- 1994 NSWRL season
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1994 NSWRL season Teams 16 Premiers 
Canberra (3rd title)Minor premiers 
Canterbury (6th title)Matches played 182 Points scored 7416 (total)
40.747 (per match)Attendance 2,732,389 (total)
15,013 (per match)Top point scorer(s) Daryl Halligan (270)Top try scorer(s) 
Steve Renouf (23)The 1994 New South Wales Rugby League season (known as the 1994 Winfield Cup Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the eighty-seventh season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen clubs competed for the J J Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final match for the Winfield Cup trophy between the Canberra Raiders and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
Contents
Season summary
This was the last premiership season to be administered by the New South Wales Rugby League. For the following year, control of the Winfield Cup would be passed on to the Australian Rugby League and re-branded as such, as part of the move to become a truly national competition.
On the first of June, the previous season's premiers, the Broncos played in the 1994 World Club Challenge match in Brisbane against British champions Wigan. Wigan defeated the Broncos 20 to 14 at ANZ Stadium in front of 54,220 spectators.
On 14 July the North Sydney club was fined $87,000 for breaching the salary cap.[1]
In total, twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Canterbury, Norths, Canberra, Manly and Brisbane who went on to battle it out in the finals.
The 1994 Rothmans Medallist was North Sydney forward David Fairleigh. The Dally M Award went to Manly-Warringah's five-eighth, Cliff Lyons who was also named as Rugby League Week's player of the year.
The 1994 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Mal Meninga.
At the end of the 1994 season a squad of players from the NSWRL Premiership went on the 1994 Kangaroo tour.
Teams
The lineup of teams remained unchanged from the previous season, with sixteen clubs contesting the premiership, including five Sydney-based foundation teams, another six from Sydney, two from greater New South Wales, two from Queensland, and one from the Australian Capital Territory.
Advertising
In 1994 the League and its advertising agency Hertz Walpole returned to the original 1989 recording of "The Best" by Tina Turner to underscore the season launch ad. Footage had been shot of Turner's performance at the 1993 Grand Final and a studio bluescreen shoot also took place during that visit ensuring a store of images that could be used in flexible adaptations for the final two years of Turner's association with the competition and the Winfield Cup.
The 1994 advertisement used the performance and superimposed studio footage of Turner into crowd and stadium scenes that replicated the Sydney Football Stadium. The closing scenes of the commercial made it appear that Turner was singing the song high up in the Sydney Football Stadium's stands in front of its identifiable stretched-sail roofing.
Ladder
Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts 1 Canterbury-Bankstown22 18 0 4 537 340 +197 36 2 
North Sydney22 17 1 4 517 291 +226 35 3 Canberra22 17 0 5 677 298 +379 34 4 
Manly-Warringah22 16 1 5 605 311 +294 33 5 Brisbane22 13 1 8 544 316 +228 27 6 
Illawarra22 11 3 8 484 387 +97 25 7 
Cronulla-Sutherland22 12 0 10 432 401 +31 24 8 
Penrith22 10 2 10 404 448 -44 22 9 
South Sydney22 9 1 12 401 569 -168 19 10 
Newcastle22 9 0 13 427 458 -31 18 11 
St. George22 9 0 13 386 497 -111 18 12 
Parramatta22 7 1 14 350 474 -124 15 13 
Western Suburbs22 6 2 14 439 650 -211 14 14 
Eastern Suburbs22 6 1 15 344 513 -169 13 15 
Gold Coast22 5 1 16 363 618 -255 11 16 
Balmain22 4 0 18 303 642 -339 8 Finals
Home Score Away Match Information Date and Time Venue Referee Crowd Qualifying Finals 
North Sydney Bears12-26 
Canberra Raiders3 September 1994 Sydney Football Stadium Bill Harrigan 33,641 
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles4-16 
Brisbane Broncos4 September 1994 Sydney Football Stadium Greg McCallum 34,891 Semi Finals North Sydney Bears15-14 Brisbane Broncos10 September 1994 Sydney Football Stadium Bill Harrigan 36,011 
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs19-18 Canberra Raiders11 September 1994 Sydney Football Stadium Greg McCallum 41,865 Preliminary Final Canberra Raiders22-9 North Sydney Bears18 September 1994 Sydney Football Stadium Greg McCallum 41,941 Grand Final Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs12-36 Canberra Raiders25 September 1994 Sydney Football Stadium Greg McCallum 42,234 Grand Final
Canterbury-Bankstown Position Canberra Scott Wilson FB Brett Mullins Jason Williams WG Ken Nagas Steven Hughes CE Mal Meninga (c) Jarrod McCracken CE Ruben Wiki Darryl Halligan WG Noa Nadruku Terry Lamb (c) FE Laurie Daley Craig Polla-Mounter HB Ricky Stuart Darren Britt PR Quentin Pongia Jason Hetherington HK Steve Walters Martin Bella PR Paul Osborne Dean Pay SR David Furner Jason Smith SR Jason Croker Jim Dymock LK Bradley Clyde Matthew Ryan Reserve Brett Hetherington Steve Price Reserve David Westley Simon Gillies Reserve Mark Brokenshire Reserve Chris Anderson Coach Tim Sheens The Canberra Raiders were confident in the lead up and everything played into their hands from the whistle. Canterbury veteran prop Martin Bella dropped the ball from the kick-off and before too long Canberra had posted two tries.
Canberra legend Mal Meninga was given a champion's farewell as his "Green Machine" swamped the Bulldogs. Canberra's Paul Osborne also enjoyed a fairytale day. On the outer for most of the year, Osborne won a reprieve as prop after team-mate John Lomax was suspended for a high tackle in the final against Norths. Osborne rose to the occasion, setting up the first two Raiders tries in the opening sixteen minutes.
Meninga's 166th and final match for the Raiders ended perfectly when he scored the last try of the day after intercepting a pass from Jason Smith. Meninga outlasted the cover defence, running almost 40 metres and palming off his opposite centre Jarrod McCracken to score the try and send the crowd into raptures.
The Canberra Raiders had claimed their third premiership in what was at the time the highest-scoring grand final in history.
Canberra Raiders 36
Tries: Nagas 2, Furner, Daley, Nadruku, Croker, Meninga
Goals: Furner 4/7Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 12
Tries: Williams, Hetherington
Goals: Halligan 2/2See also
- 1994 State of Origin series
References
- ^ AAP (2010-04-22). "Melbourne Storm salary cap quotes". The Roar (Australia: The Roar Sports Opinion). http://www.theroar.com.au/2010/04/22/melbourne-storm-salary-cap-quotes/. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- Rugby League Tables - Season 1994 The World of Rugby League
- 1994 J J Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup
- NSWRL season 1994 at rugbyleagueproject.com
- Results: 1991-2000 at rabbitohs.com.au
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NRL era Categories:- 1994 in rugby league
- 1994 in Australian sport
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