1994 NSWRL season Information & 1994 NSWRL season Links at HealthHaven.com

	1994 NSWRL season
	;
Teams	16
Premiers	Canberra (3rd title)
Minor premiers	Canterbury (6th title)
Matches played	182
Points scored	7416 (total); 40.747 (per match)
Attendance	2,732,389 (total); 15,013 (per match)
Top points scorer(s)	Daryl Halligan (270)
Top try scorer(s)	Steve Renouf (23)

The 1994 New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the eighty-seventh season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen clubs competed for the J J Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final match for the Winfield Cup between the Canberra Raiders and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

[edit] Season summary

This was the last premiership season to be administered by the New South Wales Rugby League. For the following year, control of the Winfield Cup would be passed on to the Australian Rugby League and re-branded as such, as part of the move to become a truly national competition.

Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Canterbury, Norths, Canberra, Manly and Brisbane who went on to battle it out in the finals.

On the first of June, the previous season's premiers, the Broncos played in the 1994 World Club Challenge match against British champions Wigan in Brisbane. Wigan defeated the Broncos 20 to 14 at ANZ Stadium in front of 54,220 spectators. With the Super League war looming, this was to be the last WCC match until Super League (Australia) season 1997, and the last time the British and Australian champions faced off until the year 2000.

The 1994 Rothmans Medallist was North Sydney forward David Fairleigh. The Dally M Award went to Manly-Warringah's five-eighth, Cliff Lyons who was also named as Rugby League Week's player of the year.

The 1994 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Mal Meninga.

[edit] Teams

The lineup of teams remained unchanged from the previous season, with sixteen clubs contesting the premiership, including five Sydney-based foundation teams, another six from Sydney, two from greater New South Wales, two from Queensland, and one from the Australian Capital Territory.


Balmain Tigers 87th season Ground: Leichhardt Oval Coach: Wayne Pearce Captain: ?	Brisbane Broncos 7th season Ground: ANZ Stadium Coach: Wayne Bennett Captain: Allan Langer	Canberra Raiders 13th season Ground: Bruce Stadium Coach: Tim Sheens Captain: Mal Meninga	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 60th season Ground: Belmore Oval Coach: Chris Anderson Captain: Terry Lamb
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 28th season Ground: Endeavour Park Coach: John Lang Captain: Dan Stains	Eastern Suburbs Roosters 87th season Ground: Sydney Football Stadium Coach: Mark Murray → Arthur Beetson Captain: Craig Salvatori	Gold Coast Seagulls 7th season Ground: Seagulls Stadium Coach: John Harvey Captain: Craig Coleman	Illawarra Steelers 13th season Ground: Wollongong Stadium Coach: Graham Murray Captain: John Cross
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 48th season Ground: Brookvale Oval Coach: Bob Fulton Captain: Geoff Toovey	Newcastle Knights 7th season Ground: Marathon Stadium Coach: David Waite Captain: Mark Sargent	North Sydney Bears 87th season Ground: North Sydney Oval Coach: Peter Louis Captain: ?	Parramatta Eels 48th season Ground: Parramatta Stadium Coach: Ron Hilditch Captain: ?
Penrith Panthers 28th season Ground: Penrith Stadium Coach: Phil Gould → Royce Simmons Captain: John Cartwright	South Sydney Rabbitohs 87th season Ground: Sydney Football Stadium Coach: Ken Shine Captain: Dean Schifilliti	St. George Dragons 74th season Ground: Kogarah Oval Coach: Brian Smith Captain: Mark Coyne	Western Suburbs Magpies 87th season Ground: Campbelltown Stadium Coach: Wayne Ellis Captain: ?

[edit] Advertising

In 1994 the League and its advertising agency Hertz Walpole returned to the original 1989 recording of "The Best" by Tina Turner to underscore the season launch ad. Footage had been shot of Turner's performance at the 1993 Grand Final and a studio bluescreen shoot also took place during that visit ensuring a store of images that could be used in flexible adaptations for the final two years of Turner's association with the competition and the Winfield Cup.

The 1994 advertisement used the performance and superimposed studio footage of Turner into crowd and stadium scenes that replicated the Sydney Football Stadium. The closing scenes of the commercial made it appear that Turner was singing the song high up in the Sydney Football Stadium's stands in front of its identifiable stretched-sail roofing.

[edit] Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Canterbury	22	18	0	4	537	340	+197	36
2	North Sydney	22	17	1	4	517	291	+226	35
3	Canberra	22	17	0	5	677	298	+379	34
4	Manly	22	16	1	5	605	311	+294	33
5	Brisbane	22	13	1	8	544	316	+228	27
6	Illawarra	22	11	3	8	484	387	+97	25
7	Cronulla	22	12	0	10	432	401	+31	24
8	Penrith	22	10	2	10	404	448	-44	22
9	South Sydney	22	9	1	12	401	569	-168	19
10	Newcastle	22	9	0	13	427	458	-31	18
11	St. George	22	9	0	13	386	497	-111	18
12	Parramatta	22	7	1	14	350	474	-124	15
13	Western Suburbs	22	6	2	14	439	650	-211	14
14	Eastern Suburbs	22	6	1	15	344	513	-169	13
15	Gold Coast	22	5	1	16	363	618	-255	11
16	Balmain	22	4	0	18	303	642	-339	8

[edit] Finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
Home	Score	Away	Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Qualifying Finals
North Sydney Bears	12-26	Canberra Raiders	3 September 1994	Sydney Football Stadium	Bill Harrigan	33,641
Manly Sea Eagles	4-16	Brisbane Broncos	4 September 1994	Sydney Football Stadium	Greg McCallum	34,891
Semi Finals
North Sydney Bears	15-14	Brisbane Broncos	10 September 1994	Sydney Football Stadium	Bill Harrigan	36,011
Canterbury Bulldogs	19-18	Canberra Raiders	11 September 1994	Sydney Football Stadium	Greg McCallum	41,865
Preliminary Final
Canberra Raiders	22-9	North Sydney Bears	18 September 1994	Sydney Football Stadium	Greg McCallum	41,941
Grand Final
Canterbury Bulldogs	12-36	Canberra Raiders	25 September 1994	Sydney Football Stadium	Greg McCallum	42,234

[edit] Grand Final

Canterbury	Position	Canberra
Scott Wilson	FB	Brett Mullins
Jason Williams	WG	Ken Nagas
Steven Hughes	CE	Mal Meninga (c)
Jarrod McCracken	CE	Ruben Wiki
Darryl Halligan	WG	Noa Nadruku
Terry Lamb (c)	FE	Laurie Daley
Craig Polla-Mounter	HB	Ricky Stuart
Darren Britt	PR	Quentin Pongia
Jason Hetherington	HK	Steve Walters
Martin Bella	PR	Paul Osborne
Dean Pay	SR	David Furner
Jason Smith	SR	Jason Croker
Jim Dymock	LK	Bradley Clyde
Matthew Ryan	Reserve	Brett Hetherington
Steve Price	Reserve	David Westley
Simon Gillies	Reserve
Mark Brokenshire	Reserve
Chris Anderson	Coach	Tim Sheens

The Canberra Raiders were confident in the lead up and everything played into their hands from the whistle. Canterbury veteran prop Martin Bella dropped the ball from the kick-off and before too long Canberra had posted two tries.

Canberra legend Mal Meninga was given a champion's farewell as his "Green Machine" swamped the Bulldogs. Canberra's Paul Osborne also enjoyed a fairytale day. On the outer for most of the year, Osborne won a reprieve as prop after team-mate John Lomax was suspended for a high tackle in the final against Norths. Osborne rose to the occasion, setting up the first two Raiders tries in the opening sixteen minutes.

Meninga's 166th and final match for the Raiders ended perfectly when he scored the last try of the day after intercepting a pass from Jason Smith. Meninga outlasted the cover defence, running almost 40 metres and palming off his opposite centre Jarrod McCracken to score the try and send the crowd into raptures.

The Canberra Raiders had claimed their third premiership in what was at the time the highest-scoring grand final in history.

36	Canberra Raiders
Tries	Nagas 2, Furner, Daley, Nadruku, Croker, Meninga
Goals	Furner 4/7
Field Goals
12	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
Tries	Williams, Hetherington
Goals	Halligan 2/2
Field Goals