Expansion Of The National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top level rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand. It was formed in 1998 after the merger of the Australian Super League and the Australian Rugby League. Inaugurally containing 20 teams, rationalisation reduced this number to 14 by 2000. The competition expanded back to 16 teams in 2007 and 17 teams in 2023, and will expand to 18 teams in 2027 and 19 teams in 2028. Debate regarding the expansion of the competition to 20 teams is ongoing. History Rationalisation (1998-2000) The Australian Super League and the ARL had 22 teams combined in 1997. When the NRL was formed in 1998, it was decided that there would only be 20 teams. The Melbourne Storm were an expansion team that year, with the NRL shutting down the Perth Reds, the South Queensland Crushers, and the Hunter Mariners. In 1999, the Adelaide Rams were shut down and the Gold Coast Chargers were removed from the competition, and the South Sydney Rabbitohs were removed from ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, and New Zealand. Tracing its origins back to the New South Wales Rugby League, which formed in 1908, rugby league competition in Australia had gone through numerous iterations, including the 1990s Super League war, by the time the NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership between the Australian Rugby League Commission, Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the News Corporation-controlled Super League (Australia), Super League. The partnership was dissolved in 2012, with control of the NRL going to the re-constituted ARL, which was re-structured with an independent board of directors and renamed the Australian Rugby League Commission. The season typically runs from March to October, with each team playing 24 matches. The ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a population of approximately 2.8 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of South East Queensland, an urban agglomeration with a population of over 4 million. The Brisbane central business district, central business district is situated within a peninsula of the Brisbane River about from its mouth at Moreton Bay. Brisbane's metropolitan area sprawls over the hilly floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Taylor Range, Taylor and D'Aguilar Range, D'Aguilar mountain ranges, encompassing several local government in Australia, local government areas, most centrally the City of Brisbane. The demonym of Brisbane is ''Brisbanite''. The Moreton Bay penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe, Queensland, Redcliff ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Illawarra Steelers
The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level rugby league competition from 1982 until 1998. On 13 December 1980, they were the first non-Sydney based team to be admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League premiership, with the Canberra Raiders being admitted later ensuring an even number of teams in the competition for the start of their first season, 1982. Over their seventeen years in the top grade, the club received three wooden spoons, made the play-offs twice and had a total of three of its players (two New South Wales Blues and one Queensland Maroon) selected to play for the Australia national rugby league team. Following the Super League War and the NRL's intention the reduce the number of teams, the Steelers approached the St. George Dragons part way through the 1998 season to discuss forming a joint-venture and ensure the partial survival of both cl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
South Sydney Rabbitohs
The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, Maroubra that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). They are often nicknamed ''Souths'' or ''the'' ''Bunnies''. The club was formed in New South Wales Rugby League season 1908, 1908, as one of the founding members of the New South Wales Rugby Football League, making it one of Australia's oldest rugby league teams. It is one of only two NSW foundation clubs still present in the NRL, the other being the Sydney Roosters. South Sydney's traditional heartland covers the once typically working-class suburbs of inner-south Sydney. The club is based in Maroubra, where its administration and training facilities are located, however it has long held a wide supporter base spread all over New South Wales. The team's home ground is currently Stadium Australia in Sydney Olympic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Gold Coast Chargers
The Gold Coast Chargers were a professional rugby league club which played in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership from New South Wales Rugby League season 1988, 1988 to New South Wales Rugby League season 1994, 1994, the Australian Rugby League premiership from Australian Rugby League season 1995, 1995 to Australian Rugby League season 1997, 1997, and the National Rugby League premiership in National Rugby League season 1998, 1998. They first played under the name Gold Coast-Tweed Giants (in silver, black and white colours) from 1988 to 1989, then Gold Coast Seagulls (wearing white, black and red) from 1990 to 1995, very briefly as the Gold Coast Gladiators and finally Gold Coast Chargers (in jade, black, purple and gold uniforms) from 1996 to 1998. The Gold Coast-Tweed Giants were admitted to the New South Wales Rugby League premiership for the New South Wales Rugby League season 1988, 1988 season, along with the Brisbane Broncos and Newcastle Knights. Due to a clau ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Adelaide Rams
The Adelaide Rams was an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super League competition in 1997 and the second in the first season of the National Rugby League (NRL) in 1998. The Rams were not a successful club, winning only 13 out of 42 games. However crowd numbers in the first season were the fifth highest of any first-grade club that year, but dwindled to sixteenth in the second season. The Adelaide club was shut down at the end of the 1998 season as a result of poor on-field performances, dwindling crowd numbers, financial losses and a reduction in the number of teams in the NRL. They remain the only team from the state of South Australia to have participated in top-level rugby league in Australia. History Background Australian rules football (later, Australian Football League FL The Australian rules ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Hunter Mariners
The Hunter Mariners were an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Hunter Region's largest city, Newcastle. Hunter was formed in mid-1995 and was later disbanded at the end of 1997. The club was formed because of the Super League war, which was the rivalry between the traditional Australian Rugby League competition and the new media driven Super League competition. The team competed in the inaugural and only Super League season in 1997, as well as that year's World Club Challenge. The Mariners faced much adversity in the Newcastle region because of the Australian Rugby League's Newcastle Knights team being already well established in the region. The club played its home games at Topper Stadium and missed out on the finals of the 1997 Super League season, but made the grand final of the World Club Challenge. The team was overshadowed by the Newcastle Knights who won the ARL competition and were admitted into the 1998 re-united competition. The Mariners were di ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
South Queensland Crushers
South Queensland Crushers was an Australian rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. In 1992 it was decided that the team would be admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League competition, along with three other teams, as part of the League's expansion plans for professional rugby league in Australia. The competition was re-branded the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995, which was the Crushers' first season. The Crushers, whose whole existence was against the backdrop of the Super League war, were an unsuccessful club. They had to compete for support with the other Brisbane-based club, the Brisbane Broncos, who were already well-established. The Crushers only competed in the three seasons of the Australian Rugby League's premiership, winning the wooden spoon twice for being last in the competition. Despite the wealth of star players the Crushers managed to attract, they were financially unsustainable and competitively unsuccessful, which ultimately ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Perth Reds
The Western Reds were a rugby league football club based in Perth, Western Australia. Founded in 1992 as the Western Reds, they entered into the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995 before defecting to the rival Super League competition in 1997, where they rebranded themselves as the Perth Reds. However, by the end of the year the Reds had become a casualty of the Super League War peace deal and were shut down. The name Reds was named after the native Red Kangaroos. The Reds entered a state of limbo for the next decade but were revived as a lower-level club in 2006 by the WARL and ARL, under the name WA Reds. Until the Perth Bears commences playing in the NRL in 2027, the Western Reds were the only team from Western Australia to have participated in top-flight rugby league in Australia. A bid to return the club to the NRL was launched in 2012 as the West Coast Pirates, with this bid being taken over by the Western Australian Government, and subsequently merged with the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
1998 NRL Season
The 1998 NRL season was the 91st season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the inaugural season of the newly formed National Rugby League (NRL). After the 1997 season, in which the Australian Rugby League and Super League (Australia), Super League organisations ran separate competitions parallel to each other, they joined to create a reunited competition in the NRL. The first professional rugby league club to be based in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, the Melbourne Storm was introduced into the League, and with the closure of the Hunter Mariners, WA Reds, Western Reds and South Queensland Crushers, twenty teams competed for the premiership, which culminated in the 1998 NRL Grand Final between Brisbane Broncos, Brisbane and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Canterbury-Bankstown. It was also the final season for the Illawarra Steelers and the St. George Dragons as their own clubs prior to their merger into the St. George-Illawarra Dragons for the 1999 NRL season P ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Port Moresby
(; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Zealand. It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the south-western coast of the Papuan Peninsula of the island of New Guinea. The city emerged as a trade centre in the second half of the 19th century. During World War II, it was a prime objective for conquest by the Japan during World War II, Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43 as a staging point and air base to cut off Australia from Southeast Asia and the Americas. Due to its population and outsized influence compared to other cities in Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby may be regarded as a primate city. As of the 2011 census, Port Moresby had 364,145 inhabitants. An unofficial 2020 estimate gives the population as 383,000. The place where the city was founded has bee ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Papua New Guinea NRL Team
An as-yet unnamed professional rugby league football team based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea will compete in Australia's National Rugby League from the 2028 season. The inclusion of a Papua New Guinea-based team in the NRL was announced on 12 December 2024, as part of the Pacific Rugby League Partnership involving the Australian Rugby League Commission and Australian Government, in which AU$600 million in government funding will support the new team as well as grassroots development and other community initiatives in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands. The team will be the 19th in the NRL, with the ARLC finalising to a $645m deal with the Western Australian Government on 8 May 2025, thereby securing the Perth Bears as the 18th team: the Bears will enter the competition in 2027. Background Papua New Guinean rugby league in Australia Rugby league is the most popular sport in Papua New Guinea and even regarded its national sport, and efforts to launch an NRL team in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |