NRL season 2006.html



National Rugby League season 2006
Teams	15
Premiers	Brisbane (6th title)
Minor premiers	Melbourne (1st title)
Matches played	189
Points scored	8201 (average 43.392 per match)
Attendance	3,115,701 (average 16,485 per match)
Top points scorer(s)	Hazem El Masri (296)
Top try scorer(s)	Nathan Merritt (22)

The year 2006 saw the ninth National Rugby League premiership, the 99th season of professional rugby league football in Australia. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with fifteen teams participating throughout the 26 rounds of the regular season, including ten teams from New South Wales (9 of them from the Sydney basin), two from Queensland and one each from Victoria, the ACT and New Zealand. After the regular season concluded, eight of these teams qualified for the four-week finals series, with the Brisbane Broncos eventual victors in the Grand Final.

Pre season

• Newcastle Knights coach Michael Hagan signed a three-year deal to coach the Parramatta Eels, beginning in 2007. Hagan replaced Brian Smith, who had coached the Eels since 1997 whilst Smith replaced Hagan at Newcastle in an unprecedented coach-swap. In other coaching moves, Matthew Elliott was confirmed as the coach of the Penrith Panthers, beginning in 2007.
• Penrith Panthers halfback Craig Gower was stripped of the captaincy and fined $100,000 ($70,000 of which was suspended) after unprofessional behaviour at a charity golf function.
• The Charity Shield heralded the unofficial start of the season, with the South Sydney Rabbitohs defeating St George Illawarra 14-12 in their first home game at Telstra Stadium on February 18. All NRL clubs engaged in a series of trials during the month of February.
• Wests Tigers premiership-winning captain Scott Prince announced on March 3 he had signed a four-year deal with expansion team Gold Coast Titans, beginning in 2007. Prince relinquished the captaincy of the Tigers for the 2006 season.

New Zealand Warriors salary cap breach

The New Zealand Warriors were investigated by the National Rugby League over alleged salary cap breaches committed by the team's previous administrators. The club admitted to inflating its salary cap to the tune of nearly $1 million during the 2005 season. As punishment, the National Rugby League fined the Warriors club $430,000 and stripped the team of four competition points prior to the beginning of the season. It was the first time in 99 years of rugby league in Australia that a team has started a season on less than zero premiership points.

The Warriors appealed the decision by the NRL to strip the four competition points but accepted the financial penalty. Prior to the beginning of the season, the National Rugby League confirmed that the points penalty would stand. The penalty would prove the decisive factor in the Warriors missing the finals for the third year in succession.

Teams

Brisbane Broncos			Canberra Raiders			Bulldogs			Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles			Melbourne Storm			Newcastle Knights			New Zealand Warriors
North Queensland Cowboys			Parramatta Eels			Penrith Panthers			South Sydney Rabbitohs
Sydney Roosters				St. George Illawarra Dragons				Wests Tigers

Season summary

The season began on March 10 with a match between defending premiers Wests Tigers and the St George Illawarra Dragons, played at Telstra Stadium.

Venues

Sixteen stadiums regularly hosted National Rugby league matches, with a further six hosting at least one match in season 2006.

Stadium name 1	City	Host club(s)	Capacity 2
Suncorp Stadium	Milton, Brisbane, Qld	Brisbane Broncos	52,500
Canberra Stadium	Bruce, Canberra, ACT	Canberra Raiders	25,000
Olympic Park Stadium	Melbourne, Vic	Melbourne Storm	18,500
EnergyAustralia Stadium	Newcastle, NSW	Newcastle Knights	26,200
Aussie Stadium	Moore Park, Sydney, NSW	Sydney Roosters	41,159
Brookvale Oval	Brookvale, Sydney, NSW	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	22,000
Campbelltown Stadium	Campbelltown, Sydney, NSW	Wests Tigers	20,000
Leichhardt Oval	Leichhardt, Sydney, NSW	Wests Tigers	20,000
Oki Jubilee Stadium	Kogarah, Sydney, NSW	St George Illawarra Dragons	20,541
Parramatta Stadium	Parramatta, Sydney, NSW	Parramatta Eels	20,500
CUA Stadium	Penrith, Sydney, NSW	Penrith Panthers	21,000
Telstra Stadium	Homebush, Sydney, NSW	Bulldogs South Sydney Rabbitohs Wests Tigers	83,500
Toyota Park	Cronulla, Sydney, NSW	Cronulla Sharks	21,500
Dairy Farmers Stadium	Kirwan, Townsville, Qld	North Queensland Cowboys	25,000
Mt Smart Stadium	Penrose, Auckland, New Zealand	New Zealand Warriors	25,000
WIN Stadium	Wollongong, NSW	St George Illawarra Dragons	20,000
Hindmarsh Stadium	Hindmarsh, Adelaide, SA		15,500
Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium	Gosford, Central Coast, NSW		20,059
Jade Stadium	Christchurch, New Zealand		36,500
Carrara Stadium	Carrara, Gold Coast, Qld		22,000
Waikato Stadium	Hamilton, New Zealand		26,350
Sydney Cricket Ground	Moore Park, Sydney, NSW		43,562

Advertising

In 2006 the NRL and their advertising agency MJW Hakuhodo stayed with the Hoodoo Gurus' "That's My Team" soundtrack for a fourth year, producing a treatment aimed to appeal to the fundamental hope of all players and fans: that it would be ‘their team’ who would win the Grand Final.

Capitalising on the enthusiasm generated by the Wests Tigers triumph of 2005 in only their sixth season, the campaign line and song chorus was changed to ‘That’s My Dream’.

All fifteen NRL club captains featured heavily in the television and outdoor ads holding aloft the Telstra trophy. Eight young real life fans also featured in the TV commercial reflecting the origins of the game from backyard football scenes to Sydney beaches. Each was a fan of one of eight clubs who had not till then won the Telstra Premiership trophy and four different broadcast versions of the ad told the stories of their love of the game and each's dream of their own team's victory.

Dally M Awards

Main article: Dally M Awards 2006

The Dally M Awards were introduced in 1980 by News Limited. The most prestigious of these awards is the Dally M Medal which is awarded to the Player Of The Year. The other prestigious award is the Provans Summons Medal which is the seasons best player as voted by the public. As well as honouring the player of the year the awards night also recognises the premier player in each position, the best coach, the best captain, representative player of the year and the most outstanding rookie of the season. The awards night and Player of the Year medal are named in honour of former Australian rugby league great Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger.

Prestigious Awards

Team of the Year

Records set in 2006

• Brisbane Broncos's club record for their biggest comeback win is 18 points when they came from 18-0 down at halftime to win 30-28 against Canberra Raiders in round 8
• Melbourne Storm's club record for their longest winning streak with 11 games from round 12 to round 23.
• South Sydney Rabbitohs won only 3 games, equalling the second least amount of games won in a season by Souths, 2003 was the other season Souths only won 3 games. The least games won by Souths in a season is 2 games which was made in 1990.
• New Zealand Warriors set the record for their biggest ever win with a 66-0 win over South Sydney Rabbitohs in round 16. This game was also Souths biggest ever loss.
• Newcastle Knights and Canberra Raiders set the record for the highest ever scoring game scoring 102 points with Newcastle winning the match 70-32 in round 2, this game beating the St George Dragons vs. Canterbury Bulldogs game way back in 1935 of 97 points with St. George winning the match 91-6.
• Cronulla Sharks set a club record for their longest losing streak with 10 matches from round 17 to round 26.

Ladder

Main article: 2006 NRL Season Results

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	F	A	PD	Pts
1	Melbourne	24	20	0	4	2	605	404	+201	44
2	Canterbury	24	16	0	8	2	608	468	+140	36
3	Brisbane	24	14	0	10	2	497	392	+105	32
4	Newcastle	24	14	0	10	2	608	538	+70	32
5	Manly-Warringah	24	14	0	10	2	534	493	+41	32
6	St. George Illawarra	24	14	0	10	2	519	481	+38	32
7	Canberra	24	13	0	11	2	525	573	-48	30
8	Parramatta	24	12	0	12	2	506	483	+23	28
9	North Queensland	24	11	0	13	2	450	463	-13	26
10	New Zealand	24	12	0	12	2	552	463	+89	24
11	Wests Tigers	24	10	0	14	2	490	565	-75	24
12	Penrith	24	10	0	14	2	510	587	-77	24
13	Cronulla	24	9	0	15	2	515	544	-29	22
14	Sydney	24	8	0	16	2	528	650	-122	20
15	South Sydney	24	3	0	21	2	429	772	-343	10

• New Zealand Warriors were stripped of 4 competition points due to breaches of the salary cap.

Finals

Main article: 2006 NRL Finals Series

The Melbourne Storm went into the finals for the first time as Minor Premiers. They had a week off after their first finals win against the Parramatta Eels 12-6 to prepare for a Preliminary Final encounter, again the St. George Illawarra Dragons which was won by the Storm 24-10, earning them a spot in the Grand Final against the Brisbane Broncos. The Broncos had surprised everyone in the previous two months. After a slight hiccup in the Qualifying Final, going down against St. George Illawarra Dragons 20-4, they came back in the next two weeks, beating the Newcastle Knights 50-6 in the Semi Final and coming from 20-6 down at halftime to win 37-20 against the Canterbury Bulldogs in the Preliminary Final.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Qualifying Finals
Newcastle Knights	25–18	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	8 September 2006 8:00pm	Energy Australia Stadium	Sean Hampstead	23,752
Brisbane Broncos	4–20	St George Illawarra Dragons	9 September 2006 6:30pm	Suncorp Stadium	Paul Simpkins	50,387
Canterbury Bulldogs	30–12	Canberra Raiders	9 September 2006 8:30pm	Telstra Stadium	Shayne Hayne	14,628
Melbourne Storm	12–6	Parramatta Eels	10 September 2006 4:00pm	Olympic Park	Steve Clark	15,690
Semi Finals
St George Illawarra Dragons	28–0	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	15 September 2006 7:45pm	Aussie Stadium	Paul Simpkins	30,907
Newcastle Knights	6–50	Brisbane Broncos	16 September 2006 7:45pm	Aussie Stadium	Steve Clark	22,081
Preliminary Finals
Canterbury Bulldogs	20–37	Brisbane Broncos	22 September 2006 7:45pm	Aussie Stadium	Paul Simpkins	29,511
Melbourne Storm	24–10	St George Illawarra Dragons	23 September 2006 7:45pm	Telstra Stadium	Steve Clark	40,901
Grand Final
Melbourne Storm	8–15	Brisbane Broncos	1 October 2006 7:05pm	Telstra Stadium	Paul Simpkins	79,609

Grand Final

The season culminated in the premiership final on October 1, 2006, played by the 3rd-placed Brisbane Broncos and the minor premiers Melbourne Storm. The Melbourne Storm went into the game as favourites with both teams looking to keep their perfect Grand Final records intact: the Broncos with 5/5 and the Storm with 1/1 heading into the game. It was the first grand final ever not to feature a New South Wales-based club, yet was played at Sydney's Telstra Stadium. A crowd of 79,609 people turned out, with INXS performing before the match which was to be refereed by Paul Simkins, who was overseeing his first grand final.

First Half

The first points came from a penalty in the ninth minute. Brisbane's Shaun Berrigan, playing at hooker, tried to burrow over the Storm line from dummy half but was ruled to have had the ball taken from his arms by Billy Slater in a two-man tackle. The resulting penalty kick by captain Darren Lockyer in front of the posts was a gift two points for the Broncos to take an early 2-0 lead. Three minutes later, Melbourne halfback Cooper Cronk kicked a 40/20 coming out of his side's territory. Following the subsequent scrum in an attacking position, the Storm raided Brisbane's line and got the first try of the match. Scott Hill did well to evade a few attempted tackles and shoot a remarkable pass around the back of a Broncos defender and into the arms of winger Steve Turner who dived over out wide. Cameron Smith missed the conversion, leaving the score at 4-2. Brisbane then got a scrum of their own close to Melbourne's line after Turner knocked on trying to take a Lockyer bomb. Lockyer, moving across-field fed the ball back inside to Justin Hodges who went over untouched to put the ball down near the posts, affording the Broncos captain another easy kick. No more points were scored in the first half and Brisbane went into the break with an 8-4 lead. Darren Lockyer was limping around in the dressing room but went on to play through the rest of the game.

Second Half

Eight minutes into the second half, a high tackle by Justin Hodges on Cameron Smith close to the Broncos' line resulted in a minor scuffle and a penalty to the Storm. Melbourne captain Smith decided to take the tap and attack Brisbane's line and a close-range try to Matt King resulted. The scores were then level at 8-all, with the kick to come. Smith, also the Storm's first-choice goal-kicker, was having a problem with his kicking leg so the task fell onto Matt Geyer whose conversion attempt went wide. Ten minutes later a penalty was awarded to the Broncos after a high shot from Billy Slater on Shaun Berrigan and Corey Parker's kick was successful, giving his side a two-point lead at 10-8. Following the re-start kick from Melbourne, Brisbane were working the ball out of their own half and on the fifth tackle scored a brilliant Grand Final try. From dummy-half Berrigan ran then passed back inside to Lockyer who gave a short ball on to Parker who did likewise for Casey McGuire. Before being tackled McGuire tossed the ball blindly back over his head and it was picked up by Lockyer who spun out of a tackle then passed it to Tonie Carroll. Without losing momentum, Carroll passed the ball on to a flying Brent Tate who raced to the corner for the try. The conversion attempt from near the sideline was missed by Parker so the Broncos led by six with 17 minutes of play remaining putting Brisbane infront at 14-8. A couple of minutes later the Storm appeared to have scored their third try when a bomb by Cronk was leapt for but unsuccessfully taken by both a Brisbane and a Melbourne player. On its way down the ball was snatched from the air by King who looked to have put it down for his second try but the video referee ruled that the ball had gone forward off the Storm so it was disallowed. In the 73rd minute, after a strong run by prop Shane Webcke put him in good field position, Lockyer snapped away a successful field goal. This gave his team a 7-point buffer. A frustrated Melbourne side were unable to score in the remaining minutes as the Broncos ground their way towards full-time, the score 15-8 at the final siren.

Post-Match

Brisbane's victory was the club's sixth premiership in their nineteen seasons and it broke what was at the time their longest premiership drought (five years). The Broncos suffered 11 losses during the season, the most ever by a premiership-winning team. The win also enabled Brisbane to maintain their 100% victory record in Grand Finals, making it six from six. This also made Wayne Bennett the most successful Australian rugby league club coach of all time. In addition the Grand Final victory provided the perfect farewell for retiring Broncos prop-forward Shane Webcke, who left the playing field with a premiership in his final season, a fine reward for his commitment to the game during his career. Also departing the NRL were Casey McGuire and Scott Hill, both bound for the European Super League.

Brisbane 15 (Tries: Hodges, Tate; Goals: Lockyer 2/2, Parker 1/2; Field Goals: Lockyer)

Melbourne 8 (Tries: Turner, King; Goals: Smith 0/1, Geyer 0/1)

Clive Churchill Medal: Shaun Berrigan (Brisbane)

When They Scored

10th Minute: Brisbane 2-0 (Lockyer goal)
14th Minute: Melbourne 4-2 (Turner try)
19th Minute: Brisbane 8-4 (Hodges try; Lockyer goal)
45th Minute: Tied 8-8 (King try)
60th Minute: Brisbane 10-8 (Parker goal)
62nd Minute: Brisbane 14-8 (Tate try)
73rd Minute: Brisbane 15-8 (Lockyer field goal)

See also

• National Rugby League
• Brisbane Broncos 2006
• Bulldogs 2006
• 2006 Rugby League State of Origin series
• 2006 Rugby League Tri-Nations
• Rugby league in 2006
• 2006 Australian football code crowds

Footnotes

External links

• 2006 NRL season at stats.rleague.com
• 2006 NRL season at rugbyleagueproject.com
• 2006 NRL season at abc.net.au
• 2006 NRL season at nrl.com
• Key features of the 2006 Telstra Premiership - article at menofleague.com