NRL grand final 2019

The 2019 NRL Grand Final will be the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2019 National Rugby League season and will be played at Sydney's ANZ Stadium. It will be the last game held at ANZ Stadium before it is closed for rebuilding. The biggest night in Super League, the Betfred Super League Grand Final returns to the Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford on Saturday 12 October 2019.

This event will take place on 6th October 2019.

HISTORY OF RUGBY LEAGUE

Rugby League is Australias most entertaining and popular sport. With a rich history dating back to its creation in 1908, Rugby League telecasts have grown to be the most watched programs on Australian television. The NRL Telstra Premiership is the closest elite sporting competition in the country and the Holden State of Origin series between New South Wales and Queensland is Australian sports greatest rivalry. At its heart, Rugby League is a community-based sport played by hundreds of thousands right across Australia, especially in country areas. In addition, there are countless people who give their time volunteering to ensure boys and girls, teenagers and adults can play the sport they love each weekend.

Australian Rugby League Commission

Formed in 2012, the ARLC is the governing body for Rugby League in Australia. It sets the overall strategic direction for the game and works to ensure that the administration across all levels of Rugby League can meet the demands of being a modern, professional and well governed sport. It has responsibility for funding the game at all levels and helping the game to grow and foster both in Australia and internationally.

ARLC Vision, Mission and Values

Our Vision is to be the most entertaining, most engaging, most respected sport.

Our Mission is to bring people together and enrich their lives. As an organisation, we are driven by our beliefs that state:

• We are Inclusive
• We are Positive
• We are United
• We are Disciplined

ABOUT NRL GRAND FINAL

The NRL Grand Final, which determines the Australian rugby league football season's premiers, is one of Australia's major sporting events and one of the largest attended club championship events in the world. Since 1999 it has been contested at Sydney's Stadium Australia, which was the primary athletics venue for the 2000 Olympic Games. The first year it was held at Stadium Australia, the National Rugby League grand final broke the record for attendance at an Australian rugby league game, with 107,999 people attending. The grand finale had traditionally been played on Sunday after the pubs closed, the following year saw the game shifted to an evening start. From 2008, a compromise was reached between official broadcaster. Nine Network's preferred starting time of 7 pm and the traditional starting time of 3 pm, with the grand final beginning at 5 pm AEDT. In 2013 the evening start resumed, the match commencing at 7:15 pm.

Each year the NRL Grand Final Breakfast, a function that is attended by both teams, hundreds of guests and screened live on Australian television is held during the week before the game. However In 2015 the breakfast was cancelled.

The game itself is usually preceded by an opening ceremony featuring entertainment and the singing of the national anthem by well-known Australasian and international musical acts. After the pre-game entertainment it is traditional for the Provan-Summons Trophy, the NRL's official premiership trophy, to be delivered to the field by an Australian Army helicopter shortly before kick off.

At the conclusion of the grand final, there is a presentation ceremony where the winning team is awarded premiership rings. The player judged to be the man-of-the-match by the Australian national team selectors is awarded the prestigious Clive Churchill Medal and the Prime Minister of Australia is typically on-hand to hand the Provan-Summons Trophy to the winning captain.

HISTORY OF NRL GRAND FINAL

First grade rugby league in NSW began in 1908, the first premiership deciding game was played at the Royal Agricultural Society Showground, with Souths defeating Easts 14-12. From 1912 to 1925, no final system was in place, however, in 1916, 1922, 1923 and 1924, the match was played as a tiebreaker to decide the season's premiership winner. From 1926 to 1953, finals were played under the Argus system, which produced a deciding game in two slightly differing ways.

All of these deciding games are now deemed to be grand finals, whether they were referred to as such at the time or not. From 1954 to the present, using a variety of systems, the deciding match has been explicitly termed a grand final, and no distinction is made between grand finals played under the auspices of the various governing bodies.

NOTABLE GRAND FINALS

• 1909 - South Sydney win the premiership by forfeit over Balmain. There was an agreement that both sides would forfeit the match, however Souths showed up, kicked off to an imaginary opponent, scored a try and were declared premiers. 
• 1956 - St. George beat Balmain to claim the first of a world record 11 straight premierships. 
• 1963 - St. George beat Western Suburbs 8-3 in a match famous for the iconic 'Gladiators' photo of Norm Provan and Arthur Summons covered in mud. It is also notable for a controversial try scored by Dragons winger Johnny King. Wests players tackled him and believed him to be held, however the referee rules play on. 
• 1965 - A then record crowd of 78,056 packed into the Sydney Cricket Ground to see St. George captain Norm Provan play his last NSWRFL game. It was also St. George's 10th straight premiership. 
• 1966 - St. George win their 11th straight premiership, at the time a world record in any football code. 
• 1969 - Balmain win a controversial grand final 11-2 over South Sydney. The game causes controversy due to Balmain's lay down tactics. 
• 1975 - Eastern Suburbs beat St. George by a then record 38-0 scoreline. St. George fullback Graeme Langlands plays the game in white boots and has a painkiller injection go wrong. 
• 1977 - St. George and Parramatta play out the first drawn grand final, 9-all after extra time. They come back the next week for a grand final replay and St. George wins 22-0. 
• 1978 - Manly and Cornella play out the second drawn grand final, 11-all. There is no extra time and the replay is played on the following Tuesday, won by Manly 16-0. 
• 1987 - Manly defeat Canberra 18-8 in the last grand final played at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
• 1989 - Known by many as the best grand final ever, Canberra come from 14-2 down to beat Balmain 19-14 in extra time. Canberra became the first team outside of NSW to win the competition. 
• 1992 - The Brisbane Broncos defeat St. George 28-8 to become the first Queensland team to win the grand final. 
• 1997 - Brisbane defeat Cronulla for their third premiership in the Super League grand final. This was the first night grand final, the first (and currently only) top level rugby league grand final to be played outside of Sydney before a record crowd for any sporting event in Queensland of 58,912. 
• 1997 - Newcastle winger Darren Albert scores a try with six seconds left to deliver Newcastle their first ever premiership, 22-16 over Manly. 
• 1999 - A world record crowd of 107,999 watch the two newest clubs Melbourne Storm and St George Illawarra Dragons battle it out. St. George Illawarra lead 18-14 before a late penalty try to Melbourne winger Craig Smith gives the Storm a 20-18 win to become the first Victorian team to win an NRL premiership and the quickest NRL club to win their first ever premiership in only their second season. 
• 2001 - Newcastle win the first night grand final in Sydney, 30-24 over Parramatta.
• 2005 - Wests Tigers five-eighth Benji Marshall throws a magic flick pass to winger Pat Richards as the Tigers become the first joint venture to win the premiership, 30-16 over the North Queensland Cowboys.
• 2008 - Manly Sea Eagles secure a record 40-0 win over Melbourne Storm.
• 2014 - South Sydney Rabbitohs win their first premiership in 43 years, beating Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 30-6.
• 2015 - The North Queensland Cowboys' first premiership after 21 seasons in the NRL and widely regarded as one of the all-time bests (along with the Raiders' '89 win). The first all-Queensland NRL grand final sparked talk of future deciders being held in Queensland. It was also notable as Brisbane Broncos ended their biggest drought from a grand final since entering the competition (in 1988) and it was Bennett's first season back in Brisbane after leaving in 2008. North Queensland Cowboy swinger Kyle Feldt scored a try from a Michael Morgan try-assist after the full-time siren to level the game at 16-all. After Jonathan Thurston missed the sideliner conversion, hitting the right post, the match went to golden point extra time, the first grand final to do so. The Kyle Feldt kick-off to begin golden point was dropped by the Broncos' Ben Hunt. From the ensuing set of six, Thurston kicked the winning field goal, and was subsequently awarded the Clive Churchill Medal. It also ended Brisbane's undefeated streak in grand finals, having won all six previous deciders.
• 2016 - Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks win their first premiership in their 50th season by defeating Melbourne Storm 14-12. This was also only their 4th grand final appearance since entering the competition in 1967. Their other grand final appearances came in 1973, 1978 and 1997. The Sharks won only one of their final five regular-season games. But it was enough to break through for their inaugural premiership.
• 2017 - The Melbourne Storm won their third valid title, and will go down as one of the most dominant sides in Rugby League history after winning the minor premiership as well as having the best attack and defense of any team, finishing the season off with 23 wins and 4 losses.

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