1997 ARL season should not be confused with 1997 AFL season.
| Year: | 1997 |
| Competition: | Australian Rugby League |
| Duration: | 7 March – 28 September 1997 |
| Teams: | 12 |
| Count: | 1st |
| Mpcount: | 9th |
| Matches: | 141 |
| Points: | 5,370 |
| Attendance: | 1,496,040 |
| Avg Attendance: | 10,610 |
| Top Point Scorer: | Jason Taylor (242) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Terry Hill (22) |
| Player Of The Year: | Brad Fittler (Provan-Summons Medal) |
| Nextseason Year: | 1998 (NRL) |
The 1997 Australian Rugby League season was the 90th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the third season run by the Australian Rugby League. While several clubs had left the League to compete in the 1997 Super League season, twelve ARL-loyal teams – eight from across Sydney, two from greater New South Wales and two from Queensland (Brisbane and Gold Coast) – competed for the Optus Cup Trophy. The top seven teams then played a series of knock-out finals which culminated in a September grand final played in Sydney between the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the Newcastle Knights. The fairytale came true for thousands of Novocastrians when the Newcastle club won their first ever premiership, staging a comeback from 8–16 to shatter Manly's hopes.
The season is most notable for being run parallel to the rival Super League competition. This was the only season when the two competitions actually ran, notwithstanding that 1995 and 1996 had been disrupted by the Super League war.
ARL chairman Ken Arthurson resigned in February 1997 in an effort to enable re-unification negotiations held during the season to succeed. It would not be 'til after the season's end in December that the boards of every ARL club would gather at the SCG in an unprecedented meeting to consider the proposed peace deal following five months of secret negotiations between Ian Frykberg and Neil Whittaker.
In 1997 the official player of the year award, the Provan-Summons Medal was won by Brad Fittler. This award was replaced by the Dally M Medal from the following year. The Illawarra Steelers' Scott Cram was named the 1997 season's rookie of the year.[1]
The grand finals:
The winners in all grades were:
The test match
The State of Origin Series
The eight ARL teams that had aligned themselves with Super League were absent from this year's ARL premiership, instead spending the year competing in the new Telstra Cup competition. The Balmain Tigers changed their name back from the Sydney Tigers this season.
| width=020 abbr="Position" | width=240 | Team | width=020 abbr="Played" | Pld | width=020 abbr="Won" | W | width=020 abbr="Drawn" | D | width=020 abbr="Lost" | L | width=020 abbr="Points for" | PF | width=020 abbr="Points against" | PA | width=020 abbr="Points difference" | PD | width=020 abbr="Points" | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manly-Warringah (MP) | 22 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 521 | 366 | +155 | 32 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Newcastle (P) | 22 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 512 | 320 | +192 | 29 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Parramatta | 22 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 431 | 359 | +72 | 29 | ||||||||||
| 4 | North Sydney (Norths) | 22 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 529 | 341 | +188 | 27 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Sydney City (Easts) | 22 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 487 | 366 | +121 | 27 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Illawarra | 22 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 423 | 376 | +47 | 23 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Gold Coast | 22 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 438 | 466 | −28 | 21 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Balmain | 22 | 10 | 0 | 12 | 339 | 340 | −1 | 20 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Western Suburbs (Wests) | 22 | 10 | 0 | 12 | 355 | 424 | −69 | 20 | ||||||||||
| 10 | St. George | 22 | 9 | 1 | 12 | 331 | 392 | −61 | 19 | ||||||||||
| 11 | South Sydney (Souths) | 22 | 4 | 1 | 17 | 323 | 630 | −307 | 9 | ||||||||||
| 12 | South Queensland | 22 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 321 | 630 | −309 | 8 | ||||||||||
Sydney City
(Eastern Suburbs) and North Sydney played out a bizarre Qualifying Final with the Roosters winning 33–21. The Roosters fought back from 14–2 down with 10 minutes to go to get it back to 14–14, then both sides kicked a field goal to send it to extra time at 15–15. The Roosters went on to play Gold Coast who were in their first ever finals campaign with the Roosters winning 32–10 to book a Preliminary Final showdown with Manly. A peculiarity of the finals system saw Manly and Newcastle face off in what later realised to be a pointless game where both the winner and loser progressed to a Grand Final qualifier the following week. The Roosters had another fight back when they came from 16–6 down to get it back to 16–16, but it was a Sea Eagles field goal that proved the difference to book themselves a third straight Grand Final berth with a 17–16 win.
Newcastle reached the 1997 grand final after defeating Parramatta in week one of the finals series. At one stage, Parramatta lead the match 18–0 before a comeback gave Newcastle a 28–20 victory. Newcastle then lost the following week to Manly 27–12 before setting up a preliminary final clash with North Sydney.
With the score 12–8 in favor of Newcastle with under 10 minutes to play Jason Taylor set up Michael Buettner for a try which made the score 12–12. Normally a very reliable kicker and one of the most accurate in the competition, Taylor had already missed two previous conversions in the match but if he was to kick this goal it could send North Sydney through to their first grade final since 1943. Taylor ended up missing the goal. With the scores locked at 12–12, Newcastle player Matthew Johns kicked a field goal with 2 minutes to play to make it 13–12. With only seconds remaining Norths frantically threw the ball around and lost it, the ball was swooped up by Newcastle's Owen Craigie and he raced away to score a try and won the game.[2] [3]
| Home | Score | Away | Match Information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=17% | Date and Time | width=17% | Venue | width=11% | Referee | width=7% | Crowd | ||
| Qualifying Finals | |||||||||
| align=left | Illawarra | 14–25 | align=left | Gold Coast | 5 September 1997 | Parramatta Stadium | David Manson | 8,197 | |
| align=left | North Sydney (Norths) | 21–33 | align=left | Sydney City (Easts) | 6 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | Kelvin Jeffes | 11,332 | |
| align=left | Newcastle | 28–20 | align=left | Parramatta | 7 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | Paul McBlane | 17,849 | |
| Semi Finals | |||||||||
| align=left | Sydney City (Easts) | 32–10 | align=left | Gold Coast | 12 September 1997 | Parramatta Stadium | Paul McBlane | 10,466 | |
| align=left | Parramatta | 14–24 | align=left | North Sydney (Norths) | 13 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | David Manson | 17,025 | |
| align=left | Manly | 27–12 | align=left | Newcastle | 14 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | Kelvin Jeffes | 26,531 | |
| Preliminary Finals | |||||||||
| align=left | Newcastle | 17–12 | align=left | North Sydney (Norths) | 20 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | Kelvin Jeffes | 22,540 | |
| align=left | Manly | 17–16 | align=left | Sydney City (Easts) | 21 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | David Manson | 30,794 | |
| Grand Final | |||||||||
| align=left | Manly | 16–22 | align=left | Newcastle | 28 September 1997 | Sydney Football Stadium | David Manson | 42,482[4] | |
| Year: | 1997 |
| ARL Grand Final | |
| Home: | Manly |
| Away: | Newcastle |
| Home Abbr: | MAN |
| Away Abbr: | NEW |
| Home Half1: | 16 |
| Home Half2: | 0 |
| Home Total: | 16 |
| Away Half1: | 8 |
| Away Half2: | 14 |
| Away Total: | 22 |
| Date: | 28 September 1997 |
| Stadium: | Sydney Football Stadium |
| Location: | Sydney |
| Mom Title: | Clive Churchill Medal |
| Mom: | Robbie O'Davis (NEW) |
| Anthem Title: | Australian National anthem |
| Referee: | David Manson |
| Attendance: | 42,482 |
| Network: | Nine Network |
| Commentators: | Ray Warren |
| Commentators2: | Peter Sterling |
The fairytale came true for thousands of Novocastrians when the Knights won their first ever premiership, staging a comeback from 8–16 to shatter Manly's hopes.
1st half
The long-running duel between opposing front rowers Mark Carroll and Paul Harragon erupted once again in the 2nd minute when Carroll reacted to a Harragon shot on Geoff Toovey. Newcastle applied pressure early when they regained possession inside Manly's 20m and shortly after that Andrew Johns took a penalty attempt, but Manly's defence and luck stood firm and the score stayed nil-all. Manly scored first after rookie hooker Anthony Colella won a scrum against the feed. John Hopoate exploited a weakness in Newcastle's right side defence and got between Darren Albert and Mark Hughes to score. Nevin's sideline conversion gave the Sea Eagles a 6–0 lead. In 13th minute Manly suffered a blow when Toovey was steamrolled. He left the field concussed for Cliff Lyons to come on.
Johns went within inches of scoring for Newcastle in the 24th minute when his blindside break on the last tackle was stopped by a desperate Hopoate. Manly responded with a thrilling try in the 25th minute. The movement started 55 metres out – Hopoate making the initial break down the left-hand side with Lyons backing up to enable Craig Innes to crash over for a Manly 10–0 lead. Newcastle's first points came through a Johns' penalty goal. Then in the 34th minute they scored their first ever Grand Final try after a clever kick from Matthew Johns was taken by Hopoate who was bundled into touch. From the scrum win, Robbie O'Davis got outside Terry Hill to score. Andrew Johns' conversion brought Newcastle within two points. Manly hit back in the 38th minute after some magical work from Lyons. He swept onto the ball which had been dropped by Harragon and spun around to find Shannon Nevin on the inside. The Newcastle forwards couldn't get across to cover the overlap and Nevin then converted his own try for a 16–8 half-time scoreline.
2nd half
| Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles | Position | Newcastle Knights |
|---|---|---|
| WG | 2. Darren Albert | |
| CE | ||
| 5. Mark Hughes | ||
| 6. Geoff Toovey (c) | 6. Matthew Johns | |
| HB | 7. Andrew Johns | |
| 8. Tony Butterfield | ||
| 9. Billy Peden | ||
| 10. Paul Harragon (c) | ||
| SR | 11. Wayne Richards | |
| 12. Adam Muir | ||
| 13. Marc Glanville | ||
| Reserve | 15. Troy Fletcher | |
| Reserve | 16. Scott Conley | |
| Reserve | 18. Lee Jackson | |
| Reserve | 19. Steve Crowe | |
| Coach | Malcolm "Mal" Reilly | |
The match is ultimately best remembered for its classic grandstand finish. With 28 seconds remaining and on their last tackle, the Knights attempted a match-winning field goal. A charge-down by a Manly player foiled the field goal attempt but gave the Knights six more tackles. With 19 seconds left, Darren Albert played the ball on the first tackle of the next set of six, with Andrew Johns at dummy-half. At the play of the ball Johns unexpectedly went down the narrow blind-side, throwing a dummy and engaging several Manly players, before slipping a pass back inside to Albert whose try took the score to 20–16 only seven seconds from full-time.[5] The Knights players and their fans broke into celebration at having won their inaugural title, with Ray Warren proclaiming "Newcastle have won the Grand Final!"[6] With the after the siren conversion from Andrew Johns, the final score was 22-16.
Newcastle Knights 22
Tries: O'Davis 2, Albert
Goals: Johns 5/6
Manly Sea Eagles 16
Tries: Hopoate, Innes, Nevin
Goals: Nevin 2/4
Seventy per cent of the winning squad were Newcastle juniors. The win was a huge morale boost to the blue-collar Newcastle district in the same year that the area's biggest employer, the BHP steelworks had announced its closure.
A Super Bowl style match between the Newcastle Knights and Brisbane Broncos, the 1997 Super League season's premiers was mooted, but did not eventuate.[8] Newcastle only had to wait another four years for its next premiership, whilst Manly had to wait until 2007 for another shot at the title, which was unsuccessful. Manly's next premiership would however come the following year.
The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 22.Top 5 point scorers
| width=50 | Points | width=200 | Player | width=30 | Tries | width=30 | Goals | width=30 | Field Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 217 | Jason Taylor | 9 | 89 | 3 | |||||
| 158 | Ivan Cleary | 5 | 69 | 0 | |||||
| 109 | Andrew Leeds | 3 | 47 | 3 | |||||
| 106 | Wayne Bartrim | 5 | 43 | 0 | |||||
| 102 | Michael Withers | 8 | 35 | 0 |
| width=50 | Tries | width=200 | Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Terry Hill | ||
| 17 | Darren Albert | ||
| 14 | Wayne Clifford | ||
| 12 | Steve Menzies | ||
| 12 | John Hopoate | ||
| 12 | Andrew Walker | ||
| 12 | William Kennedy |
| width=50 | Goals | width=200 | Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| 89 | Jason Taylor | ||
| 69 | Ivan Cleary | ||
| 47 | Andrew Leeds | ||
| 43 | Wayne Bartrim | ||
| 37 | Brendan Hurst |
See main article: National Rugby League. With twenty-two teams playing in two competitions in 1997 crowd attendances and corporate sponsorships were spread very thinly, and many teams found themselves in financial difficulty by the end of the season. Despite having the financial backing of Optus, the Australian Rugby League decided that it was not in the best interests of the game to run two competitions and undertook moves to approach News Limited and invite the traditional clubs back into the main competition. As a consequence of the negotiations that followed, on 23 September 1997 the ARL announced that it was forming a new competition in partnership with News Limited. The NRL was formed from the ARL and Super League competitions.
It was announced that the 1998 season would have 20 teams competing, 19 of the ARL and Super League teams and the Melbourne Storm, who were owned by News Limited. Some of the clubs on both sides of the war were shut down. News decided to close the Hunter Mariners and the financially ruined Western/Perth Reds, who were $10million in debt at the end of 1997, while the ARL decided to close down the South Queensland Crushers, who were also in financial trouble. Additionally, at the end of the following season News Limited would decide to close down the Adelaide Rams and the ARL would close down the Gold Coast Chargers, even though they were one of the few clubs to make a profit during the Super League war.
| Coach | 1996 Club | 1997 Club | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Sheens | Canberra Raiders | North Queensland Cowboys (Super League) | |
| Brian Smith | Super League: Bradford Bulls | Parramatta Eels |