National Rugby League season 2006

National Rugby League season 2006

Infobox rugby league season
year = 2006
competition = National Rugby League


imagesize = 100px
caption =
teams = 15
premiers = leagueicon|Brisbane Broncos|16 Brisbane
count = 6th
minor premiers = leagueicon|Melbourne Storm|16 Melbourne
mpcount = 1st
matches = 189
points = 8201
attendance = 3115701
top points scorer = leagueicon|Canterbury Bulldogs|16 Hazem El Masri (296)
top try scorer = leagueicon|South Sydney Rabbitohs|16 Nathan Merritt (22)
The year 2006 saw the ninth National Rugby League premiership, the 99th season of professional rugby league football in Australia. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with fifteen teams participating throughout the 26 rounds of the regular season, including ten teams from New South Wales (9 of them from the Sydney basin), two from Queensland and one each from Victoria, the ACT and New Zealand. After the regular season concluded, eight of these teams qualified for the four-week finals series, with the Brisbane Broncos eventual victors in the Grand Final.

Pre season

*Newcastle Knights coach Michael Hagan signed a three-year deal to coach the Parramatta Eels, beginning in 2007. Hagan replaced Brian Smith, who had coached the Eels since 1997 whilst Smith replaced Hagan at Newcastle in an unprecedented coach-swap. In other coaching moves, Matthew Elliott was confirmed as the coach of the Penrith Panthers, beginning in 2007.
*Penrith Panthers halfback Craig Gower was stripped of the captaincy and fined $100,000 ($70,000 of which was suspended) after unprofessional behaviour at a charity golf function.
*The Charity Shield heralded the unofficial start of the season, with the South Sydney Rabbitohs defeating St George Illawarra 14-12 in their first home game at Telstra Stadium on February 18. All NRL clubs engaged in a series of trials during the month of February.
*Wests Tigers premiership-winning captain Scott Prince announced on March 3 he had signed a four-year deal with expansion team Gold Coast Titans, beginning in 2007. Prince relinquished the captaincy of the Tigers for the 2006 season.

New Zealand Warriors salary cap breach

The New Zealand Warriors were investigated by the National Rugby League over alleged salary cap breaches committed by the team's previous administrators. The club admitted to inflating its salary cap to the tune of nearly $1 million during the 2005 season. As punishment, the National Rugby League fined the Warriors club $430,000 and stripped the team of four competition points prior to the beginning of the season. It was the first time in 99 years of rugby league in Australia that a team has started a season on less than "zero" premiership points.

The Warriors appealed the decision by the NRL to strip the four competition points but accepted the financial penalty. Prior to the beginning of the season, the National Rugby League confirmed that the points penalty would stand. The penalty would prove the decisive factor in the Warriors missing the finals for the third year in succession.

Teams

Team of the Year

Grand Final

The season culminated in the premiership final on October 1, 2006, played by the 3rd-placed Brisbane Broncos and the minor premiers Melbourne Storm. The Melbourne Storm went into the game as favourites with both teams looking to keep their perfect Grand Final records intact: the Broncos with 5/5 and the Storm with 1/1 heading into the game. It was the first grand final ever not to feature a New South Wales-based club, yet was played at Sydney's Telstra Stadium. A crowd of 79,609 people turned out, with INXS performing before the match which was to be refereed by Paul Simkins, who was overseeing his first grand final.

First Half

The first points came from a penalty in the ninth minute. Brisbane's Shaun Berrigan, playing at hooker, tried to burrow over the Storm line from dummy half but was ruled to have had the ball taken from his arms by Billy Slater in a two-man tackle. The resulting penalty kick by captain Darren Lockyer in front of the posts was a gift two points for the Broncos to take an early 2-0 lead. Three minutes later, Melbourne halfback Cooper Cronk kicked a 40/20 coming out of his side's territory. Following the subsequent scrum in an attacking position, the Storm raided Brisbane's line and got the first try of the match. Scott Hill did well to evade a few attempted tackles and shoot a remarkable pass around the back of a Broncos defender and into the arms of winger Steve Turner who dived over out wide. Cameron Smith missed the conversion, leaving the score at 4-2. Brisbane then got a scrum of their own close to Melbourne's line after Turner knocked on trying to take a Lockyer bomb. Lockyer, moving across-field fed the ball back inside to Justin Hodges who went over untouched to put the ball down near the posts, affording the Broncos captain another easy kick. No more points were scored in the first half and Brisbane went into the break with an 8-4 lead. Darren Lockyer was limping around in the dressing room but went on to play through the rest of the game.

econd Half

Eight minutes into the second half, a high tackle by Justin Hodges on Cameron Smith close to the Broncos' line resulted in a minor scuffle and a penalty to the Storm. Melbourne captain Smith decided to take the tap and attack Brisbane's line and a close-range try to Matt King resulted. The scores were then level at 8-all, with the kick to come. Smith, also the Storm's first-choice goal-kicker, was having a problem with his kicking leg so the task fell onto Matt Geyer whose conversion attempt went wide. Ten minutes later a penalty was awarded to the Broncos after a high shot from Billy Slater on Shaun Berrigan and Corey Parker's kick was successful, giving his side a two-point lead at 10-8. Following the re-start kick from Melbourne, Brisbane were working the ball out of their own half and on the fifth tackle scored a brilliant Grand Final try. From dummy-half Berrigan ran then passed back inside to Lockyer who gave a short ball on to Parker who did likewise for Casey McGuire. Before being tackled McGuire tossed the ball blindly back over his head and it was picked up by Lockyer who spun out of a tackle then passed it to Tonie Carroll. Without losing momentum, Carroll passed the ball on to a flying Brent Tate who raced to the corner for the try. The conversion attempt from near the sideline was missed by Parker so the Broncos led by six with 17 minutes of play remaining. A couple of minutes later the Storm appeared to have scored their third try when a bomb by Cronk was leapt for but unsuccessfully taken by both a Brisbane and a Melbourne player. On its way down the ball was snatched from the air by King who looked to have put it down for his second try but the video referee ruled that the ball had gone forward off the Storm so it was disallowed. In the 73rd minute, after a strong run by prop Shane Webcke put him in good field position, Lockyer snapped away a successful field goal. This gave his team a 7-point buffer. A frustrated Melbourne side were unable to score in the remaining minutes as the Broncos ground their way towards full-time, the score 15-8 at the final siren.

Post-Match

Brisbane's victory was the club's sixth premiership in their nineteen seasons and it broke what was at the time their longest premiership drought (five years). The Broncos suffered 11 losses during the season, the most ever by a premiership-winning team. The win also enabled Brisbane to maintain their 100% victory record in Grand Finals, making it six from six. This also made Wayne Bennett the most successful Australian rugby league club coach of all time. In addition the Grand Final victory provided the perfect farewell for retiring Broncos prop-forward Shane Webcke, who left the playing field with a premiership in his final season, a fine reward for his commitment to the game during his career. Also departing the NRL were Casey McGuire and Scott Hill, both bound for the European Super League.

Brisbane 15 (Tries: Hodges, Tate; Goals: Lockyer 2/2, Parker 1/2; Field Goals: Lockyer)

Melbourne 8 (Tries: Turner, King; Goals: Smith 0/1, Geyer 0/1)

Clive Churchill Medal: Shaun Berrigan (Brisbane)

ee also

* National Rugby League
* Brisbane Broncos 2006
* Bulldogs 2006
* 2006 Rugby League State of Origin series
* 2006 Rugby League Tri-Nations
* Rugby league in 2006
* 2006 Australian football code crowds

Footnotes

External links

* [http://stats.rleague.com/rl/seas/2006.html 2006 NRL season at stats.rleague.com]
* [http://rugbyleagueproject.com/competitions/NRL_2007.html 2006 NRL season at rugbyleagueproject.com]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rugbyleague/scores/2006/nrl/default.htm 2006 NRL season at abc.net.au]
* [http://www.nrl.com/2006Draw/tabid/296/Default.aspx 2006 NRL season at nrl.com]
* [http://www.menofleague.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=57&Itemid=76 "Key features of the 2006 Telstra Premiership" - article at menofleague.com]


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