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Junior League at Leeds 27 April 2008 athleticsyork.org.uk | Rugby Stripe with Lace (La Leche League) womenshealthcenterstore.c... | Washington D.C. Conference 2008 -... naama.com |
The 2008 NRL season was the one hundred and first season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the eleventh run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with sixteen teams contesting the NRL's 2009 Telstra Premiership. The first matches were played on 14 March 2008 with the season ending in the Grand Final, played on 5 October 2008. 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.
[edit] HistoryRugby 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." In the 2008 season, the National Rugby League, 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 special rivalries round took place which coincided 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, such as the Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Titans, Parramatta Eels and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, North Queensland Cowboys and New Zealand Warriors, Bulldogs and St George Illawarra Dragons, Penrith Panthers and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Sydney Roosters and Newcastle Knights, Wests Tigers and South Sydney Rabbitohs, and the Melbourne Storm and Canberra Raiders. 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. [edit] Season summary[edit] ScheduleFurther information: 2008 NRL season results 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.[1] 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 back 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 Savings Time in New South Wales, ACT and Victoria in 2008.[2] [edit] TeamsThe 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. [edit] Records set in 2008
[edit] SponsorshipFor 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. [edit] Ladder
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. [edit] Ladder ProgressionNumbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 8.
[edit] FinalsFurther information: 2008 NRL season results#Finals The National Rugby League again employed the McIntyre Final Eight System and for the second year running, preliminary finals were allowed to be played outside of Sydney.
[edit] Grand FinalMain article: 2008 NRL Grand Final For the second year running, the Grand Final was fought out between the Melbourne Storm and the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. The first time since the 1992 and 1993 Grand Finals between the Brisbane Broncos and St. George Dragons that two teams matched up in consecutive grand finals. Matt Ballin became the first hooker since Royce Simmons in 1991 to score the opening try in a Grand Final when he crossed in the 24th minute. Ten minutes later, Michael Robertson scored the first of his three tries to give Manly an 8-0 lead heading into halftime. Seven minutes after the break, Robertson got his second with Steve Matai converting for a Manly 14-0 lead. Michael Robertson then scored his third and Manly then forged an unassailable lead when Brent Kite scored between the posts and Matai converting for to go Manly a 24-0. In the 67th minute David Williams rookie capped a tremendous debut season when he too scored a for Manly. Then the veteran Steve Menzies in his final minutes of his fifteen-year NRL career wrote his own fairy tale finish when he crossed over the line just one minute after coming back onto the field in the 73rd minute. Steve Bell got the last of the try-fest for Manly when he crossed to make it 40-0. The match broke the Grand Final record for the points margin between the winner and loser. Michael Robertson became the first player in 11 years to score a Grand Final hat-trick of tries. Prop-forward Brent Kite won the 2008 Clive Churchill Medal for the Man of the Match. [edit] Match Summary
Half Time: Manly 8 – 0 Clive Churchill Medallist: Brent Kite Referee: Tony Archer Venue: ANZ Stadium, Sydney Attendance: 80,388 [edit] When They Scored23rd Minute: Manly 4-0 (Ballin try) [edit] Statistics[edit] Top 10 point scorers 2009
[edit] Top 9 try scores 2009
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