The NRL Grand Final is an annual rugby league match to determine the premiers of every National Rugby League season. It is a major sport event in Australia and regarded as the biggest showcase of rugby league football in the world. The two teams that play in the grand final are determined from the preceding finals series, where the top eight finishing teams on the season's premiership ladder qualify in a three-week playoff tournament. The match is currently played on the Sunday evening preceding Labour Day; it has been previously played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Since 1999, it has been contested at Stadium Australia in Sydney.
The grand final day schedule begins with the NRL State Championship match followed by the NRL Women's Premiership Grand Final which are both played throughout the afternoon. In the evening, the lead-up to the grand final match starts with a ceremony of retiring players followed by a headline musical act. After both teams enter the field a Welcome to Country is conducted, and a rendition of the Australian national anthem is sung by well-known Australasian and international artists. The Provan–Summons Trophy, the NRL's premiership trophy, is usually delivered to the field by an Australian Army helicopter sometime before kick off. At the conclusion of the grand final there is a presentation ceremony where the winning team are awarded premiership rings. The player judged to be the man of the match by the selectors of the ARL national team is awarded the prestigious Clive Churchill Medal; the ARLC chairman, NRL CEO, and on occasion the Prime Minister of Australia are typically on stage to congratulate the winning coach and players, and ultimately hand the Provan–Summons Trophy to the winning captain(s).
In 2019, the Government of New South Wales secured the grand final for Stadium Australia until at least 2046.
History
First grade rugby league in NSW began in 1908, the first premiership deciding game was played at the Royal Agricultural Society Showground, with Souths defeating Easts 14–12. From 1912 to 1925, no finals system was in place; however, in 1916, 1922, 1923 and 1924, a match was played as a tiebreaker to decide the season's premiership winner. From 1926 to 1953, finals were played under the Argus system, which produced a deciding game in two slightly differing ways.
All of these deciding games are now deemed to be grand finals, whether they were referred to as such at the time or not. From 1954 to the present, using a variety of systems, the deciding match has been explicitly termed a grand final, and no distinction is made between grand finals played under the auspices of the various governing bodies.
For the 1999 Grand Final, the fixture was moved from Sydney Football Stadium to the newly built Stadium Australia and set the record for the highest attendance at an Australian rugby league game, with 107,999 people attending.
From 2001, the grand final was moved to an evening start to make the most of prime time television. In 2008, a compromise was reached between official broadcaster Nine Network's preferred starting time of 7pm and the traditional starting time of 3pm, with the grand final beginning at 5pm AEDT. In 2013, the evening start resumed and has occurred since. Previously, the grand final did not have a set date but, with the exception of 2020, since 2001, it has been played the Sunday falling between 30 September and 6 October, preceding the Labour Day public holiday that falls on the first Monday of October in New South Wales.
Stadiums The NRL Grand Final is traditionally held in Sydney, as most NRL clubs are based in there and the current venue for the grand final, Stadium Australia is the second highest capacity stadium in Australia, after the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It was announced in June 2019 that the 2020 and 2021 Grand Finals would be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, while Stadium Australia underwent redevelopment. However, after the Government of New South Wales scrapped plans to redevelop Stadium Australia in July 2020, the matches would return to being planned at Stadium Australia until at least 2046.
In 2021, the NRL Grand Final was played at Lang Park in Brisbane, as it was not possible for the match to be played at Stadium Australia due to the COVID-19 lockdown in New South Wales. It was the first major rugby league grand final to be played in Queensland since the 1997 Super League grand final.
CityStadiumYears BrisbaneQueensland Sport & Athletics Centre1997 (SL) BrisbaneLang Park2021 SydneySydney Cricket Ground 1908–1987 SydneySydney Football Stadium 1988–1998 SydneyStadium Australia 1999–2020, 2022–
Qualification for World Club Challenge
The winners of the grand final qualify to play the winners of the Super League Grand Final in the World Club Challenge.
Trophy and awards Provan–Summons Trophy
The Provan–Summons Trophy is the NRL's main prize, awarded to the team that wins the premiership. Its sculptured design is similar to the Winfield Cup trophy, which was introduced for the 1982 NSWRFL season. It is a three-dimensional cast of a famous photo called The Gladiators, which depicts a mud-soaked Norm Provan of St. George and Arthur Summons of Western Suburbs embracing after the 1963 NSWRFL season's grand final. It was not officially named the Provan–Summons Trophy until 2013, the 50th anniversary of the 1963 grand final. The trophy is awarded following each grand final to the captain of the winning club.
Clive Churchill Medal
The Clive Churchill Medal is the award given to the player judged to be man-of-the-match in the National Rugby League's annual grand final. The award was created to honour Clive Churchill, one of the greatest rugby league players in Australian history, following his death in 1985. A prestigious honour in the NRL, the medal's recipient is chosen by the selectors of the Australian national team and announced and awarded to the player judged best and fairest on the ground at every post-grand final ceremony.
The Clive Churchill Medal has been awarded ever since the 1986 NSWRL season when its first recipient was Parramatta's Peter Sterling. The only three players to have won the award more than once are Canberra's Bradley Clyde (1989 and 1991), Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater (2009 and 2017) and Penrith Panthers' Nathan Cleary (2021 and 2023). In 2010, the Melbourne Storm were stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships due to salary cap breaches exposed by the NRL, however the Clive Churchill Medallists from those years still continue to be recognised.
Premiership rings The NRL present premiership rings for the players and coach of grand final winning sides. After the 2004 NRL Grand Final which was won by the Bulldogs, one of their players, Johnathan Thurston gave his premiership ring to teammate Steve Price who missed the decider due to injury. The Melbourne Storm were stripped of their premierships in 2007 and 2009, but the players involved in those premierships were still allowed to keep their premiership rings. In 2014 NRL premiership ring was worth $8000 made by Zed N Zed Jewellery. Since 2015, Affinity Diamonds have produced the NRL premiership rings
Prize money Prize money of AUD$400,000 is awarded to the victorious club.
However the amount is probably not reflective of the magnitude of participating in the event. It is often assumed simply that the winner of the premiership typically experiences an increase in revenue through increases in membership and merchandise sales.
Results
The following is a list of Grand Finals in the NRL era (1998–present). Season Date Winners Score Runners upVenue Attendance Clive Churchill Medal 1998 27 Sep Brisbane Broncos 38–12 Canterbury-Bankstown BulldogsSydney Football Stadium 40,857 Gorden Tallis 1999 26 Sep Melbourne Storm 20–18 St. George-Illawarra DragonsStadium Australia 107,999 Brett Kimmorley 2000 27 Aug Brisbane Broncos 14–6 Sydney RoostersStadium Australia 94,277 Darren Lockyer 2001 30 Sep Newcastle Knights 30–24 Parramatta EelsStadium Australia 90,414 Andrew Johns 2002 6 Oct Sydney Roosters 30–8 New Zealand WarriorsStadium Australia 80,130 Craig Fitzgibbon 2003 5 Oct Penrith Panthers 18–6 Sydney RoostersStadium Australia 81,166 Luke Priddis 2004 3 Oct Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 16–13 Sydney RoostersStadium Australia 82,127 Willie Mason 2005 2 Oct Wests Tigers 30–16 North Queensland Cowboys Stadium Australia 82,453 Scott Prince 2006 1 Oct Brisbane Broncos 15–8 Melbourne Storm Stadium Australia 79,609 Shaun Berrigan 2007* 30 Sep Melbourne Storm* 34–8 Manly-Warringah Sea EaglesStadium Australia 81,392 Greg Inglis 2008 5 Oct Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 40–0 Melbourne Storm Stadium Australia 80,388 Brent Kite 2009* 4 Oct Melbourne Storm* 23–16 Parramatta Eels Stadium Australia 82,538 Billy Slater 2010 3 Oct St. George-Illawarra Dragons 32–8 Sydney RoostersStadium Australia 82,334 Darius Boyd 2011 2 Oct Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 24–10 New Zealand WarriorsStadium Australia 81,988 Glenn Stewart 2012 30 Sep Melbourne Storm 14–4 Canterbury-Bankstown BulldogsStadium Australia 82,976 Cooper Cronk 2013 6 Oct Sydney Roosters 26–18 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles Stadium Australia 81,491 Daly Cherry-Evans 2014 5 Oct South Sydney Rabbitohs 30–6 Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Stadium Australia 83,833 Sam Burgess 2015 4 Oct North Queensland Cowboys 17–16 Brisbane BroncosStadium Australia 82,758 Johnathan Thurston2016 2 Oct Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 14–12 Melbourne StormStadium Australia 83,625 Luke Lewis2017 1 Oct Melbourne Storm 34–6 North Queensland CowboysStadium Australia79,722 Billy Slater 2018 30 Sep Sydney Roosters21–6 Melbourne StormStadium Australia82,688 Luke Keary 2019 6 Oct Sydney Roosters14–8 Canberra RaidersStadium Australia82,922 Jack Wighton 2020 25 Oct Melbourne Storm26–20 Penrith PanthersStadium Australia37,3031 Ryan Papenhuyzen 2021 3 Oct Penrith Panthers14–12 South Sydney Rabbitohs Lang Park39,3221 Nathan Cleary 2022 2 Oct Penrith Panthers28–12 Parramatta Eels Stadium Australia82,415 Dylan Edwards 2023 1 Oct Penrith Panthers26–24 Brisbane Broncos Stadium Australia81,947 Nathan Cleary 2024 6 Oct Penrith Panthers14–6 Melbourne Storm Stadium Australia80,156 Liam Martin 2025 5 Oct Brisbane Broncos 26–22 Melbourne StormStadium Australia80,223 Reece Walsh 2026 4 Oct Sydney Roosters19–18 Newcastle Knights Stadium Australia 80,814 James Tedesco
*Melbourne Storm were stripped of their 2007 and 2009 premierships, as well as their 2006, 2007 and 2008 minor premierships, due to salary cap breaches.
1Reduced crowd due to stadium capacity restrictions
The 2021 Grand Final was held in Brisbane for the first time in the competition's history due to an ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in New South Wales, which prompted the NRL to relocate it from Stadium Australia in Sydney, where every NRL Grand Final since 1999 had been hosted.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the match was attended by only 39,322 spectators because the Government of Queensland limited Lang Park to seventy-five percent of its maximum capacity.
Winners
ClubWinsWinning yearsRunners-upRunners-up yearsTotal Grand Finals1 Sydney Roosters5 2002, 2013, 2018, 2019, 20264 2000, 2003, 2004, 20109 Penrith Panthers 2003, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 1 2020 63 Melbourne Storm4 1999, 2012, 2017, 20206 2006, 2008, 2016, 2018, 2024, 202512 Brisbane Broncos 1998, 2000, 2006, 2025 2 2015, 2023 65 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles2 2008, 20112 2007, 201346 Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs1 20043 1998, 2012, 20144 North Queensland Cowboys 20152 2005, 20173 St George Illawarra Dragons 20101 19992 South Sydney Rabbitohs 20141 2021 2 Newcastle Knights 20011 2026 2 Wests Tigers 20050 1 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 20160 113 Parramatta Eels0 3 2001, 2009, 20223 New Zealand Warriors 2 2002, 20112 Canberra Raiders 1 20191
Melbourne Storm wins in 2007 and 2009 were subsequently annulled