Australian Rugby League season 1997
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- This article details the Australian Rugby League half of 1997's split competition. For the Super League half, see Super League (Australia) season 1997
| Australian Rugby League season 1997 | |
 |
|
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers |  Newcastle (1st title) |
| Minor premiers |  Manly-Warringah (9th title) |
| Matches played | 141 |
| Points scored | 5370 (average 38.085 per match) |
| Attendance | 1,496,040 (average 10,610 per match) |
| Top points scorer(s) |  Jason Taylor (242) |
| Top try scorer(s) | Terry Hill (22) |
The 1997 Australian Rugby League (ARL) premiership was the 90th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the third season run under the ARL. Twelve, ARL-loyal teams - eight from across Sydney, two from greater New South Wales and two from Queensland - competed for the Optus Cup.
Contents |
[edit] Season summary
The season is most notable for being run parallel to the rival Super League competition. This was the only season when the two competitions actually ran, notwithstanding that 1995 and 1996 had been disrupted by the Super League war.
ARL chairman Ken Arthurson resigned in February 1997 in an effort to enable re-unification negotiations to succeed. It wouldn't be till after the season's end in December that the boards of every ARL club would gather at the SCG in an unprecedented meeting to consider the proposed peace deal following five months of secret negotiations between Ian Frykberg and Neil Whittaker.
In 1997 the official player of the year award, the Rothmans Medal was won by Brad Fittler. This was the last year that the award would be known as the Rothmans Medal, with the Dally M Medal becoming the only player of the year award from the following year.
[edit] Teams
 Balmain Tigers |
 Gold Coast Chargers |
 Illawarra Steelers |
 Manly Sea Eagles |
 Newcastle Knights |
 North Sydney Bears |
 Parramatta Eels |
 Sydney City Roosters |
 South Queensland Crushers |
 South Sydney Rabbitohs |
 St. George Dragons |
 Western Suburbs Magpies |
[edit] Ladder
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manly-Warringah |
22 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 521 | 366 | +155 | 32 |
| 2 | Newcastle |
22 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 512 | 320 | +192 | 29 |
| 3 |  Parramatta |
22 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 431 | 359 | +72 | 29 |
| 4 | North Sydney |
22 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 429 | 341 | +188 | 27 |
| 5 |  Sydney City |
22 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 487 | 366 | +121 | 27 |
| 6 |  Illawarra |
22 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 423 | 376 | +47 | 23 |
| 7 |  Gold Coast |
22 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 438 | 466 | -28 | 21 |
| 8 |  Balmain |
22 | 10 | 0 | 12 | 339 | 340 | -1 | 20 |
| 9 |  Western Suburbs |
22 | 10 | 0 | 12 | 355 | 424 | -69 | 20 |
| 10 |  St. George |
22 | 9 | 1 | 12 | 331 | 392 | -61 | 19 |
| 11 |  South Sydney |
22 | 4 | 1 | 17 | 323 | 630 | -307 | 9 |
| 12 |  South Queensland |
22 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 321 | 630 | -309 | 8 |
[edit] Finals
The Sydney Roosters and the North Sydney Bears played out a bizzare Qualifying Final with the Roosters winning 33-21. The Roosters fought back from 14-2 down with 10 minutes to go to get it back to 14-14, then both side kicked a field goal to send it to extra time at 15-15. The Roosters went on to play the Gold Coast Chargers who were in their first ever finals campain with Roosters winning 32-10 to book a Preliminary Final showdown with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. The Roosters had another fight back when they came from 16-6 down to get it back to 16-16, but it was a Sea Eagles field goal that proved the difference to book themselves a third straight Grand Final birth with a 17-16 win. The Newcastle Knights got into their first ever Grand Final and came back from 16-8 down to win 22-16 in the dying stages of the game and got themselves their first taste of a Premiership.
| Home | Score | Away | Match Information | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date and Time | Venue | Referee | Crowd | |||||
| Minor Qualifying Finals | ||||||||
 Illawarra Steelers |
14-25 |  Gold Coast Chargers |
5 September 1997 | Parramatta Stadium | David Manson | 8,197 | ||
 North Sydney Bears |
21-33 |  Sydney City Roosters |
6 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | Kevin Jeffes | 11,332 | ||
 Newcastle Knights |
28-20 |  Parramatta Eels |
7 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | Paul McBlane | 17,849 | ||
| Major Qualifying Finals | ||||||||
| Sydney City Roosters |
32-10 | Gold Coast Chargers |
12 September 1997 | Parramatta Stadium | Paul McBlane | 10,466 | ||
| Parramatta Eels |
14-24 | North Sydney Bears |
13 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | David Manson | 17,025 | ||
 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles |
27-12 | Newcastle Knights |
14 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | Kevin Jeffes | 26,531 | ||
| Preliminary Finals | ||||||||
| Newcastle Knights |
17-12 | North Sydney Bears |
20 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | Kevin Jeffes | 22,540 | ||
| Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles |
17-16 | Sydney City Roosters |
21 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | David Manson | 30,794 | ||
| Grand Final | ||||||||
| Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles |
16-22 | Newcastle Knights |
28 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | David Manson | 42,482 | ||
[edit] Grand Final
| Manly Sea Eagles | Position | Newcastle Knights |
|---|---|---|
| Shannon Nevin | FB | Robbie O'Davis |
| Danny Moore | WG | Darren Albert |
| Craig Innes | CE | Adam MacDougall |
| Terry Hill | CE | Owen Craigie |
| John Hopoate | WG | Mark Hughes |
| Geoff Toovey (c) | FE | Matthew Johns |
| Craig Field | HB | Andrew Johns |
| David Gillespie | PR | Tony Butterfield |
| Anthony Colella | HK | Billy Peden |
| Mark Carroll | PR | Paul Harragon (c) |
| Steve Menzies | SR | Wayne Richards |
| Daniel Gartner | SR | Adam Muir |
| Nik Kosef | LK | Marc Glanville |
| Cliff Lyons | Reserve | Troy Fletcher |
| Neil Tierney | Reserve | Scott Conley |
| Scott Fulton | Reserve | Lee Jackson |
| Andrew Hunter | Reserve | Stephen Crowe |
| Bob Fulton | Coach | Malcolm Reilly |
The fairtytale came true for thousands of Novocastrians when the men in red and blue won their first ever premiership title, staging a comeback from 16-8 down to shatter Manly's hopes.
The match is best remembered for its classic finish, when winger Darren Albert broke a 16-16 deadlock seven seconds from fulltime. Newcastle's brilliant half-back Andrew Johns unexpectedly went down a narrow blind-side before slipping a pass to Albert who raced over to score.
The win was a huge morale boost to the blue-collar Newscastle district following the closure of the area's biggest employer, the BHP steelworks, being announced the same year. Seventy per cent of the winning squad were Newcastle juniors.
Newcastle Knights: 22 (O'Davis 2, Albert tries; A Johns 5 goals)
defeated
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles: 16 (Hopoate, Innes, Nevin tries; Nevin 2 goals).
Clive Churchill Medallist: Robbie O'Davis
[edit] Formation of the National Rugby League
With twenty-two teams playing in two competitions in 1997 crowd attendances and corporate sponsorships were spread very thinly, and many teams found themselves in financial difficulty by the end of the season. Despite having the financial backing of Optus, the Australian Rugby League decided that it was not in the best interests of the game to run two competitions and undertook moves to approach News Limited and invite the traditional clubs back into the main competition. As a consequence of the negotiations that followed, on September 23, 1997 the ARL announced that it was forming a new competition in partnership with News Limited. The National Rugby League was formed from the ARL and Super League competitions.
It was announced that the 1998 season would have 20 teams competiting, 19 ARL/Super League teams and the Melbourne Storm, who were owned by News Limited. Clubs on both sides of the war were shut down. News decided to close the Hunter Mariners and the financially ruined Western Reds, who were $10million in debt at the end of 1997, while the ARL decided to close down the South Queensland Crushers, who were also in financial trouble. Additionally, at the end of the following season News Limited would decide to close down the Adelaide Rams and the ARL would close down the Gold Coast Chargers, even though they were one of the few clubs to make a profit during the Super League war.
[edit] See also
- Australian Rugby League
- Super League war
- Super League (Australia)
- Super League (Australia) season 1997
- History of the National Rugby League
[edit] References
- Rugby League Tables - Notes The World of Rugby League
- Rugby League Tables - Season 1997 The World of Rugby League
- Premiership History and Statistics RL1908
