The NRL Grand Final determines the champions of the National Rugby League club competition. It is a major sport event in Australia. Since 1999, it has been contested at Stadium Australia in Sydney.[2] The first year it was held at Stadium Australia, it set a new record for attendance at an Australian rugby league game, with 107,999 people attending.[3]
The grand final had been played on Saturday afternoons and then Sunday afternoons. From 2001 to 2007, the game was moved to an evening start to make the most of prime time television. Between 2008 and 2012, a compromise was reached between official broadcaster Nine Network's preferred starting time of 7pm and the traditional starting time of 3pm, with the grand final beginning at 5pm AEDT.[4] In 2013, the evening start resumed and has occurred since. Previously, the grand final did not have a set date but, with the exception of 2020, since 2001, it has been played the Sunday falling between 30 September and 6 October, preceding the Labour Day public holiday on the first Monday of October.
The NRL Grand Final Breakfast, attended by both teams, NRL officials and guests is held during the week before the game and screened live on Australian television. In 2015, the breakfast was cancelled and has been held only intermittently in recent years.
The game itself is usually preceded by an opening ceremony featuring entertainment and the singing of the national anthem by well-known Australasian and international musical acts. The Provan-Summons Trophy, the NRL's premiership trophy, is usually delivered to the field by an Australian Army helicopter shortly before kick off. At the conclusion of the grand final there is a presentation ceremony where the winning team are awarded premiership rings.[5] The player judged to be the man-of-the-match by the selectors of the ARL national team is awarded the prestigious Clive Churchill Medal and the Prime Minister of Australia is typically on-hand to hand the Provan-Summons Trophy to the winning captain.
First grade rugby league in NSW began in 1908, the first premiership deciding game was played at the Royal Agricultural Society Showground, with Souths defeating Easts 14–12. From 1912 to 1925, no finals system was in place, however in 1916, 1922, 1923 and 1924, a match was played as a tiebreaker to decide the season's premiership winner. From 1926 to 1953, finals were played under the Argus system, which produced a deciding game in two slightly differing ways.
All of these deciding games are now deemed to be grand finals, whether they were referred to as such at the time or not. From 1954 to the present, using a variety of systems, the deciding match has been explicitly termed a grand final, and no distinction is made between grand finals played under the auspices of the various governing bodies.
Stadiums
The NRL grand final is traditionally held in Sydney, as most NRL clubs are based in there and the current venue for the grand final, Stadium Australia is the second highest capacity stadium in Australia, after the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It was announced in June 2019 that the 2020 and 2021 Grand Finals would be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, while Stadium Australia underwent redevelopment.[7] However, after the Government of New South Wales scrapped plans to redevelop Stadium Australia in July 2020, the matches would return to being planned at Stadium Australia until at least 2046.[8]
In 2021, the NRL Grand Final was played at Lang Park in Brisbane, as it was not possible for the match to be played at Stadium Australia due to the COVID-19 lockdown in New South Wales.[9] It was the first major rugby league grand final to be played in Queensland since the 1997 Super League grand final.
The Provan-Summons Trophy is the NRL's main prize, awarded to the team that wins the premiership. Its sculptured design is similar to the Winfield Cup trophy, which was introduced for the 1982 NSWRFL season. It is a three-dimensional cast of a famous photo called The Gladiators,[10] which depicts a mud-soaked Norm Provan of St. George and Arthur Summons of Western Suburbs embracing after the 1963 NSWRFL season's grand final. It was not officially named the Provan-Summons Trophy until 2013, the 50th anniversary of the 1963 grand final.[11] The trophy is awarded following each grand final to the captain of the winning club.
The Clive Churchill Medal is the award given to the player judged to be man-of-the-match in the National Rugby League's annual grand final. The award was created to honour Clive Churchill, one of the greatest rugby league players in Australian history, following his death in 1985. A prestigious honour in the NRL, the medal's recipient is chosen by the selectors of the Australian national team and announced and awarded to the player judged best and fairest on the ground at every post-grand final ceremony.
The Clive Churchill Medal has been awarded ever since the 1986 NSWRL season when its first recipient was Parramatta's Peter Sterling. The only three players to have won the award more than once are Canberra's Bradley Clyde (1989 and 1991), Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater (2009 and 2017) and Penrith Panthers' Nathan Cleary (2021 and 2023). In 2010, the Melbourne Storm were stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships due to salary cap breaches exposed by the NRL, however the Clive Churchill Medallists from those years still continue to be recognised.
Premiership rings
The NRL present premiership rings for the players and coach of grand final winning sides. After the 2004 NRL Grand Final which was won by the Bulldogs, one of their players, Johnathan Thurston gave his premiership ring to teammate Steve Price who missed the decider due to injury. The Melbourne Storm were stripped of their premierships in 2007 and 2009, but the players involved in those premierships were still allowed to keep their premiership rings. In 2014 NRL premiership ring was worth $8000 made by Zed N Zed Jewellery. Since 2015, Affinity Diamonds have produced the NRL premiership rings[12][13][14]
Prize money
Prize money of AUD$400,000 is awarded to the victorious club.[15]
However the amount is probably not reflective of the magnitude of participating in the event. It is often assumed simply that the winner of the premiership typically experiences an increase in revenue through increases in membership and merchandise sales.
*Melbourne Storm were stripped of 2007, 2009 premierships and 2006, 2007 and 2008 minor premierships, due salary cap breaches.
1Reduced crowd due to stadium capacity restrictions
The 2021 Grand Final was held in Brisbane for the first time in the competition's history due to an ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in New South Wales which prompted the NRL to relocate it from Stadium Australia in Sydney, where every NRL Grand Final since 1999 had been hosted.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the match was attended by only 39,322 spectators because the Government of Queensland limited Lang Park to seventy-five percent of its maximum capacity.
Melbourne Storm Wins in 2007 and 2009 were subsequently annulled
The Gold Coast Titans and Dolphins are the only teams currently competing in the competition who have not featured in a grand final since the start of the NRL (1998).
Kickoff times
Time
Years
3pm
1908–2000
5pm
2008–2012
6:30pm
2021**
7pm
1997*, 2002–2007
7:30pm
2013–2020, 2022–2023
8pm
2001
*The 1997 Super League grand final was a nighttime match.
**The 2021 NRL Grand Final was played at Suncorp Stadium and kicked off at a time of 6:30pm local time (7:30pm in New South Wales/Victoria) due to daylight savings time.
Television broadcast
The match is always broadcast on free-to-air television in Australia, with live rights currently held by the Nine Network. Exclusive replay rights for the 12 hours following the game are held by subscription channel Fox League and streaming service Kayo Sports.
1909 – South Sydney win the premiership by forfeit over Balmain. There was an agreement that both sides would play the match; however, Balmain never showed up, and South Sydney kicked off to a side that did not turn up, scored a try and were declared premiers.[40]
1943 – Newtown defeat North Sydney 34–7 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in front of a then record crowd of 60,922. This grand final would be North Sydney's final appearance in a decider before exiting the competition in 1999 and also Newtown's last premiership before their exclusion at the end of 1983.[42]
1952 – Western Suburbs defeated South Sydney 22–10. The match was remembered due to its controversy with claims the referee George Bishop had put a big wager on Western Suburbs winning the game. Souths claimed that they were denied two fair tries and Wests had scored one try off a blatant knock on. Western Suburbs player Hec Farrell was sent off in the second half of the match. This would prove to be the last premiership Western Suburbs would win as a stand-alone entity before exiting the competition in 1999. South Sydney captain-coach Jack Rayner reportedly never spoke to George Bishop following the grand final, even though both men lived in the same suburb of Sydney for years after the match.[43][44]
1963 – St. George beat Western Suburbs 8–3 in a match famous for the iconic 'Gladiators' photo of Norm Provan and Arthur Summons covered in mud. It is also notable for a controversial try scored by Dragons winger Johnny King. Wests players tackled him and believed him to be held; however, the referee ruled play on.[46]
1977 – St. George and Parramatta play out the first drawn grand final, 9-all after extra time. They come back the next week for a grand final replay and St. George win 22–0.[50]
1978 – Manly and Cronulla play out the second consecutive drawn grand final, 11–11. There is no extra time and the replay is played on the following Tuesday, won by Manly 16–0.[51]
1989 – Known by many as the best grand final ever—a year coincidentally believed to be the greatest by some, Canberra come from 14–2 down to beat Balmain 19–14 in extra time.[citation needed] Canberra became the first team outside of NSW to win the competition.[citation needed]
1997 – Brisbane defeat Cronulla for their third premiership in the Super League grand final. This was the first night grand final, the first top level rugby league grand final to be played outside of Sydney before a record crowd for any sporting event in Queensland of 58,912.[53]
1997 – Newcastle winger Darren Albert scored a try with six seconds left to deliver Newcastle their first ever premiership, 22–16 over Manly.[54]
1999 – A record crowd of 107,999 watch the two newest clubs Melbourne Storm and St George Illawarra Dragons battle it out. St. George Illawarra led 18–14 before a late penalty try to Melbourne winger Craig Smith gave the Storm a 20–18 win to become the first Victorian team to win a NRL premiership and the quickest NRL club to win their first-ever premiership, which they accomplished in only their second season.[55]
2002 – Pre-game entertainment Billy Idol arrived on ground on board a hovercraft, but due to technical issues – "waiting for some power" – he did not perform. It was also the first year that a New Zealand–based team played in a grand final, making this the first Trans-Tasman grand final.
2015 – The North Queensland Cowboys' first premiership after 21 seasons in the NRL and widely regarded as one of the all-time best (along with the Raiders' 1989 win). The first all-Queensland NRL grand final sparked talk of future deciders being held in Queensland.[citation needed] It was also notable as Brisbane Broncos ended their biggest drought from a grand final since entering the competition (in 1988) and it was Bennett's first season back in Brisbane after leaving in 2008.[citation needed]North Queensland Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt scored a try from a Michael Morgan try-assist after the full-time siren to level the game at 16–16. After Jonathan Thurston missed the sideline conversion, hitting the right post, the match went to golden point extra time, the first grand final to do so. The Kyle Feldt kick-off to begin golden point was dropped by the Broncos' Ben Hunt. From the ensuing set of six, Thurston kicked the winning field goal, and he was subsequently awarded the Clive Churchill Medal. It also ended Brisbane's undefeated streak in grand finals, having won all six previous deciders.
2016 – Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks win their first premiership in their 50th season by defeating Melbourne Storm 14–12. This was also only their fourth grand final appearance since entering the competition in 1967. Their other grand final appearances came in 1973, 1978 and 1997 Super League Grand Final. The Sharks won only one of their final five regular-season games. However, it was enough to break through for their inaugural premiership.
2019 – Sydney Roosters become the first team to win back-to-back premierships in 26 years by defeating the Canberra Raiders 14–8. The last team to achieve successive premierships in a unified competition was the Brisbane Broncos in 1992–93. The Roosters' win did not come without any controversy during the game. In the third minute, a Luke Keary kick was charged down, only for the ball to ricochet off the head of the Roosters' trainer who was on the field at the time; a scrum feed was then awarded to the Roosters, and 3 minutes later Roosters' Sam Verrills scored a try adjacent to the goalposts. The Raiders then started to dominate the match, with their five-eighth Jack Wighton scoring a try in the 31st minute. Roosters' Cooper Cronk was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes for a professional foul (tackling a player not in possession of the football). With a man down, the Roosters' defence was stoic; despite numerous attacks, the Raiders were unable to score. The 72nd minute saw what was arguably one of the most controversial moments in a rugby league match (let alone for a NRL grand final): A Jack Wighton bomb kick saw the ball bounce off the shoulder off a Raiders player (who was contesting the ball against the Roosters' fullback James Tedesco) and the ball bounced back to the Raiders. Initially, the head referee Ben Cummins believed that the ball was touched by Tedesco and subsequently Cummins called that the Raiders had another set of six tackles while the ball was still in play; however, Cummins was quickly notified by other match officials that the Roosters had not touched the ball, and, as such, the Raiders were still on their last tackle. Wighton was tackled, and despite his protests to the referees, handed the ball over to the Roosters. Four tackles later, the Roosters ran 80 metres, the ball passing between Keary, Latrell Mitchell, Daniel Tupou, and finally Tedesco, who scored the match-winning try.
2020 – Contested on 25 October, three weeks later than originally scheduled due to the season being suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.[58]
2021 – The NRL Grand Final was played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, the first time ever outside of Sydney, as it was not possible for the match to be played at Stadium Australia due to the COVID-19 lockdown in New South Wales.
2023 - Penrith Panthers become the first team in 40 years, and the first in the modern NRL era to win three premierships in a row (2021, 2022 and 2023). This is titled the rare three peat.
The 2014 NRL Grand Final had a crowd of 83,833, which was the largest attendance at a sporting event at Stadium Australia since its 2001 reconfiguration.[60][61]
Entertainment
Early NRL grand finals featured a halftime show consisting of marching bands; but, as the popularity of the game increased, a trend started where popular singers and musicians performed during its pre-game ceremonies, and thus the modern halftime show emerged. Traditionally, the Australia's national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", is sung before every match. When the New Zealand Warriors play, "God Defend New Zealand" is also sung.
^"Grand Finals". Rugby League Tables. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
^"Aussie Stadium". Australian Stadiums. Retrieved 22 January 2007. ... however grand finals were transferred to the much larger Olympic Stadium at Homebush when it opened in 1999.
