1997 Super League (Australia) season

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Rugby league competition

This article is about

Super League II

.

Rugby league season

1997 Super League
Teams	10
Premiers	Brisbane (3rd title)
Minor premiers	Brisbane (2nd title)
Matches played	96
Points scored	4,035
Average attendance	13,039
Attendance	1,251,777
Top points scorer(s)	Ryan Girdler (197)
Top try-scorer(s)	Matthew Ryan (17)
← 1996 (ARL) 1998 (NRL) →

The 1997 Super League season (also known as the Telstra Cup due to sponsorship by

Australian Rugby League, in addition to the newly created Adelaide Rams and Hunter Mariners, competed over eighteen weekly rounds of the regular season. The top five teams then played a series of knock-out finals which culminated in a September grand final played in Brisbane between the Brisbane Broncos and Cronulla

.

Background

Main article: Super League (Australia)

Super League was a

Australian Rugby League competition in 1998 to form the National Rugby League

.

Season summary

For this season video refereeing was introduced to rugby league for the first time.

Grand final was played at Brisbane's ANZ Stadium in front of 58,912 people; the ground record for that venue. Brisbane defeated Cronulla 26–8 to win their third* premiership. The Auckland Warriors

had teams in the Reserve grade and two age-group grand finals but lost all three.

The grand finals:

• Brisbane Broncos vs Cronulla Sharks (Seniors Grade)
• Canterbury Bulldogs vs Auckland Warriors (Reserve Grade)
• Penrith Panthers vs Auckland Warriors (Under-19s Grade)
• Brisbane Broncos vs Auckland Warriors (Under-17s Grade)

The winners in all grades were:

• Brisbane Broncos (Seniors Grade)
• Canterbury Bulldogs (Reserve Grade)
• Penrith Panthers (Under-19s Grade)
• Brisbane Broncos (Under-17s Grade)

The Senior Grade and the Reserve Grade were called the Telstra Cup
The Under-19s Grade was called the Mal Meninga Cup
The Under-17s Grade was called the Terry Lamb Cup

At the end of the season, an Australian team was selected from the Telstra Cup Premiership's clubs to play in the Super League Test series against Great Britain in England.

The test matches

• Australia vs New Zealand
• Australia vs Great Britain
• New Zealand vs Great Britain

The Super League Tri Series

• Queensland vs New South Wales
• Queensland vs New Zealand
• New South Wales vs New Zealand

Teams

The ten Super League-aligned clubs contested the premiership, only three of which were based in

rival Australian Rugby League competition, which was run at the same time. A further team from greater New South Wales, two teams from Queensland, and one each from Australian Capital Territory, South Australia, Western Australia and Auckland in New Zealand

made up the Super League competition. The Western Reds renamed themselves the Perth Reds for the Super League competition. The Bulldogs reinstated 'Canterbury' to their name (but not Bankstown).

Adelaide Rams 1st season Ground: Adelaide Oval Coach: Rod Reddy Captain: Kerrod Walters	Auckland Warriors Ericsson Stadium Coach: John Monie → Frank Endacott Captain: Matthew Ridge	Brisbane Broncos ANZ Stadium Coach: Wayne Bennett Captain: Allan Langer	Canberra Raiders Bruce Stadium Coach: Mal Meninga Captain: Ricky Stuart	Canterbury Bulldogs 63rd season Ground: Belmore Sports Ground Coach: Chris Anderson Captain: Simon Gillies
Cronulla Sharks Shark Park Coach: John Lang Captain: Andrew Ettingshausen	Hunter Mariners Topper Stadium Coach: Graham Murray Captain: Tony Iro	North Queensland Cowboys Stockland Stadium Coach: Tim Sheens Captain: Ian Roberts & John Lomax	Perth Reds 3rd & final season Ground: WACA Ground Coach: Dean Lance Captain: Mark Geyer	Penrith Panthers 31st season Ground: Penrith Stadium Coach: Royce Simmons Captain: Steve Carter

Canterbury

Cronulla

Penrith

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Locations of the participating clubs

Teaser ads had been created by Mojo Sydney in 1996 around the theme of "Superleague: It's Coming". They featured Super League players performing superhuman feats. One notable execution included Canberra's Bradley Clyde inside a rodeo corral being stormed by a runaway bull with the suggestion that he is about to singlehandedly bring the bull to ground.

By season launch in 1997 Foxtel's ad agency Young and Rubicam Sydney had the Super League account and created a space-themed ad with players running through outer-space and the tag-line "Super League: It's out of this world".

Super League Television commercials featured the song

By mid season the account had moved again and Sydney agency VCD produced much of the game promotional and club fixture print ads that ran in newspapers throughout the season. This commenced VCD's association with Super League that would continue with the ARL post the re-unification.

Ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Brisbane (P)	18	14	1	3	481	283	+198	29
2	Cronulla	18	12	0	6	403	230	+173	24
3	Canberra	18	11	0	7	436	337	+99	22
4	Canterbury	18	10	0	8	453	447	+6	20
5	Penrith	18	9	0	9	431	462	-31	18
6	Hunter	18	7	0	11	350	363	-13	14
7	Auckland	18	7	0	11	332	406	-74	14
8	Perth	18	7	0	11	321	456	-135	14
9	Adelaide	18	6	1	11	303	402	-99	13
10	North Queensland	18	5	2	11	328	452	-124	12

• (P) - Premiers

Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 5.
• 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

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1	Brisbane	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	18	19	19	19	21	23	25	27	29
2	Cronulla	2	4	6	6	6	8	8	8	10	10	12	14	16	16	18	20	22	24
3	Canberra	0	0	0	0	2	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	14	16	16	18	20	22
4	Canterbury	2	2	4	4	4	6	8	10	10	12	14	14	16	16	18	20	20	20
5	Penrith	2	4	6	8	8	10	10	12	12	12	12	14	16	16	16	16	18	18
6	Hunter	0	0	0	2	2	2	4	6	6	6	8	10	12	14	14	14	14	14
7	Auckland	0	2	2	2	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	8	10	10	12	14
8	Perth	0	2	2	4	6	6	8	8	8	10	10	12	12	12	12	14	14	14
9	Adelaide	0	0	2	4	4	4	4	6	8	9	9	9	11	11	11	11	11	13
10	North Queensland	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	6	7	8	8	8	10	12	12	12	12

Finals

Minor premiers Brisbane only played two finals games (including the grand final), both against Cronulla winning both convincingly.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Preliminary Semi-finals
Cronulla	22–18	Canberra	30 August 1997	Endeavour Field	Bill Harrigan	17,137
Canterbury	14–15	Penrith	1 September 1997	Belmore Oval	Graham Annesley	10,492
Major Qualifying Finals
Brisbane	34–2	Cronulla	6 September 1997	Stockland Stadium	Bill Harrigan	26,256
Canberra	32–12	Penrith	8 September 1997	Bruce Stadium	Graham Annesley	10,153
Preliminary final
Cronulla	10–4	Canberra	13 September 1997	Endeavour Field	Bill Harrigan	17,638
Grand final
Brisbane	26-8	Cronulla	20 September 1997	ANZ Stadium	Bill Harrigan	58,912

Chart

	Qualifying final					Major semi-final					Preliminary final					Grand final
						1	Canterbury	14					Penrith			12
	5	Penrith		15

Grand final

The Super League Grand final crowned a week of festivities, including a ball, street parade and massive game-night fireworks display, of the sort the Broncos' management had wanted the ARL to bring to Brisbane before the code's big schism in 1995. The game was on 20 September and despite stormy weather, a record crowd in Queensland rugby league history was at ANZ Stadium for the first ever night grand final^[2] and the first Australian top level grand final to be played outside Sydney. It attracted a ground record of 58,912 people,^[3] the biggest crowd for a grand final since 65,959 attended the drawn 1977 Sydney Rugby League grand final played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and the largest to any sporting event in Brisbane since 52,000 attended the opening ceremony of the 1982 Commonwealth Games, also held at the venue, then known as the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium.^[4] Jon Stevens and Olivia Newton-John also performed in the pre-match entertainment.

The match was broadcast live by Australian

.

20 September 1997

Brisbane	26 – 8	Cronulla
Tries: Steve Renouf (3) Michael Hancock Goals: Darren Lockyer (5/6)	Report	Tries: Russell Richardson Goals: Mat Rogers (2/2)

ANZ Stadium, Brisbane Attendance: 58,912 Referee: Bill Harrigan Player of the Match: Steve Renouf[5]

Brisbane Broncos	Position	Cronulla Sharks
1. Darren Lockyer	FB	21. David Peachey
18. Michael De Vere	WG	45. Mat Rogers
3. Steve Renouf	CE	3. Andrew Ettingshausen (c)
4. Anthony Mundine	CE	33. Russell Richardson
5. Wendell Sailor	WG	17. Geoff Bell
6. Kevin Walters	FE	6. Mitch Healey
7. Allan Langer (c)	HB	7. Paul Green
10. Brad Thorn	PR	8. Danny Lee
23. Andrew Gee	HK	9. Dean Treister
21. Shane Webcke	PR	40. Jason Stevens
11. Gorden Tallis	SR	11. Craig Greenhill
12. Peter Ryan	SR	31. Chris McKenna
13. Darren Smith	LK	13. Tawera Nikau
15. Tonie Carroll	Bench	18. Adam Dykes
9. John Plath	Bench	24. Sean Ryan
2. Michael Hancock	Bench	38. Les Davidson
16. Ben Walker	Bench	12. Nathan Long
Wayne Bennett	Coach	John Lang

The game was refereed by Bill Harrigan. The talented Brisbane side, featuring young up-and-coming stars in Darren Lockyer, Gorden Tallis and Shane Webcke overwhelmed a game Cronulla-Sutherland side. No points were scored until Lockyer's penalty kick in the eighth minute. In the twenty-second minute Mat Rogers equalised with another penalty kick. About three minutes later the next points came from yet another penalty kick by Lockyer, making the score 4–2 in favour of the home side. With just under seven minutes of the first half remaining, Allan Langer put a bomb up and into the Sharks left-hand corner which a leaping Rogers failed to secure and Steve Renouf picked up the ball and dived over for the first try of the match. Lockyer's conversion put the Broncos in front 10 - 2 which is what the score remained at for half-time.^[6]

Cronulla scored after less than four minutes of the second half when Wendell Sailor, returning the ball from a kick deep into his side's territory, passed the ball to nobody and it was chipped ahead by a Cronulla chaser and dived on by Russell Richardson. Mat Rogers converted the try successfully bringing the deficit back to two points at 10 - 8. In the fifty-fifth minute, The Broncos were on the attack and moved the ball out to the left for Renouf to score his second try of the match. Lockyer's kick, a metre in from the sideline was successful, making Brisbane's lead 16 - 8. About ten minutes later, Renouf scored close to the same spot, becoming only the third player in history to score a hat-trick in a grand final. Lockyer missed the kick so the Broncos lead 20 - 8 with fourteen minutes of the match remaining. An attempted field-goal kick by Lockyer in the seventy-eighth minute was charged down but Brisbane re-gathered the ball and one tackle later it was put through the hands out to the right wing, for replacement Michael Hancock to score the final try of the game. Lockyer kicked the extra two points with only seconds of the game remaining, so the final score was 26 - 8.^[7]

The win meant the Broncos were undefeated at ANZ Stadium all year^[8] and it kept the Broncos' 100% record intact in grand finals making it three from three, while the Sharks remained bridesmaids, at the time yet to score a grand final victory with zero from three. They would remain without a grand final win for another 20 years until their drought was finally broken in 2016.

Post game

A Super Bowl style match between the Brisbane Broncos and Newcastle Knights, the 1997 ARL season's premiers was mooted, but did not eventuate.^[9]

Post season

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

• 1997 World Club Championship
• Brisbane Broncos 1997
• Super League Tri-series
• Super League (Australia)
• Super League War

References