- This article details the Super League half of 1997's split club competition. For the Australian Rugby League half, see
1997 ARL season . For more information on the Super League franchise, see Super League (Australia)
| 1997 Super League (Australia) season | |
| Teams | 10 |
| Premiers |  Brisbane (3rd title) |
| Minor premiers | Brisbane (2nd title) |
| Matches played | 96 |
| Points scored | 4035 (total) 42.031 (per match) |
| Attendance | 1,251,777 (total) 13,039 (per match) |
| Top points scorer(s) |  Ryan Girdler (197) |
| Top try scorer(s) |  Matthew Ryan (17) |
Australasia's 1997 Super League premiership (known as the Telstra Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 90th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the first and only to be run by the News Limited-controlled Super League organisation.
Contents |
Background
Super League was a rugby league competition that was held in Australia in 1997. It was created by News Corporation after an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the pay television rights to Australian rugby league games. After two years of legal battles the competition was played for a single season in 1997 before merging with the rival Australian Rugby League competition in 1998 to form the National Rugby League.
Map
Season summary
For this season video refereeing was introduced to rugby league for the first time.[1] The Telstra Cup premiership was held over eighteen rounds. The season was dominated by the minor premiers, the Brisbane Broncos, who won 14 of their 18 matches, losing only to the Penrith Panthers, the Hunter Mariners and eventual runners-up, the Cronulla Sharks. The Grand Final was played at Brisbane's ANZ Stadium in front of 58,000 people; the ground record for that venue. The Broncos defeated the Sharks 26-8 to win their third premiership. The Auckland Warriors had teams in both the reserve grade and under-19 Grand Finals but lost both.
The winners in all grades were:
- First Grade: Brisbane Broncos
- Reserve Grade: Canterbury Bulldogs
- Under-19s: Penrith Panthers
- Under-17s: Brisbane Broncos
Teams
The ten Super League-aligned clubs contested the premiership, only three of which were based in Sydney (none of which were NSWRFL foundation clubs), compared to seven in the
 Adelaide Rams |
 Auckland Warriors |
 Brisbane Broncos |
 Canberra Raiders |
 Canterbury Bulldogs |
 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks |
 Hunter Mariners |
 North Queensland Cowboys |
 Perth Reds |
 Penrith Panthers |
Advertising
Teaser ads had been created by Mojo Sydney in 1996 around the theme of "Superleague: It's Coming". They featured Super League players performing superhuman feats. One notable execution included Canberra's Bradley Clyde inside a rodeo corral being stormed by a runaway bull with the suggestion that he is about to singlehandedly bring the bull to ground.
By season launch in 1997 Foxtel's ad agency Young and Rubicam Sydney had the Super League account and created a space-themed ad with players running through outer-space and the tag-line "Super League: It's out of this world".
By mid season the account had moved again and Sydney agency VCD produced much of the game promotional and club fixture print ads that ran in newspapers throughout the season. This commenced VCD's association with Super League that would continue with the ARL post the re-unification.
Ladder
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brisbane |
18 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 481 | 283 | +198 | 29 |
| 2 | Cronulla |
18 | 12 | 0 | 6 | 403 | 230 | +173 | 24 |
| 3 | Canberra |
18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 436 | 337 | +99 | 22 |
| 4 | Canterbury |
18 | 10 | 0 | 8 | 453 | 447 | +6 | 20 |
| 5 | Penrith |
18 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 431 | 462 | -31 | 18 |
| 6 | Hunter |
18 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 350 | 363 | -13 | 14 |
| 7 | Auckland |
18 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 332 | 406 | -74 | 14 |
| 8 | Perth |
18 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 321 | 456 | -135 | 14 |
| 9 | Adelaide |
18 | 6 | 1 | 11 | 303 | 402 | -99 | 13 |
| 10 | North Queensland |
18 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 328 | 452 | -124 | 12 |
Finals
Minor premiers the Brisbane Broncos only played two finals games (including the grand final), both against the Cronulla Sharks winning both convincingly.
| Home | Score | Away | Match Information | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date and Time | Venue | Referee | Crowd | |||||
| Preliminary Semi Finals | ||||||||
| Cronulla Sharks |
22–18 | Canberra Raiders |
30 August 1997 | Endeavour Field | Bill Harrigan | 17,137 | ||
| Canterbury Bulldogs |
14–15 | Penrith Panthers |
1 September 1997 | Belmore Oval | Graham Annesley | 10,492 | ||
| Major Qualifying Finals | ||||||||
| Brisbane Broncos |
34–2 | Cronulla Sharks |
6 September 1997 | Stockland Stadium | Bill Harrigan | 26,256 | ||
| Canberra Raiders |
32–12 | Penrith Panthers |
8 September 1997 | Bruce Stadium | Graham Annesley | 10,153 | ||
| Preliminary Final | ||||||||
| Cronulla Sharks |
10–4 | Canberra Raiders |
13 September 1997 | Endeavour Field | Bill Harrigan | 17,638 | ||
| Grand Final | ||||||||
| Brisbane Broncos |
26–8 | Cronulla Sharks |
20 September 1997 | ANZ Stadium | Bill Harrigan | 58,912 | ||
Grand Final
| Brisbane | Position | Cronulla-Sutherland |
|---|---|---|
| Darren Lockyer | FB | David Peachey |
| Michael De Vere | WG | Mat Rogers |
| Steve Renouf | CE | Andrew Ettingshausen (c) |
| Anthony Mundine | CE | Russell Richardson |
| Wendell Sailor | WG | Geoff Bell |
| Kevin Walters | FE | Mitch Healey |
| Allan Langer (c) | HB | Paul Green |
| Brad Thorn | PR | Danny Lee |
| Andrew Gee | HK | Dean Triester |
| Shane Webcke | PR | Jason Stevens |
| Gorden Tallis | SR | Craig Greenhill |
| Peter Ryan | SR | Chris McKenna |
| Darren Smith | LK | Tawera Nikau |
| Tonie Carroll | Bench | Adam Dykes |
| John Plath | Bench | Sean Ryan |
| Michael Hancock | Bench | Les Davidson |
| Ben Walker | Bench | Nathan Long |
| Wayne Bennett | Coach | John Lang |
The grand final crowned a week of festivities, including a ball, street parade and massive game-night fireworks display, of the sort the Broncos' management had wanted the ARL to bring to Brisbane before the code's big schism in 1995. Despite stormy weather, a record crowd in Queensland rugby league history was at ANZ Stadium for the first ever night grand final and the only Australian top level grand final to be played outside Sydney.
It was the biggest crowd for a grand final since the 1977 NSWRFL Premiership decider and the largest to any sporting event in Brisbane since the 1982 Commonwealth Games.[2] Jon Stevens and Olivia Newton-John also performed in the pre-match entertainment.
The talented Brisbane side, featuring young up-and-coming stars in Darren Lockyer, Gorden Tallis and Shane Webcke overwhelmed a game Cronulla side 26–8. Steve Renouf, became only the third man to score three tries in a grand final. The win kept the Broncos' 100% record intact in Grand Finals making it three from three, while the Sharks had yet to make a grand final victory with zero from three.
26 |
Brisbane Broncos |
|---|---|
| Tries | Renouf (3), Hancock |
| Goals | Lockyer 5/6 |
| Field Goals | |
8 |
Cronulla Sharks |
| Tries | Richardson |
| Goals | Rogers 2/2 |
| Field Goals |
National Rugby League
With twenty-two teams playing in two competitions in 1997 crowd attendances and corporate sponsorships were spread very thinly, and many teams found themselves in financial difficulty by the end of the season. On September 23, 1997 the ARL announced that it was forming a new company to control the competition in 1998 and invited Super League clubs to participate. On October 7 Rupert Murdoch announced that he was confident that there would be a single competition in 1998 and in the following months the National Rugby League, jointly owned by the ARL and News Limited, was formed.
See also
- 1997 World Club Challenge
- Brisbane Broncos 1997
- Super League Tri-series
- Super League (Australia)
- Super League War
References
- ^ Middleton, David (2008). League of Legends: 100 Years of Rugby League in Australia. National Museum of Australia. pp. 31. ISBN ISBN 9781876944643. http://www.nma.gov.au/shared/libraries/attachments/league_of_legends/rugby_league_a_work_in_progress/files/22453/F_RL_work_in_progress.pdf.
- ^ "Grand final simply super". Illawarra Mercury (Fairfax Digital): pp. 26. 1997-09-21. http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&docID=news970921_0406_5518. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
External links
- Super League (Australia) season 1997 at rl1908.com
- Rugby League Tables - Notes The World of Rugby League
- Rugby League Tables - Season 1997 (SL) The World of Rugby League
- Premiership History and Statistics RL1908
- Super League (Australia) season 1997 stats at rugbyleagueproject.com
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
