National Rugby League
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| Current season | NRL 2019 |
| sport | Rugby league |
| abbreviation | NRL |
| League foundation | 1997 |
| Teams | 16 |
| Country countries |
 Australia New Zealand
|
| Title holder | Sydney Roosters |
| Record champions | Brisbane Broncos , Melbourne Storm , Sydney Roosters |
| TV partner | Nine Network , Fox Sports , Sky Sports |
| Website | nrl.com |
The National Rugby League ( NRL , also Telstra Premiership , after the league's main sponsor) is the highest professional rugby league division in Australia . The league consists of 15 Australian teams and one team from New Zealand and is considered the most popular rugby league club competition in the world.
history
The forerunner of today's NRL is the New South Wales Rugby League Premiership , founded in 1908 , originally a city championship for the teams from Sydney . Since the 1980s, teams from other cities such as the Newcastle Knights and even from other states such as the Brisbane Broncos have been included, which highlighted the ambition to turn the NSWRL into a nationwide competition. In the mid-1990s, the Australian Rugby League took over the organization of the competition.
At the same time, a dispute broke out in the rugby league sport in Australia, the so-called Super League War . The arguments revolved around broadcast rights and supremacy in the Australian rugby league. Here, were Rupert Murdoch for the newly established Super League and Kerry Packer for the traditional governing body Australian Rugby League against. Murdoch tried to gain a foothold in the Australian market by founding an alternative rugby league league. After numerous court hearings, the Super League and the Australian Rugby League Premierships were held in parallel in 1997 . After this season, the two leagues were united to form today's National Rugby League .
The first NRL season in 1998 was played by 20 teams. It was agreed to reduce the league to 14 teams by the year 2000. For this purpose, the clubs were rated according to sponsorship money, number of spectators and sporting success. In addition, a larger sum of money was promised in the event of a merger of two teams. By 1999 there were three such associations. For the 2000 season there were then some league exclusions. A team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs , was able to prevail against the expulsion in court and intervened again in the league in 2002.
The 1999 final set a new world record for a rugby league game with 107,999 spectators. The league grew in popularity. In 2001, the large Australian telecommunications company Telstra joined the league as the main sponsor. The number of viewers increased continuously in the following years and reached a preliminary high in 2005. The NRL final was the most viewed program on Australian television in 2007. In addition, a team from Gold Coast was added to the league again with the Gold Coast Titans .
2008 marked the centenary of rugby league in Australia. In addition to a special print on the jerseys of all teams, a large gala was held on April 17th at which, among other things, the best players of the last century were honored. In 2010 there was an inglorious incident when the Melbourne Storm were stripped of two of their previous championships. The association had not complied with the upper limit for salaries and disguised its bookkeeping.
Despite such scandals, the NRL is one of the most popular sports competitions in Australia today, and in the states of New South Wales and Queensland it even surpasses the popularity of the Australian Football League .
Teams
The following teams play in the NRL in the 2019 season:
Game mode
The NRL championship begins in March of each year. Based on the results of the previous season, the 16 teams are divided into two equally strong groups of eight teams each. Each team then plays twice against all eight teams from the other group, one home and one away game. Only one game is played against six of the teams from their own group, but two against the seventh team. The season therefore includes 24 games for each team. In addition, there are two byes each, making the season a total of 26 game days and 192 matches. Not every team can play a home game against every other team from their own group, so the clubs may submit a wish list with home game opponents to the league management before the start of the season in order to create a schedule.
After the 26th matchday, the first eight teams play the knockout round for four weeks. The game is played according to the McIntyre Final Eight System : First of all, the first in the table plays against the eighth of the table, the second against the seventh, etc. The games are played in the stadium of the better placed team. The eight teams will then be put in a new order: The winners will occupy places one to four, sorted one below the other according to the original season position on matchday 26. The same applies to the losers who divide the places five to eight among themselves.
The last two teams are eliminated after the first week. The two first-placed teams are each set for a semi-final in the third week. The teams in ranks three to six will play for the remaining two semi-finals in the second week. The sixth placed meets the fourth and the fifth meets the third. The better placed teams have home right here in the order that results after the 1st playoff round. In the third week the two semi-finals will be played, with the two seeded teams from the first week having home rights.
The winners of the semi-finals finally meet in the fourth week of the knockout phase in the Grand Final . The NRL Final is one of the largest and most popular sporting events in Australia. It has been held with an extensive supporting program since 1999 at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney . The local government of the Australian state of New South Wales has paid $ 45 million to the NRL to keep the venue through 2022.
The winner of the Grand Final receives the official NRL trophy, the Winfield Cup . In addition, each player of the winning team receives a championship ring. The player who was voted best man of the final will also be honored with the Clive Churchill Medal .
Salary cap
Since the NRL was founded, there has been a fixed amount for the participating clubs, which the total salary of the players may not exceed per year. This salary cap is AU $ 4.1 million. Each club must have 25 players under contract with salaries of at least $ 50,000. Since compliance with the salary cap is actively monitored, violations are usually small amounts that result in a fine for the club concerned.
However, there have been three cases of major breaches of salary requirements so far. In 2002 the Bulldogs were found guilty of a systematic violation. In addition to a fine, the team was deprived of all points of the current season, with which they lost their lead in the table and did not even reach the knockout phase. Before the 2006 season, the New Zealand Warriors exposed their former manager's violations in previous seasons. The club then lost four points in the current season, had to pay a fine of $ 430,000 and are planning a tightened salary cap in the 2007 season.
The most serious incident of this type became known on April 22, 2010. The Melbourne Storm had overpayed a total of $ 1.7 million on salaries over five years and systematically obscured it. The club was then revoked two championships that they had won during this period. The prize money received totaling $ 1.1 million had to be distributed among the remaining clubs in the league. In addition, a fine of $ 500,000 was imposed and all points from the 2010 season were revoked. Since the club were not credited with all other points of the season, the Melbourne Storm ended the 2010 season with zero points.
Previous title holder
| title | society | season |
|---|---|---|
| 4th |
 Sydney Roosters
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2002, 2013, 2018, 2019 |
| 3 |
 Brisbane Broncos
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1998, 2000, 2006 |
| 3 |
 Melbourne Storm
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1999, |
| 2 |
 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
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2008, 2011 |
| 1 |
 Newcastle Knights
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2001 |
| 1 |
 Penrith Panthers
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2003 |
| 1 |
 Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
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2004 |
| 1 |
 West Tigers
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2005 |
| 1 |
 St. George Illawarra Dragons
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2010 |
| 1 |
 South Sydney Rabbitohs
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2014 |
| 1 |
 North Queensland Cowboys
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2015 |
| 1 |
 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
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2016 |
Individual evidence
- ^ Cockerill, Ian: Eye of the Storm. In: The Sunday Age. October 3, 1999, p. 4 , accessed July 2, 2010 (English).
- ↑ Viewership figures for ARL and NRL since 1957 ( memento of the original from October 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ a b Honeysett, Stuart: Shocking end to the Melbourne Storm era. In: The Australian. April 23, 2010, accessed July 2, 2010 .
- ↑ Gee, Steve: 2010 NRL draw revealed. In: The Daily Telegraph. September 22, 2009, accessed July 2, 2010 .
- ^ Australian Associated Press: NSW to retain NRL grand final. In: The Sydney Morning Herald. June 22, 2010, accessed July 2, 2010 .
Web links
- Official site (English)
- nrltalk.com - News from the NRL