National Rugby League season 2008

Infobox rugby league season
year = 2008
competition = National Rugby League


imagesize = 125px
caption =
teams = 16
premiers = leagueicon|Manly|16 Manly Warringah
count = 7th
minor premiers = leagueicon|Melbourne|16 Melbourne
mpcount = 3rd
matches = 201
points = 8470
attendance = 3199275
top points scorer = leagueicon|Cronulla|size=16 Luke Covell (206)
top try scorer = leagueicon|Manly|16 Brett Stewart (22)The 2008 National Rugby League premiership (known as the Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the one hundred and first season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the eleventh run by the National Rugby League. The first matches of the season were played on 14 March 2008 with the season ending in the Grand Final to be played on 5 October 2008.

The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with sixteen teams contesting the premiership. 2008 also marks the launch of the National Youth Competition, an under 20 competition that is running parallel to the senior competition under the sponsorship name, the Toyota Cup.

History

Rugby league was first introduced into Australia in 1907, with a meeting in Sydney on 8 August 1908 effectively forming a new breakaway league from the New South Wales Rugby Union. The new body was known as the New South Wales Rugby Football League, and became the first professional sporting code in Australia. In the following months, eight Sydney-based teams were formed and signed up to play in the New South Wales Rugby Football League's premiership, with another club joining a week into competition.

The New South Wales Rugby League continued to run the competition up until and including 1994 when it passed on responsibility to the Australian Rugby League, the national authority for rugby league in Australia. In 1997 a rival Super League competition run by News Limited was started and signed up several existing teams from the Australian Rugby League. After both bodies lost a lot of money that year, a truce was signed and a new competition was formed for the 1998 season, under the brand name "National Rugby League."

The National Rugby League, on behalf of the numerous rugby league bodies in Australia, has decided to hold a number of celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the sport in the country. This will include the opening match of the 2008 season being held between the remaining two "foundation clubs" from 1908, the Sydney Roosters and the South Sydney Rabbitohs. As well as this, a special rivalries round will take place which will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first round of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League, whereby teams will face opponents that entered the competition in similar time frames, such as the Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Titans, Parramatta Eels and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, North Queensland Cowboys and New Zealand Warriors, Bulldogs and St George Illawarra Dragons, Penrith Panthers and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Sydney Roosters and Newcastle Knights, Wests Tigers and South Sydney Rabbitohs, and the Melbourne Storm and Canberra Raiders.

Several events will also take place to celebrate the 100th anniversary of landmark moments in rugby league in Australia. These events began in August 2007 with a re-enactment of the meeting which led to the formation of the New South Wales Rugby League, essentially the beginning of rugby league in Australia. In January and February 2008, several of the foundation clubs, the Newtown Jets, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Balmain Tigers, Sydney Roosters, North Sydney Bears and Western Suburbs Magpies, will host special functions at the places they were officially formed.

eason summary

chedule

The 2008 season is set to be one week longer than the 2007 competition, allowing an extra bye on top of the existing one allocated to each club. In addition, the scheduling of the earlier representative fixtures has been changed, including the removal of Monday Night Football on weekends prior to the City vs Country match and the ANZAC Test. The City vs Country fixture is also being pushed back to Friday night where it had been prior to the 2007 season. Many of these initiatives were announced mid-way through the 2007 season by the Chief Executive Officer of the National Rugby League, David Gallop, in an attempt to help reduce player fatigue after several complaints of player injuries caused by the short turnaround between some matches.

2008 also saw a change in how the draw is devised, with teams nominating their preferred home opponents in order of preference. The NRL consulted these requests when structuring the season's fixtures. This change is intended to maximise attendances by allowing local derbies and other high-interest matches to be played twice a year. It is a departure from previous methods, which focused on trying to produce an equally difficult playing schedule for each club. [cite web|url=http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,22521852-23214,00.html|title=Clubs can choose home opponents|publisher=Fox Sports|accessdate=2008-03-23] The draw was released on October 19, 2007.

On the back of increasing public pressure, the National Rugby League decided to move the Grand Final back from the later timeslot of 7:00pm to the new time of 5:00pm. The Grand Final had traditionally been held on a Sunday afternoon up until 2000, after which it was relocated to the evening in order to accommodate the Channel 9's wish of making the event more suitable for primetime television. Whilst the late night scheduling was not considered as much an issue for New South Wales audiences because of the Labour Day public holiday the following day, it was argued by many Queenslanders that such a time was unsuitable for families on the eve of a weekday. Many individuals in the general public and the media pushed for a full return back to a 3:00pm kickoff time where it had been for many decades, whilst Channel 9 continued to insist on 7:00pm. As a comprimise, the National Rugby League decided for a comprimise "twilight" match starting at 5:00pm. This will be the first time since the 2000 season that the Grand Final will be played in daylight hours, largely due to a change in the starting day of Daylight Savings Time in New South Wales, ACT and Victoria in 2008. [ [http://svc002.wic107cx.server-web.com/News/Latest/NewsArticle/tabid/76/NewsId/7688/Default.aspx NRL Moves Grand Final kick-off time] ]

Teams

Of the sixteen teams participating in the regular season, ten are from New South Wales, three from Queensland and one from each of Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. Of the ten from New South Wales, eight and a half (St. George Illawarra are both from Sydney and Wollongong) are from Sydney's metropolitan area. Just two foundation clubs from New South Wales Rugby League season 1908 are playing in this competition: the Sydney Roosters (formerly known as Eastern Suburbs) and the South Sydney Rabbitohs. The Melbourne Storm are the defending premiers.

For the first time since the 1988 introduction of teams outside of New South Wales, an under-20 competition running incorporates sides fielded by each of the sixteen premiership clubs. The National Youth Competition, known as the Toyota Cup for sponsorship purposes is solely for under-20 players.

The home jerseys of the 16 teams for the 2008 season are shown below.

=Grand Final=

Related Links

*2008 NRL season results
*National rugby league youth competition season 2008
*Dally M Awards 2008

2008 representative games

*City vs Country Origin
* ANZAC Centenary Test
* State of Origin 2008
*2008 Rugby League World Cup

Team season articles

*Brisbane Broncos 2008
*Bulldogs season 2008
*Canberra Raiders season 2008
*Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 2008
*Melbourne Storm 2008
*North Queensland Cowboys season 2008
*Sydney Roosters season 2008
*Wests Tigers 2008

References

#

cite web|url=http://203.166.101.37/NRL08/crowdstotal.asp?lyear=2008|title=Club Season Crowds|publisher=NRLStats|accessdate=2008-03-23
#National Rugby League. [http://www.nrl.com/News/Latest/NewsArticle/tabid/76/NewsId/6522/Default.aspx Centenary - The revolution of rugby] "National Rugby League." 8 August, 2007. Retrieved on 13 August 2007.
#National Rugby League. [http://www.nrl.com/News/Latest/NewsArticle/tabid/76/NewsId/6517/Default.aspx Centenary grass roots celebrations] "National Rugby League." 8 August, 2007. Retrieved on 13 August 2007.
#Australian Associated Press. [http://nrl.com/News/Latest/NewsArticle/tabid/76/NewsId/6533/Default.aspx Quayle back for momentous day in league] "National Rugby League." 8 August, 2007. Retrieved on 13 August 2007.
#Australian Associated Press. [http://nrl.com/News/Latest/NewsArticle/tabid/76/NewsId/6521/Default.aspx Rugby League exhibit at National Museum] "National Rugby League." 8 August, 2007. Retrieved on 13 August 2007.
#Australian Associated Press. [http://nrl.com/News/Latest/NewsArticle/tabid/76/NewsId/6519/Default.aspx Kangaroos to meet NZ in centenary test] "National Rugby League." 8 August, 2007. Retrieved on 13 August 2007.
#National Rugby League. [http://nrl.com/News/Latest/NewsArticle/tabid/76/NewsId/6516/Default.aspx League Still Making History 100 Years On] "National Rugby League." 8 August, 2007. Retrieved on 13 August 2007.

External links

* [http://www.rubaisport.com/league/matches.php?year=2008&competition=2010 2008 trial games] , RubaiSport
* [http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/league_of_legends/ Rugby League Centenary Exhibit at nma.gov.au]