The 2011 NRL season was the 104th season of professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

football club competition in Australia, and the fourteenth and last run by the National Rugby League's partnership committee of the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission Limited (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League Limited known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australi ...

and News Ltd. The NRL's main championship, called the 2011 Telstra Premiership due to sponsorship from

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...

, was contested by sixteen teams for the fifth consecutive year. Alongside was the fourth season of the Toyota Cup taking place. The season's Premiership title was awarded to the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles who took out their 8th title, only three years after their previous title, defeating the

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

in the grand final.

Season summary

The 2011 competition draw was announced on Thursday, 7 October 2010, with the season's first match between NRL teams to be played on Friday, 11 March. The first round of the premiership season became the highest attended round in NRL history, with 201,212 fans attending. However, the first NRL match of the year was the second annual NRL All Stars vs Indigenous All Stars game played at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast on 12 February. The annual ANZAC Test was also held at Skilled Park, on 6 May, with City vs Country Origin held on the same night at the Lavington Sports Ground in Albury. The Test match was to have been held at

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

in New Zealand, but was moved due to the destruction wrought on that city by the

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

in February 2011. Byes began on 6 May, being the day of those representative matches, and continued throughout the 2011 State of Origin series, covering in total rounds 9 to 18. Themed rounds included the ''Heritage Round'' (round 5), ''Women in League Round'' (round 16), and ''Rivalry Round'' (round 19). The regular 26 round season finished with the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blu ...

winning the J. J. Giltinan Shield for being the minor premiers. However the grand final match-up ended up between the second placed Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and the sixth placed

in which the Sea Eagles sought victory and claimed their 8th premiership title. The coveted Dally M Medal award for player of the year in 2011 was awarded to

fullback Billy Slater, who becomes the second Storm player to be given the award. (see 2011 Dally M Awards for full award listing)

Records set in 2011

* Canberra Raiders equalled their longest losing streak with 8-matches (Round 2 - Round 9). *

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

round-26 match was the biggest ever regular home game crowd for the Broncos at

Suncorp Stadium Brisbane Stadium (Lang Park), currently known as Suncorp Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Milton, Queensland, Milton, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Nicknamed The Cauldron, it is a three-tiered rect ...

with 50,859. *

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 Nat ...

winger Nathan Merritt equaled the club record for the most tries in a match with 5-tries against the Parramatta Eels in Round 22. * Manly Warringah Sea Eagles set the record for the most points scored in a half of finals football when they scored 42 unanswered points against the

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

. *Sea Eagles halves Kieran Foran (21) and Daly Cherry-Evans (22) became the youngest halves pairing to win a grand final since Brett Kenny (20) and Peter Sterling (21) in 1981

Teams

The number of teams in the NRL remained unchanged for the fourth consecutive season, with sixteen participating in the regular season: ten from

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, three from

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and one from each of Victoria, the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

and New Zealand. Of the ten from New South Wales, eight are from Sydney's metropolitan area, with St. George-Illawarra being a Sydney and

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

joint venture. Just two foundation clubs from New South Wales Rugby League season 1908 played in the competition: the

Sydney Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

(formerly known as Eastern Suburbs) and the

Regular season

Bold – Home game
X – Bye
* – Golden point game
Opponent for round listed above margin

Ladder

Finals series

To decide the grand finalists from the top eight finishing teams, the NRL adopts the McIntyre final eight system. The 2011 finals series sees the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, Wests Tigers, St George Illawarra Dragons and the

all return from last year. The

and

both return after last year's absence whilst the

and the Newcastle Knights appear in this year's finals for the first time since 2007 and 2009, respectively. † - Match decided in

golden point The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn matches in a number of sports. The term is borrowed from soccer's now-defunct golden goal. Rugby league Australia The golden point is used to determine a winner (where a ...

extra time

Finals chart

Grand Final

Club and player records

The following statistics are correct as of the conclusion of Round 26. Top 5-point scorers Top 5 try scorers Top 5 goal scorers Most points in a match by an individual Most tries in a match by an individual Paul Gallen ran 3,670 metres with the ball in 2011, more than any other player in the competition.

Attendances

The regular season attendances for the 2011 season aggregated to a total of 3,123,055 (average 16,267), becoming the second highest attended NRL season (after 2010).
The highest twenty regular season match attendances:

2011 Transfers

Players

References

External links

NRL.com – Official site of the NRL
National Rugby League

footy.com.au {{National Rugby League seasons