragons at Telstra
Stadium
.
Melbourne, after leading the competition for most of the season,
comfortably claimed the minor premiership, with the Bulldogs,
Brisbane, and Newcastle making up the top four. Manly, St George
Illawarra, Canberra and Parramatta took places five to eight.
The 2006 NRL Grand Final won by the Brisbane Broncos over the
Melbourne Storm, 15-8. The matchup was a significant milestone in
the history of the NRL, as two interstate teams (teams not from New
South Wales, the "heartland" of the NRL) contested the grand final
for the first time ever.
The game itself once again enjoyed immense support, with more
record TV ratings, particularly capturing Melbourne on Grand Final
night . Crowds were down on 2005, however were better than any
other year prior to that.
2007: Further expansion
In its tenth season the NRL returned to having a club based on the
Gold Coast, Queensland with
the inclusion of the
Gold Coast
Titans. The Titans were the first professional sporting team to
occupy the Gold Coast since 1998, when the
Gold Coast Chargers were one of the
teams removed during the NRL's rationalisation process between the
end of the Super League war and the 2000 season.
The 2007 NRL season kicked off on Friday 16 March 2007 with eight
games each round. 2007 also saw the return of Monday Night Football
and the inclusion of two Friday night games. Both of which turned
out to be ratings successes. Another change from the previous
seasons was a reduction in the number of byes per team in the
season. With an odd number of teams contesting between 2002 and
2006, the draw meant that at least one team would have to have a
bye each weekend. With the inclusion of the 16th team for the 2007
season, the National Rugby League had the option of reverting to
back to the system used between 2000 and 2001 where every team
played each round. That system was not used however, with teams
were given just a single bye during the year, grouped in periods
that will assist clubs around representative fixtures.
The
opening round saw two matches at Brisbane's Suncorp
Stadium, the first featuring reigning champions Brisbane
against fellow Queensland side North Queensland, while the second
match featured the new club, the Gold Coast playing St George
Illawarra. The weather during the middle of the season was
less than ideal, with cyclonic conditions severely affecting many
NRL games played in Sydney and Newcastle.
The finals series was contested over a period of four weeks and saw
the newly privatised South Sydney Rabbitohs return to finals
football for the first time in decades. The season culminated with
the NRL Grand Final on Sunday 30 September 2007 contested between a
resurgent Manly and a Melbourne team looking for redemption from
last year's Grand Final loss. Melbourne ran out convincing winners
with a 34–8 scoreline and the Grand Final achieved the honour of
being the most watched television show in Australia in 2007.
2008: The Centenary
Throughout 2008, the NRL celebrated 100 years since Rugby League
was introduced into Australia, with several initiatives to
recognise the important milestone, including an extensive marketing
campaign called the 'Centenary of Rugby League'. The competition
began in March, with a special Heritage round held in mid-April,
coinciding with the first round of competition played in
1908.
At a Gala event on 17 April 2008 the
Team of the
Century was announced, being: Full-back:
Clive Churchill; Wingers:
Ken Irvine,
Brian
Bevan; Centres:
Reg Gasnier,
Mal Meninga; Five-eighth:
Wally Lewis; Half-back:
Andrew Johns; Lock:
John
Raper; Second Row:
Norm Provan,
Ron Coote; Props:
Arthur Beetson,
Duncan
Hall; Hooker:
Noel
Kelly; Reserves:
Graeme
Langlands,
Dally Messenger,
Bob Fulton,
Frank
Burge; Coach: Jack Gibson.
For the second year in a row, the Grand Final was played between
the Melbourne Storm and the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, in the
NRL's first ever twilight decider. The Sea Eagles took out the
premiership game 40-0, setting the record for the highest winning
margin in a Grand Final match. Furthermore, it was the first time a
team had been kept scoreless in a Grand Final since 1978.
2009: The second century begins
After the centenary celebrations of 2008, the 2009 season marks the
second century of rugby league competition in Australia. The
competition began in mid-March. The
Grand final this year was played
between the Parramatta Eels v Melbourne Storm at the ANZ Stadium.
Melbourne Storm defeated Parramatta Eels 23 - 16, to make it 2
premierships out of the last 4 grand-finals for Melbourne
Storm.
Future
When the
Gold Coast Titans were admitted into the 2007 season of the NRL
they beat out proposals from Gosford, New South Wales
(as the Central Coast
Bears) and Wellington, New Zealand
(as the Southern
Orcas). Both teams are still looking forward to joining
the NRL in the next expansion period, speculated to be a year
before the current TV deal comes up for renewal in 2013.
David Gallop has stated that the NRL will not consider expansion
until mid 2011 due to previous failed expansion efforts.
The NRL also has a fund of $8 million for any club that decides to
relocate to a 'strategically identified area'.
Official franchise bids
There are currently five official bids in progress, all intent on
joining the NRL when the current media deal comes up for
negotiation around 2012/2013.
The North Sydney Bears are planning on rejoining the league as the Central Coast Bears and basing themselves out of Gosford, New South Wales and will use Central Coast Stadium
. The bid team plans to unite the current North Sydney and Central Coast districts under the one team.
In 2006 the Western Australia Rugby League announced that the Perth
-based WA Reds were to be resurrected with an aim to re-join the NRL in 2013. Currently the team is playing in the underage S. G. Ball Cup, with an aim to having a number of WA-born juniors when the bid joins the NRL
In October 2008, a Papua New Guinea
bid team was launched with government funding and support. An official website was launched in September 2009 detailing the progress of the PNG bid and its aim to provide social and economic benefits for the country as a whole
In April 2009, a consortium from the Central Queensland region declared their intent to launch a bid for an NRL franchise to be based in Rockhampton in the next expansion period. The bid is aiming to be a new club by 2013.
The Wellington-based Southern Orcas bid team was competitive in the last expansion period but lost out to the Gold Coast Titans. Since then they have applied unsuccessfully to join Europe's Super League.
Unofficial franchise bids
NRL CEO
David Gallop has spoken specifically about adding teams in West Brisbane
, Perth, Adelaide
, the Central Coast
, the Sunshine Coast
and Wellington, New Zealand. Interest in gaining an NRL franchise has
also come from Fiji
.
Structure
A Partnership Executive Committee administers the agreement between
the
Australian Rugby League
and
News Limited as well as making
major financial decisions. Three representatives from each party
make up this committee. A National Rugby League Board, which is
commissioned by the Partnership Committee and is composed of six
delegates - three from each party - is responsible for
administering the competition. Both bodies nominate a Chairman to
lead each board for a term of 12 months on an alternating
basis.
The National Rugby League markets the premiership on behalf of the
clubs as well as organising the draw and finals matches. When the
draw is finalised, teams are responsible for controlling and
organising their assigned home games. Clubs each have their own
organisational structure but are also bound to the National Rugby
League by a common set of rules in club agreements.
Competition format and sponsorship
Regular season
As rugby league is a winter sport in Australasia, the NRL
premiership season usually begins in early March following a brief
series of trial matches. Games are then played every weekend until
the end of September. In most rounds, two matches are played on
Friday night, three on Saturday night, two on Sunday afternoon and
one on Monday night.
There are currently sixteen clubs in the National Rugby League.
Teams are divided into two equal pools of eight at the completion
of each season, with each pool of equal strength based on that
season's results. During the course of the regular season (which
lasts until August) each club plays a total of two games against
each team in the opposite pool, once at their home stadium and once
at that of their opponent's for a total of sixteen games for each
club. Teams play six of those seven others in their own group just
once during the season, and play the remaining club twice. This
results in each team playing 24 games, with two
bye in the 26-week regular season, for a total
of 192 games.
Teams receive two competition points for a win, and one point for a
draw. The bye also receives two points; a loss, no points. Teams
are ranked by competition points, then match points differential
(for and against) and points percentage are used to separate teams
with equal competition points. At the end of the regular season,
the club which is ranked highest on the ladder is declared
minor premiers.
Finals
The NRL trophy is awarded to the
winner of the Grand Final
eight highest placed teams at the end of the regular season compete
in the finals series, which is contested using the
McIntyre Final Eight System.
This system has been used for every NRL season with the exception
of the first, in 1998. The system consists of a number of knockout
and sudden-death games between the top eight teams over four weeks
in August and September, until only two teams remain. These two
teams then contest the Grand Final, which is usually played on the
first Sunday of October. In the first week of the finals, the top
four seeds play at their respective home grounds. In week two,
matches are played within the home city of the two lower seeded
winning teams from week one. In week three, teams play within the
home regions of the two seeded winning teams from week one.
The NRL
Grand Final is one of
Australasia's major sporting events, typically attracting large
attendances and high television ratings. The game itself is usually
preceded by an opening ceremony featuring entertainment from
well-known Australasian and international musical acts. The
Prime Minister of
Australia is also usually on hand for the trophy-presenting
ceremony.
In 1998 the Grand Final was held at the
Sydney
Football Stadium. Since then, it has been contested at
Stadium
Australia, which was the primary athletics venue for the
2000 Olympic Games in
Sydney. The first year it was held at Stadium Australia, the
NRL Grand Final broke the world record for attendance at a rugby
league game. In June 2006, the NRL announced that the Grand Final
will continue to be held at the Stadium until at least 2012, after
which the possibility of the game being moved interstate will be
considered if certain circumstances arise.
The Grand Final has traditionally been played on Sunday afternoons,
but between 2001 and 2007 the Grand Final was played at night, in
order to coincide with the primetime period on television. Because
this meant that the game finished late at night, the NRL feared
losing younger audiences. From 2008, a compromise was reached
between official broadcaster
Channel
9's preferred starting time of 8 pm and the traditional
starting time of 3 pm, with the Grand Final beginning at 5pm
AEST.
The winning team of the grand final is presented with the NRL
trophy, which is based on the former premiership trophy, the
Winfield Cup. In addition, members of
the winning team are presented with
premiership rings.
Sponsorship
The Telstra Premiership logo.
NRL and its clubs receive significant revenue from sponsorships,
with sponsors' logos appearing on most parts of players' and
referees' uniforms, the playing surface and even the ball itself.
Since 2001, the National Rugby League premiership has been
sponsored by Telstra and known as the 'NRL Telstra Premiership'; in
earlier seasons, it was simply known as the 'National Rugby
League'.
The Telstra Premiership has had three competition logos since 2001.
The first, lasting only through the 2001 regular season, was the
Telstra logo with an elongated circle enclosing the word
Premiership. From the Finals series of 2001 through to the
end of 2006 the logo was based around the shape of a football, with
the words
Telstra Premiership on respective lines along
the bottom, culminating with a small football similar to the one in
the official NRL logo. The main colours were blue and orange, the
corporate colours of Telstra. The company worked with the NRL to
create the current logo (pictured) for the 2007 season onward as
part of a new sponsorship deal. This new logo is quite similar to
the original National Rugby League emblem.
Other notable sponsorships include
Coke
Zero (ball),
Victoria Bitter
(Friday Night Football),
Bundaberg Rum
(Monday Night Football),
AAMI (referee
uniform and touch judge flags) and
TAB
Sportsbet (official betting agency of the NRL) and also
KFC (Friday night's man of the match).
Non-traditional venues
Since 1998 NRL clubs have played both trial matches and premiership
season games in areas that do not have representation in the
NRL.
- Wests Tigers
have played premiership season games in Christchurch, New Zealand
- The
Cronulla Sharks and Penrith Panthers have played premiership
season games in Adelaide.
- The
Bulldogs have
taken games interstate to Brisbane and the Gold
Coast as well Wellington, New Zealand.
- South
Sydney have moved a match in their 2009 season to Perth,
Western Australia.
- The Parramatta Eels played two
premiership season games in Waikato, New Zealand in 2005-2006.
- The South Sydney
Rabbitohs and Manly Sea Eagles
generally play one of their two premiership fixtures at Bluetongue
Stadium, Gosford. Since then, a number of other teams have chosen
to move one or two home fixtures to the Central Coast
location.
- Many teams play in rural and other areas not home to a current
NRL club during their pre-season campaign. Matches are played in
locations such as Cairns
, Darwin
, Perth, Gosford
, Cessnock
, Mackay, the Queensland
Sunshine
Coast and Coffs
Harbour
.
- In
2009, the Cronulla Sharks played a
home game at Hindmarsh
Stadium
, Adelaide, and South Sydney
Rabbitohs played a game against the Melbourne Storm at the Perth Oval
, Perth.
- South
Sydney Rabbitohs and The West Tigers
played a game in 2009 at The Sydney Cricket Ground
.
- Cronulla
Sharks have a contract with the South Australian
Government to play one home game a season at
Hindmarsh
Stadium up until and including the 2011 season.
Competition rules and representative season
Salary cap
The National Rugby League adopted a salary cap in the early 1990s.
Clubs are allowed
AU$4.1 million per season to
contract 25 players, with a minimum salary of just over $50,000,
setting an effective upper limit of about $500,000 for the game's
best players.
The cap is actively policed and clubs found to be in breach of its
rules usually incur a fine. For example, six clubs were fined for
minor infractions in 2003. These infractions are usually technical
in nature and can sometimes be affected by third-party factors such
as loss of sponsorship revenue affecting an allowance. During the
2007 season the NRL has investigated other ways of creating a fair
and more beneficial cap for players and clubs.
However in mid-2002, the
Bulldogs were found
guilty of serious and systematic breaches. In addition to a more
substantial fine, they were stripped of their competition points
accumulated to that date, and hence denied a place in the finals.
As the club had been leading the competition table prior to the
penalty's imposition, this was a shattering outcome for the club
and its fans.
In the 2006 pre-season the
New
Zealand Warriors revealed that their former management had
rorted the salary cap in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. As a punishment
the club was stripped of four competition points for 2006 and fined
$430,000. They also had to play the 2007 season under a reduced
salary cap.
After the completion of round 7, 2008, several clubs were fined for
breaches in 2007. The hardest hit were the
South Sydney Rabbitohs with a $70,000
fine, unfortunately coinciding with an alcohol-related incident
involving five of the club's players, including the captain.
Representative season
As well as playing for their club in the National Rugby League
premiership season, players are sometimes entitled to play in a
number of representative competitions that are conducted by the
Australian Rugby League at
the same time. These competitions include the one-off
ANZAC Tests,
World Cup competitions,
Tri-Nations series,
State of Origin series and the
New South Wales
City vs Country
Origin series. In order for a player to qualify for a
representative team in these competitions, they must firstly be
eligible to be chosen for the side, based on a process of
qualification (which involves the standard of play at club
level).
Media coverage
The NRL provides six of the top seven and 78 of the top 100
programs on subscription television.
Coverage history
Professional club rugby league in Australia has been revolutionised
by television, with a shift away from daytime games to night-time
games over recent years to better suit the official television
broadcasters,
Channel 9 and
Fox Sports. This even extended to the
Grand Final, which from 2001 to 2007 was shifted from 3pm on Sunday
to 7pm Sunday night to better suit broadcasters. It has been moved
back to 5pm Sunday from 2008 onwards.
Free-to-air coverage for
Channel 9
viewers in states other than New South Wales or Queensland is
delayed until later at night to make way for regular programming by
Channel 9. These games are not shown at
normal coverage times which has caused some outrage from fans and a
call for change had remained unheard by the NRL or
Channel 9.
The
News Limited-owned Foxtel Pay-TV
network, which broadcast its first
rugby
league matches during the
1997 Super League
season, has broadcast the remaining National Rugby League matches
exclusively live since the competition's inception in 1998. In
2007, "Monday Night Football" was added to Foxtel's rugby league
coverage.
In 2003 the Grand Final was broadcast live in the United States by
Foxports World as it had been since 2001.
Current television coverage
Domestic
- Friday
Night Football starts at 7:30 pm and consists of two
matches shown on Channel 9 free-to-air
television in New South Wales (including Albury, New
South Wales
-Wodonga,
Victoria
) and Queensland. Both games are played
concurrently, with one broadcast live and the other shown on delay
immediately after the first, usually at 9:30 pm. In many cases, the
order in which the games are shown differs in different television
markets. For instance, a match featuring a Queensland
team, such as the Brisbane Broncos, would usually be shown
first in Queensland markets, but might be broadcast second in
New South
Wales if a popular Sydney team such as the Dragons was playing in the other match. Both
matches are broadcast after midnight on Saturday morning in
Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.
- Super Saturday includes one Toyota Cup
afternoon game at 3:15 pm, followed by that game's corresponding
Telstra Premiership match at 5:30 pm. This is then followed by two
consecutive NRL matches beginning at 7:30 pm, one of which is shown
live and one on delay immediately after the conclusion of the
7.30pm game. Providing that the viewer has Foxtel Digital or Austar
Digital, they can use a tool called Viewer's Choice. Viewer's
Choice gives the viewer a choice of either game played at 7:30 pm
to be shown live. All four games are shown on Fox Sports.
- NRL Sunday is a 2:00 pm match broadcast live
on Fox Sports.
- Sunday Football is broadcast on Channel 9. The match normally kicks off at 3:00
pm, but the broadcast is delayed until 4:00 pm, running until 6:00
pm in order to provide a strong lead-in to Channel 9's evening
news. These broadcasts are aired after midnight on Monday mornings
in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
- Monday Night Football is televised live from
7:00 pm by Fox Sports.
Note: Saturday and Sunday broadcast schedules can also vary, with
less Saturday and more Sunday matches.
This is dependent on
the scheduling of matches for the New Zealand Warriors played in Auckland,
New Zealand
.
- The NRL Grand Final is shown live in every
state on Channel 9, with New South
Wales and Queensland receiving up to 10 hours of continuous
pre-game and post-game coverage. The game is also shown live in New
Zealand, however ratings have never been as good with the current
nighttime format, due to the fact that the Grand Final is played
very late on a Sunday night (NZST), with full time called early
Monday morning (NZST).
The NRL grand final's popularity in New Zealand can never reclaim
the status in New Zealand that it formerly captured when it was
played in the afternoon.
International
The NRL is televised internationally with the following channels
being the main telecast partners overseas.
- Sky Sport in New Zealand has coverage of all the NRL games
including both LIVE games on Sunday with a delayed option available
later in the night.
- Spike TV - A
landmark deal was agreed in 2009 whereby NRL finals matches would
be beamed into 100 million homes in the United States
and Canada
. It
is the first time NRL games have become available on basic cable in
the U.S.
- Setanta Sports: From 2006 until June 2009 (when Setanta went
into administration and then ceased broadcasting in Great Britain),
viewers in the UK, Republic of Ireland, USA and Canada would
receive 2-3 LIVE and/or replayed games from each of the weekly
rounds, plus all the playoffs, the Grand Final and all three
State of Origin matches
live. This deal included test matches involving Australia, except
for those when Australia played Great Britain.
The 2009 NRL preliminary finals and Grand Final will be broadcast
LIVE on TV in the UK and Ireland on the new
ESPN
UK channel. More information on match coverage for the 2010
season and beyond has not been confirmed, but will be made public
at some point in future.
BigPond and the NRL
have reached an agreement to stream selected remaining games live
into the UK
and
Ireland
, over BigPond's web portal service.
Omnisport (owned and operated by Perform
Media Channels Limited)
performgroup.com/omnisport has
also signed a similar agreement to stream matches on pay-per-view
LIVE in selected territories around the world through the
omnisport.tv website.
Internet
Replays of NRL matches, as well as highlights and NRL-related
informational programming are available in Australia from
BigPond.
Telstra's ISP.
Outside of Australia, these programs are sold by
Aussie Sport
TV.
Radio coverage
The NRL has several games broadcast live on the radio.
In New South Wales,
2GB radio has exclusive
rights on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday games, as well as the
Finals Series. The 'on-air team' on 2GB are known as the
Continuous Call Team. On Fridays, the
team air 7 - 10pm, calling one game live (with the other game
having frequent updates), on Saturdays 12 noon until 8pm, calling
the 5:30pm game (with both 7.30pm games with frequent updates
through the night) and Sundays from 12 noon until 6pm, covering
either 2pm or 3pm game (with the other game with frequent
updates).
Triple M (Sydney) covers the Monday Night
game.
Players
National Rugby League footballers are some of Australasia's most
famous athletes, commanding multi-million dollar playing contracts
as well as sponsorship deals. Each club in the NRL has a "top
squad" of twenty-five players, who are signed under the salary cap,
as described above. For the most part, the players who play in NRL
matches are sourced from these top squads. Occasionally during a
season, however, the need may arise for a club to use players
outside these 25, and in this case players are usually sourced from
the club's corresponding
Toyota Cup side
or
feeder club (such as the relevant
New South Wales Cup or
Queensland Cup squad).
The players voted to be the best in each position at the end of the
season are honoured at the annual
Dally M
Awards, with the player of the year awarded the
Dally M Medal. The man of the match in the
Grand Final is awarded the
Clive
Churchill Medal.
Africans in the NRL
There are
only a handful of Africans in the NRL, there
is South African Jarrod Saffy who plays
for the St. George
Illawarra Dragons, Canterbury
Bulldogs winger Jamal Idris who is
of Nigerian
background, Gold Coast
Titans backrower Selasi Berdie is
of Ghanaian
background and is believed to be the first ever
player of Ghanaian background to play in the NRL, Sydney Roosters forward Willie Mason, St. George Illawarra Dragons
winger Peni Tagive and Penrith Panthers forward Daine Laurie also have African
backgrounds
Asians in the NRL
There are
very few Asian players in the NRL, one of them currently being
Gold Coast Titans winger Kevin Gordon who is of Chinese
and Filipino
background as well as former South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters hooker Craig Wing who is of Filipino background joined
Japanese Rugby Union at the end of the
2009 season.
Europeans in the NRL
There are few European-born players in the National Rugby League,
despite the significant number of Australians in Europe's
Super League.
However, those who do play in the NRL
(such as, in recent times, Adrian
Morley who is English
of Welsh
descent
and Brian Carney who is
Irish
) are often
stars of the game.
Europeans in the NRL include Great Britain representatives
Gareth Ellis who plays for the
Wests Tigers and
Sam
Burgess who has signed with the
South Sydney Rabbitohs for 2010.
Former
Wigan Warriors loose forward
Mark Flanagan who is joining the
Wests Tigers,
Jordan Tansey who previously played for the
Leeds Rhinos decided to join the
Sydney Roosters where he made 8
appearances for the club before deciding to return home to England
where he joined
Hull FC and English born
Scottish
international Ian Henderson who is
currently playing for the
New
Zealand Warriors. Ellis won
Wests
Tigers 'best and fairest' award in his inaugural season.
There are also a huge number of players in the NRL with European
backgrounds some of them include Lebanese born
Hazem El Masri who is a former Bulldogs
winger who retired at the end of the 2009 season. He is currently
the NRLs highest point scorer, he has also represented the
Lebanese national rugby
league team other famous players with Lebanese backgrounds
include Parramatta forward
Tim Mannah and
Wests Tigers hooker
Robbie Farah to
name a few. Sydney Roosters fullback Anthony Minichiello is an
Italian
international there are also a lot of other players with Italian
backgrounds such as
Rocky Trimarchi,
Cameron Ciraldo and
Anthony Laffranchi.
Players
with Greek
backgrounds include John Skandalis
and Iwi Hauraki, players with Maltese
backgrounds include Jarrod
Sammut, Shane Shackleton and
Danny Galea there are also a lot of
other players of European backgrounds in the NRL from such as
countries as Ireland and Scotland
.
Indigenous Australians in the NRL
The first
Indigenous
Australian to play in the precursor to the NRL was
New South Wales Rugby
League premiership player
George Green, who debuted in
1909. Since that time, many high profile indigenous athletes have
played in the competition, including standout rugby league test
players
Arthur Beetson (the first
aborigine to captain an Australian national team in any sport) and
current
Test
match representatives
Jonathan
Thurston and
Greg Inglis.A
Human Rights and
Equal Opportunity Commission report found that 11% of NRL
players in 2006 were of Aboriginal descent, compared to only 7% in
the
AFL. (By way of
comparison, only 2.3% of the Australian population identified
themselves as Indigenous in the 2006 Australian census.). A 2009
survey of NRL players showed that 47 players, or 10.9 per cent, in
its clubs' full-time squads are indigenous with a slightly higher
figure for under-20s competition.
On February 13 2010 at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast, the NRL will
hold an "indigenous all stars" game. It is to be a indigenous
Australian verse non-indigenous Australian and New Zealander game
of the top players from their respective backgrounds. The
Indigenous All-Stars will be a 20 man squad voted by the public.
The non-indigenous squad will consist of the Australian and New
Zealand national teams captains and vice captains and one player
from each of the sixteen NRL clubs.
Pacific Islanders in the NRL
Most of the players in the National Rugby League are of
Australian origin, although there are increasing
numbers of both New Zealand and
Pacific
Island born players being selected by clubs. In recent years,
Polynesian players have made up 75 per
cent of junior representative teams in New South Wales. It has been
suggested that by 2011-2012 50% of NRL players could be of
Polynesian or Melanesian descent.
Statistics
Top scorers in the National Rugby
League
| Rank |
Player |
Points |
| 1 |
Hazem El
Masri |
2,418 |
| 2 |
Andrew
Johns |
2,205 |
| 3 |
Jason
Taylor |
2,107 |
| 4 |
Daryl
Halligan |
2, 034 |
| 5= |
Craig
Fitzgibbon |
1,604 |
| 5= |
Clinton
Schifcofske |
1,604 |
| 7 |
Matt
Orford |
1,494 |
| 8 |
Luke
Burt |
1,315 |
| 9 |
Mat
Rogers |
1,300 |
| 10 |
Brett
Hodgson |
1,289 |
| As of 8 October 2009. |
The
Brisbane Broncos (
1998,
2000 and
2006) and the
Melbourne Storm (
1999,
2007 and
2009) share the
distinction of winning the most premierships (three) since the
creation of the National Rugby League.
The
Canterbury-Bankstown
Bulldogs hold the record for the most consecutive wins, having
won 17 matches in a row between 31 March 2002 and 3 August 2002.
However this was the year that they went over the salary cap by
over $1.5 million. The
Parramatta
Eels set the records for the highest score and margin of
victory in a 74–4 victory over the
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks on 23
August 2003. The most victories achieved within a season is 21,
held by the
Melbourne Storm in
2007.Since the first National Rugby League season in 1998, a total
of six players have topped the scorers list in a season. However,
the only player to have won the title more than once is
Hazem El Masri, the overall top scorer in the
National Rugby League's history, having claimed the title in 2002,
2003, 2004, 2006 and 2009.
Hazem El
Masri was leading the top scoring table in 2005 until sidelined
through injury. His tally of 342 points in 2004 remains the most
points scored by an individual in a season.
Ken Irvine is Rugby League's most
prolific try scorer with 212 tries, the only player to score 200 or
more tries.
Nigel Vagana's 154 tries scored across
all nine seasons of the National Rugby League makes him the most
prolific try scorer in the competition's history ( as
Ken Irvine and
Steve
Menzies, the games actual highest try scorers, played before
the creation of the NRL).
Nathan
Blacklock holds the record for the most tries in a season, with
27 scored in 2001 for his team, the
St. George Illawarra
Dragons.
Terry Campese holds the record for the
most points scored in a game with 36 points in a match featuring
Canberra vs Panthers Round 22 2008 (Canberra 74 defeated Penrith
12). Only three players have scored five tries in a game;
Francis Meli,
Jamie
Lyon, and
Nigel Vagana.
It should be noted, however, that the official records of the NRL
do not differentiate between the various top level competitions.
For more information on official records, see this page
List of NSWRL/ARL/SL/NRL
records
Match Officals
See also
References
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attendance_figures_at_domestic_professional_sports_leagues
-
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12211_4995130,00.html
- Canberra Raiders RL1908.com Retrieved
on 14 January 2006.
- Illawarra Steelers RL1908.com
Retrieved on 14 January 2006.
- Club History Newtown Jets - Established 1908
Retrieved on 14 January 2006.
- A Century of Premiership Competition
RL1908.com Retrieved on 14 January 2006.
- Rugby League Tables / Attendances 1957-2006
The World of Rugby League Retrieved on 14 January
2006.
- Rugby League Tables / Attendances 1957-2006 / All
Teams
- Courier Mail
- Storm the sentimental favourite in Sydney - League
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Courier-Mail
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The Courier-Mail
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BrisbaneTimes - brisbanetimes.com.au
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Telegraph
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Retrieved on 14 January 2006.
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- www.astra.org.au/content/.../ASTRA-Ratings-for-Week-090517.pdf
- Similar
- http://www.australia.com.ph/mnla/medrel1307.html
- http://www.skysport.co.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=70
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and Championship Game
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-
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-
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-
http://www.omnisport.tv/page/NRLLiveOnline/0,,12637~0~2186,00.html
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http://www.rugbyleaguelive.com/Articles/6741/2009/09/22/2GB_secures_NRL_broadcast_rights_for_three_more_seasons.aspx
-
http://www.triplem.com.au/sydney/sport/nrl/monday-night-football
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http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25854896-952,00.html
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-
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- Who's the next star as Kiwis flood NRL - New Zealand's
source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on
Stuff.co.nz
- Currently active in National Rugby League
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