New South Wales Rugby League season 1994

Infobox rugby league season
year = 1994
competition = New South Wales Rugby League


imagesize = 125px
caption =
teams = 16
premiers =
count = 3rd
minor premiers =
mpcount = 6th
matches = 182
points = 7416
attendance = 2732389
top points scorer = (270)
top try scorer = (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 and the Winfield Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Canberra Raiders and the Canterbury Bulldogs.

eason summary

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

Tewnty-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 player of the year by "Rugby League Week".

Teams

The lineup of teams remained unchanged from the previous season, with sixteen clubs contesting th 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. However this season, with the storm of the Super League war brewing in the background, the Eastern Sububs Roosters changed their name to the Sydney City Roosters.

Grand Final

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.

Canberra 36 (Tries: Nagas 2, Furner, Daley, Nadruku, Croker, Meninga. Goals: Furner 4)

defeated

Canterbury Bulldogs 12 (Tries: Williams, Hetherington. Goals: Halligan 2 )

Clive Churchill Medallist: David Furner

References

* [http://www.stats.rleague.com/rl/seas/1994.html Rugby League Tables - Season 1994] "The World of Rugby League"
* [http://www.rleague.com//db/year/1994/j_j_giltinan_shield_and_winfield_cup/index.php 1994 J J Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup]
* [http://rugbyleagueproject.com/competitions/NSWRL_1994.html NSWRL season 1994 at rugbyleagueproject.com]
* [http://www.rabbitohs.com.au/The-Club/Tradition/Results---1991-2000.html Results: 1991-2000 at rabbitohs.com.au]

ee also

*New South Wales Rugby League premiership
*Winfield Cup
*Brisbane Broncos 1994