2008 NRL season

2008 National Rugby League
Teams	16
Premiers	Manly Warringah (7th title)
Minor premiers	Melbourne[1]
Matches played	201
Points scored	8470 (total) 42.139 (per match)
Attendance	3,279,663 (total) 16,317 (per match)
Top point scorer(s)	Luke Covell (206)
Top try scorer(s)	Brett Stewart (22)

The 2008 NRL season was the 101st season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the eleventh run by the National Rugby League. For the second year, sixteen teams competed for the 2008 Telstra Premiership title. The season commenced with the first matches played on 14 March and ended with the Grand Final, played on 5 October. The premiership was won by the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles who set the record for the highest Grand Final victory in Australia's rugby league history.

2008 also marked the launch of the National Youth Competition, an under 20 competition running parallel to the senior competition under the sponsorship name, the Toyota Cup.

Centenary of rugby league

Rugby league was first introduced into Australia in 1907, with a meeting in Sydney on 8 August 1908 effectively forming a new breakaway league from the New South Wales Rugby Union. The new body was known as the New South Wales Rugby Football League, and became the first professional sporting code in Australia. In the following months, eight Sydney-based teams were formed and signed up to play in the New South Wales Rugby Football League's premiership, with another club joining a week into competition.

The New South Wales Rugby League continued to run the competition up until and including 1994 when it passed on responsibility to the Australian Rugby League, the national authority for rugby league in Australia. In 1997 a rival Super League competition run by News Limited was started and signed up several existing teams from the Australian Rugby League. After both bodies lost a lot of money that year, a truce was signed and a new competition was formed for the 1998 season, under the brand name "National Rugby League."

Centenary of Rugby League logo

Regarded as the spiritual home of rugby league in Australia, Birchgrove Oval hosted the official launch of the NRL's 2008 Centenary rugby league season.^[2] During the season, the NRL staged a number of celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the sport in Australia. The opening match of the 2008 season was held between the remaining two "foundation clubs" from 1908, the Sydney Roosters and the South Sydney Rabbitohs. A 'Heritage round' was introduced to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first round of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League, whereby teams faced opponents that entered the competition in similar time frames.

Several events took place to celebrate the 100th anniversary of landmark moments in rugby league in Australia. These events began in August 2007 with a re-enactment of the meeting which led to the formation of the New South Wales Rugby League, essentially the beginning of rugby league in Australia. In January and February 2008, several of the foundation clubs, the Newtown Jets, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Balmain Tigers, Sydney Roosters, North Sydney Bears and Western Suburbs Magpies, hosted special functions at the places they were officially formed.

Season summary

Schedule

The 2008 season was one week longer than the 2007 competition, allowing an extra bye on top of the existing one allocated to each club. In addition, the scheduling of the earlier representative fixtures was changed, including the removal of Monday Night Football on weekends prior to the City vs Country match and the ANZAC Test. The City vs Country fixture was pushed back to Friday night where it had been prior to 2007. Many of these initiatives were announced mid-way through the 2007 season by the Chief Executive Officer of the National Rugby League, David Gallop, in an attempt to help reduce player fatigue after several complaints of player injuries caused by the short turnaround between some matches.

2008 also saw a change in how the draw is devised, with teams nominating their preferred home opponents in order of preference. The NRL consulted these requests when structuring the season's fixtures. This change is intended to maximise attendances by allowing local derbies and other high-interest matches to be played twice a year. It is a departure from previous methods, which focused on trying to produce an equally difficult playing schedule for each club.^[3] The draw was released on 19 October 2007.

On the back of increasing public pressure, the National Rugby League decided to move the Grand Final back from the later timeslot of 7:00pm to 5:00pm. The Grand Final had traditionally been held on a Sunday afternoon up until 2000, after which it was relocated to the evening in order to accommodate the Channel 9's programming desires. Whilst the late night scheduling was not considered as much an issue for New South Wales audiences because of the Labour Day public holiday the following day, it was argued by many Queenslanders that such a time was unsuitable for families on the eve of a weekday. Many individuals in the general public and the media pushed for a full return to a 3:00pm kickoff time where it had been for many decades, whilst Channel 9 continued to insist on 7:00pm. As a compromise, the National Rugby League decided on a "twilight" match starting at 5:00pm. It was the first time since the 2000 season that the Grand Final was played in daylight, largely due to a change in commencement of Daylight Saving Time in New South Wales, ACT and Victoria in 2008.^[4]

Teams

The number of teams in the NRL remained unchanged since the previous season, with sixteen participating in the regular season: ten from New South Wales, three from Queensland and one from each of Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. Of the ten from New South Wales, eight (St. George Illawarra are both from Sydney and Wollongong) are from Sydney's metropolitan area, with (St. George Illawarra being a Sydney and Wollongong joint venture. Just two foundation clubs from New South Wales Rugby League season 1908 played in this competition: the Sydney Roosters (formerly known as Eastern Suburbs) and the South Sydney Rabbitohs. The Melbourne Storm were the defending premiers.

For the first time since the 1988 introduction of teams outside of New South Wales, an under-20 competition ran incorporating sides fielded by each of the sixteen premiership clubs. The National Youth Competition, known as the Toyota Cup for sponsorship purposes was solely for under-20 players.

Brisbane Broncos 21st season Ground: Suncorp Stadium Coach: Wayne Bennett Captain: Darren Lockyer	Bulldogs RLFC 74th season Ground: ANZ Stadium Coach: Steve Folkes Captain: Andrew Ryan	Canberra Raiders 27th season Ground: Canberra Stadium Coach: Neil Henry Captain: Alan Tongue	Cronulla Sharks 42nd season Ground: Toyota Stadium Coach: Ricky Stuart Captain: Paul Gallen
Gold Coast Titans 2nd season Ground: Skilled Park Coach: John Cartwright Captain: Scott Prince & Luke Bailey	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 59th season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Des Hasler Captain: Matt Orford	Melbourne Storm 11th season Ground Olympic Park Stadium Coach: Craig Bellamy Captain: Cameron Smith	Newcastle Knights 21st season Ground: EnergyAustralia Stadium Coach: Brian Smith Captain: Danny Buderus
New Zealand Warriors 14th season Ground: Mt Smart Stadium Coach: Ivan Cleary Captain: Steve Price	North Queensland Cowboys 14th season Ground: Dairy Farmers Stadium Coach: Graham Murray→Ian Millward Captain: Johnathan Thurston	Parramatta Eels 62nd season Ground: Parramatta Stadium Coach: Michael Hagan Captain: Nathan Cayless	Penrith Panthers 42nd season Ground: CUA Stadium Coach: Matthew Elliott Captain: Petero Civoniceva
South Sydney Rabbitohs 99th season Ground: ANZ Stadium Coach: Jason Taylor Captain: David Kidwell & Roy Asotasi	Sydney Roosters 101st season Ground: Sydney Football Stadium Coach: Brad Fittler Captain: Craig Fitzgibbon→Braith Anasta	St. George Illawarra Dragons 10th season Ground: OKI Jubilee Stadium & WIN Stadium Coach: Nathan Brown Captain: Mark Gasnier	Wests Tigers 9th season Ground: Campbelltown Stadium & Leichhardt Oval Coach: Tim Sheens Captain: Brett Hodgson

Records set in 2008

• Gold Coast Titans winger Jordan Atkins matched the standing record for most tries in a first grade debut set by Canterbury Bankstown's Tony Nash in season 1942 when he scored four tries in round 1 of 2008.
• The Brisbane Broncos set a new club home attendance record for a regular season game when 50,612 spectators attended their Round 3 match against the North Queensland Cowboys at Suncorp Stadium.
• The Bulldogs set a club home crowd record when 36,526 spectators attended their Round 4 clash against the Sydney Roosters. The match marked Roosters forward Willie Mason's first match against his old club, and also set a record for the highest attended club match in Sydney during a premiership season (excluding finals).
• Ruben Wiki became only the 10th player in history to play 300 first grade games, and is the first New Zealander to pass this milestone.
• The South Sydney Rabbitohs equalled the 2nd biggest comeback in NRL history in Round 16 against the North Queensland Cowboys. After trailing 28–4 after fifty minutes, the Rabbitohs won the match 29–28.
• The North Queensland Cowboys recorded their longest losing streak of 13 matches (round 7–21)
• Melbourne Storm became the first club to win three minor premierships in a row (and also three minor premierships overall) since the founding of the NRL, but these titles have since been stripped by the NRL as a result of gross salary cap infringements.
• The New Zealand Warriors became the first eighth-placed club to win in the first week of the finals since the McIntyre Final 8 System was introduced in season 1999. They progressed to the preliminary final, the furthest stage that any 8th-placed team has progressed. This record stood for 12 months, when the 8th-placed team from the following season, the Parramatta Eels, went one better and made the Grand Final.
• The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles' Grand Final defeat of defending premiers Melbourne Storm, 40–0, is the greatest winning margin in a Grand Final, eclipsing the record set in 1975 which was Eastern Suburbs 38–0 win over St. George Dragons. The last team to be kept scoreless in a Grand Final was Cronulla in 1978 in the Grand Final replay against Manly 16–0.
• The season's leading try scorer, Manly-Warringah's Brett Stewart, equalled former Canberra Raiders flyer Brett Mullins' 1994 record for most tries scored in a season by a fullback with 22 (19 in the regular season, 3 in the finals).

Marketing

Sponsorship

For the eighth straight season the National Rugby League's maintained its naming rights sponsor Telstra with the competition again known as the Telstra Premiership. In addition to the Telstra Premiership logo appearing over the right upper chest on each team's playing jersey, the "Centenary of Rugby League in Australia" logo was displayed just above to commemorate the competition's centenary.

Following their successful sponsorship of "Friday Night Football" in 2007, the Foster's Group decided to change the specific brand sponsorship from their Carlton Draught product to now represent Victoria Bitter. Harvey Norman continued its sponsorship of the State of Origin series while AAMI also continued its association with the annual City vs Country Origin clash. Additionally, Bundaberg Rum maintained naming rights to both the ANZAC Test and Monday Night Football.

Throughout the season, various charities and other non-profit organisations received exposure on Sunday Football through Rugby League's One Community Program.

Advertising

In celebration of the code's 100th anniversary the NRL and its ad agency MJW created for 2008 a Centenary Tribute ad which used historical footage of games and stars of yesteryear, blending in with action sequences of the modern day. Original epic orchestral music was used as the soundtrack. The ad opened with still imagery from 1908 to the modern day juxtaposed and rolling as though an ensemble of players are entering the Sydney Cricket Ground from the dressing rooms in the Members Stand.

The morphed film segments included a 1930s Australia v England Test with modern Australian players in the backline; Wayne Pearce in the 1980s on the sideline at the Sydney Cricket Ground next to a mud covered 1960s player and a sequence where Darren Lockyer circa 2000 takes a pass from Clive Churchill circa 1950. Clever touches include Dragons Mark Gasnier backing up his uncle Reg Gasnier some 40 years apart; Sharks stars of different generations, Steve Rogers and Andrew Ettingshausen running together and Souths' Craig Wing in 2008 putting Ron Coote through a gap in 1968. The final shot shows the 2008 version of Norm Provan and Arthur Summons covered head to toe in mud & recreating the "Gladiators" image from the 1963 Grand Final acknowledged by the 2007 Grand Finalists Cameron Smith and Greg Inglis in front of iconic images of Grand Finals gone by including John Sattler being chaired from the field in 1971 while Brad Fittler celebrates his 2002 win and Bradley Clyde his 1994 premiership.^[5]

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Melbourne	24	17	0	7	2	584	282	+302	38
2	Manly-Warringah	24	17	0	7	2	645	355	+290	38
3	Cronulla	24	17	0	7	2	451	384	+67	38
4	Sydney Roosters	24	15	0	9	2	511	446	+65	34
5	Brisbane	24	14	1	9	2	560	452	+108	33
6	Canberra	24	13	0	11	2	640	527	+113	30
7	St. George Illawarra	24	13	0	11	2	489	378	+111	30
8	New Zealand	24	13	0	11	2	502	567	-65	30
9	Newcastle	24	12	0	12	2	516	486	+30	28
10	Wests Tigers	24	11	0	13	2	528	560	-32	26
11	Parramatta	24	11	0	13	2	501	547	-46	26
12	Penrith	24	10	1	13	2	504	611	-107	25
13	Gold Coast	24	10	0	14	2	476	586	-110	24
14	South Sydney	24	8	0	16	2	453	666	-213	20
15	North Queensland	24	5	0	19	2	474	638	-164	14
16	Bulldogs	24	5	0	19	2	433	782	-349	14

For the first time since the 1999 season, the team finishing in 8th spot won more games than it had lost. It should be also noted that on that occasion, 17 teams were in the competition.

Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 8.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round
• Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26
1	Melbourne	2	2	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	18	20	22	22	24	26	28	28	30	32	34	36	36	38
2	Manly-Warringah	0	0	2	4	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	20	22	24	26	28	30	30	32	32	32	34	36	38
3	Cronulla	2	4	4	6	8	8	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	20	22	24	26	26	28	28	30	32	32	34	36	38
4	Sydney Roosters	2	2	4	6	8	8	8	10	12	14	16	18	18	20	22	24	26	26	26	28	30	30	30	30	32	34
5	Brisbane	2	4	6	6	8	8	10	12	12	12	14	16	16	16	18	19	21	21	23	25	27	27	27	29	31	33
6	Canberra	0	2	4	4	6	6	8	8	8	10	12	12	12	14	16	16	16	18	20	22	22	24	26	28	28	30
7	St. George Illawarra	0	2	2	2	2	2	4	6	6	8	10	12	14	16	18	20	22	22	22	24	24	24	26	28	30	30
8	New Zealand	0	2	2	4	6	6	6	8	10	10	10	12	12	12	12	14	16	18	20	22	22	24	26	26	28	30
9	Newcastle	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	10	12	12	14	16	16	16	16	18	18	20	22	24	24	26	28	28
10	Wests Tigers	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	8	10	12	14	14	16	16	16	16	18	18	20	20	22	24	24	24	24	26
11	Parramatta	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	12	12	14	16	16	18	18	18	18	20	20	22	24	26	26	26
12	Penrith	0	0	2	4	4	6	8	8	10	12	14	16	16	16	16	17	19	19	21	23	23	23	25	25	25	25
13	Gold Coast	2	2	4	6	8	10	12	12	14	16	16	16	18	20	20	20	20	22	22	22	22	22	24	24	24	24
14	South Sydney	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	16	16	18	18	20	20	20	20
15	North Queensland	0	0	0	2	4	6	6	6	6	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	10	10	10	10	10	12	12	12	14	14
16	Bulldogs	0	2	4	4	4	6	6	8	8	8	10	10	10	12	12	12	12	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14

Finals series

The National Rugby League employs the McIntyre Final Eight System and, for the second year running, preliminary finals were allowed to be played outside of Sydney.

• The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles recorded the biggest winning Grand Final margin in Australia's rugby league history after defeating the Melbourne Storm 40–0, eclipsing the 38–0 score line set by Eastern Suburbs over St. George Dragons in 1975.
• The New Zealand Warriors became the first 8th-placed team to beat the 1st placed Minor Premiers since the McIntyre Final Eight System came into the competition in 1999 by beating the Melbourne Storm 18–15, scoring a match winning try with only three minutes remaining.
• The Brisbane Broncos won their first Qualifying Finals match since 2002.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
QUALIFYING FINALS
Sydney Roosters	16 – 24	Brisbane Broncos	12 September 2008, 8:00pm	Sydney Football Stadium	Tony Archer	18,343
Cronulla Sharks	36 – 10	Canberra Raiders	13 September 2008, 6:30pm	Toyota Stadium	Jared Maxwell	18,252
Manly Sea Eagles	38 – 6	St. George Illawarra Dragons	13 September 2008, 8:30pm	Brookvale Oval	Shayne Hayne	19,227
Melbourne Storm	15 – 18	New Zealand Warriors	14 September 2008, 4:00pm	Olympic Park	Jason Robinson	15,193
SEMI FINALS
New Zealand Warriors	30 – 13	Sydney Roosters	19 September 2008, 8:30pm	Mt Smart Stadium	Tony Archer	25,595
Brisbane Broncos	14 – 16	Melbourne Storm	20 September 2008, 7:45pm	Suncorp Stadium	Shayne Hayne	50,466
PRELIMINARY FINALS
Cronulla Sharks	0 – 28	Melbourne Storm	26 September 2008, 7:45pm	Sydney Football Stadium	Tony Archer	27,570
Manly Sea Eagles	32 – 6	New Zealand Warriors	27 September 2008, 7:45pm	Sydney Football Stadium	Shayne Hayne	32,095

Finals Chart

	Qualifying Finals					Semi Finals					Preliminary Finals					Grand Final
	1	Melbourne	15
	8	New Zealand	18
											1W	Manly	32
	2	Manly	38			4W	New Zealand	30				New Zealand	6
	7	St. George Illawarra	6			2L	Sydney	13									Manly	40
																	Melbourne	0
	3	Cronulla	36								2W	Cronulla	0
	6	Canberra	10			3W	Brisbane	14				Melbourne	28
						1L	Melbourne	16
	4	Sydney	16
	5	Brisbane	24

Grand final

Player records

In 2008 New Zealand's Ruben Wiki was the oldest player in the NRL at 35 years and 250 days.^[7] Sam Perrett ran 3,720 metres with the ball in 2008, more than any other player in the competition.^[8]

Top 5 point scorers

Pts	Player	T	Gls	FG
196	Luke Covell	14	70	0
169	Luke Burt	11	62	1
160	Cameron Smith	4	72	0
153	Matt Orford	2	72	1
150	Kurt Gidley	9	57	0

Top 5 try scorers

Try	Player
19	Brett Stewart
17	Denan Kemp
16	Greg Inglis
16	Manu Vatuvei
15	Shaun Kenny-Dowall
15	Adrian Purtell
14	Luke Covell
14	Josh Morris

Related links

References

External links

• Rugby League Centenary Exhibit at nma.gov.au