Australian rugby league premiers

The Australian rugby league premiers are the winners of the First Grade competition in Australian rugby league, which is currently the National Rugby League.

History

The first season of rugby league in New South Wales was held in 1908 and run by the New South Wales Rugby Football League. The premiership was formed as a breakaway competition from the amateur rugby union competition that existed in the Sydney district at the time, with which players had fallen out of heart with due to increased revenue from the game not being reflected in player allowments. At the end of the 1908 season, South Sydney became the first team to win the premiership.

During the 1980s, the competition began to spread out interstate. Starting from 1995, the competition began to be run by the Australian Rugby League. In 1997, a rival competition created by News Limited known as Super League was formed and run alongside the Australian Rugby League premiership, in which a number of teams defected to. Later that year, an agreement was made between the two parties following massive financial losses to merge into a new competition, known as the National Rugby League. Each of these seasons is considered to represent one continuous line of competition dating back from the first season in 1908.

South Sydney, with 20 titles, have been crowned premiers more times than any other team, despite not having won since 1971. They are followed by St. George (15), who managed to tally a record 11 premierships in a row between 1956 and 1966. The Sydney Roosters, formerly known as Eastern Suburbs, are third with 12 titles.

New South Wales Rugby League (1908-1994)

National Rugby League (1998-present)

Premiership Tally

Notes

#note label|forfeit|1|a Balmain failed to turn up for the Final and hence the were declared to have forfeited the match to South Sydney.
#note label|replay|2|a note label|replay|2|b The Premiers were decided in a Grand Final replay after the first match was tied.
#note label|canterbury|3|a note label|canterbury|3|b Bulldogs were known as Canterbury-Bankstown until 1994 and from 1996-1999, and as Sydney Bulldogs in 1995.
#note label|easts|4|a Sydney Roosters were known as Eastern Suburbs until 1994 and as Sydney City Roosters from 1995-1999.

References

*cite web | title=Season Summary | work=Rugby League Tables & Statistics | url=http://www.stats.rleague.com/rl/teams/all/overall_ss.html | accessdate=June 1 | accessyear=2007
*cite web | title=Premiership Records | work=National Rugby League | url=http://www.nrl.com/PremiershipRecords/tabid/292/Default.aspx | accessdate=June 1 | accessyear=2007

ee also

*Rugby league in Australia