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The 1995 Australian Rugby League premiership was the eighty-eighth season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney, and the first to be run by the Australian Rugby League. Twenty teams contested during the season for the premiership, including five Sydney-based foundation teams, another six from Sydney, two from greater New South Wales, four from Queensland, and one from New Zealand, the Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia.

Contents

Season summary

Season advertising

Ladder

Finals

Grand Final

See also

References

Season summary

When the Australian Rugby League began taking bids for expansion teams to begin playing in 1995, it was expected that only two teams would enter. The Auckland Warriors were the first club to be accepted, with the final place being fought for by South Queensland, North Queensland and Perth. The Australian Rugby League later announced that all three clubs had been accepted, taking the number of teams from 16 in 1994 to 20 in 1995, the highest it had ever been.
1995 would prove to be a year of massive change for the competition. In addition to the introduction of four new teams, it was the last year of the league's association with Rothmans and the Winfield brand and consequently the final year that clubs competed for the Winfield Cup.
The storm clouds that had been gathering for some time in the form of rumours and speculation about Super League were to break on 1 April 1995 with a verification that would rain on the game with more force than anyone could have expected. The subsequent Super League war would rock the game and set it back almost a decade in terms of its loss of public support and damage to its grass roots values.
The 1995 season was played in front of a background of legal actions, breaking friendships and with clubs, players and managers all jockeying for position and self-interest. Players who had signed with Super League were forbidden by the ARL from participating in the State of Origin. Queensland and New South Wales selectors were limited to selecting players only from ARL-aligned clubs.
In an effort to position themselves favourably as battle lines were being drawn up the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs called themselves the Sydney Bulldogs for the 1995 season.
Manly-Warringah's Steve Menzies became the first forward for 50 years to top the season's try-scoring list.

Season advertising

1995 marked the final year of the New South Wales Rugby League's sponsorship arrangement with Rothmans and Winfield. It was consequently the final year of a seven year association with Tina Turner and the end of an era in Australian sports marketing. As in 1994 the New South Wales Rugby League and its advertising agency Hertz Walpole returned to the original 1989 recording of The Best by Turner to underscore the season launch advertisement. Footage from the studio bluescreen shoot taken during Turner's 1993 Sydney visit was used in the final advertisements. The enduring images are of Turner performing the song on an elevated stage in front of the fluttering banners of the 20 clubs that would participate in the 1995 expanded competition.

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	16x16px Manly-Warringah	22	20	0	2	687	248	+439	'40'
2	16x16px Canberra	22	20	0	2	634	255	+379	'40'
3	16x16px Brisbane	22	17	0	5	600	364	+236	'34'
4	16x16px Cronulla-Sutherland	22	16	0	6	516	287	+229	'32'
5	16x16px Newcastle	22	15	0	7	549	396	+153	'30'
6	16x16px Sydney Bulldogs	22	14	0	8	468	352	+116	'28'
7	16x16px St. George	22	13	0	9	583	382	+201	'26'
8	16x16px North Sydney	22	11	2	9	542	331	+211	'24'
9	16x16px Sydney City	22	12	0	10	466	406	+60	'24'
10	16x16px Auckland	22	13	0	9	544	493	+51	'24'
11	16x16px Western Reds	22	11	0	11	361	549	-188	'22'
12	16x16px Illawarra	22	10	1	11	519	431	+88	'21'
13	16x16px Western Suburbs	22	10	0	12	459	534	-75	'20'
14	16x16px Penrith	22	9	0	13	481	484	-3	'18'
15	16x16px Sydney Tigers	22	7	0	15	309	591	-282	'14'
16	16x16px South Queensland	22	6	1	15	303	502	-199	'13'
17	16x16px Gold Coast	22	4	1	17	350	628	-278	'9'
18	16x16px South Sydney	22	4	1	17	319	686	-367	'9'
19	16x16px Parramatta	22	3	0	19	310	690	-380	'6'
20	16x16px North Queensland	22	2	0	20	269	660	-391	'4'

★ Auckland Warriors were stripped of two competition points due to exceeding the replacement limit in one game.

Finals

Fittingly the final eight was to be made of four clubs who would ultimately prove loyal to the Australian Rugby League (Manly-Warringah, St. George, North Sydney and Newcastle) and four clubs who would join Super League's rebel ranks (Sydney Bulldogs, Canberra, Brisbane and Cronulla-Sutherland). The Grand Final, ironically was played out by a team from each faction being Manly-Warringah and the Sydney Bulldogs.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
'Quarter Finals'
23x23px Newcastle Knights	20 - 10	23x23px North Sydney Bears	1 September 1995	Parramatta Stadium	David Manson	14,174
23x23px Canberra Raiders	14 - 8	23x23px Brisbane Broncos	2 September 1995	Suncorp Stadium	Kelvin Jeffes	40,187
23x23px Sydney Bulldogs	12 - 8	23x23px St. George Dragons	2 September 1995	Sydney Football Stadium	Eddie Ward	26,835
23x23px Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	24 - 20	23x23px Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	3 September 1995	Sydney Football Stadium	Paul McBlane	32,795
'Semi Finals'
23x23px Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	18 - 19	23x23px Newcastle Knights	9 September 1995	Sydney Football Stadium	Eddie Ward	26,061
23x23px Brisbane Broncos	10 - 24	23x23px Sydney Bulldogs	10 September 1995	Sydney Football Stadium	David Manson	34,087
'Preliminary Finals'
23x23px Canberra Raiders	6 - 25	23x23px Sydney Bulldogs	16 September 1995	Sydney Football Stadium	Eddie Ward	36,894
23x23px Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	12 - 4	23x23px Newcastle Knights	17 September 1995	Sydney Football Stadium	David Manson	38,874
'Grand Final'
23x23px Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	4 - 17	23x23px Sydney Bulldogs	24 September 1995	Sydney Football Stadium	Eddie Ward	41,127

Grand Final

Sydney Bulldogs	Position	Manly Warringah
Rod Silva	FB	Matthew Ridge
Jason Williams	WG	Craig Hancock
John Timu	CE	Danny Moore
Matthew Ryan	CE	Terry Hill
Darryl Halligan	WG	John Hopoate
Terry Lamb (c)	FE	Cliff Lyons
Craig Polla-Mounter	HB	Geoff Toovey (c)
Darren Britt	PR	David Gillespie
Jason Hetherington	HK	Des Hasler
Dean Pay	PR	Mark Carroll
Steve Price	SR	Steve Menzies
Simon Gillies	SR	Ian Roberts
Jim Dymock	LK	Nik Kosef
Jason Smith	Reserve	Owen Cunningham
Glen Hughes	Reserve	Daniel Gartner
Mitch Newton	Reserve	Solomon Haumono
Chris Anderson	Coach	Bob Fulton

Having finished in sixth place at the end of the regular season the Bulldogs made a history making finals surge winnng three sudden death matches to make the grand final.
Referee Eddie Ward, who awarded the Bulldogs two dubious tries, was the centre of controversy. The first try came from a blatant forward pass, while the matchwinning second try by Glen Hughes was scored on the seventh tackle.
Canterbury were ahead at half-time 6-4. They lost the scrum count 3-5 and the penalty count 9-10.
Referee Eddie Ward sent Bulldogs stalwart and skipper Terry Lamb to the sin-bin for a ten minute spell. As of the 2007 NRL season no player since has been sin-binned in a Grand Final. At game's end Lamb enjoyed the rare honour of celebrating as a retiring victorious skipper, although he surprisingly returned for the 1996 season.
' Canterbury Bankstown 17' (Tries: Price, Hughes, De Silva. Goals: Harrigan 2/5. Fld Goal: Lamb .)
defeated
'Manly 4' ( Goals: Ridge 2.)
Clive Churchill Medal: Jim Dymock (Sydney Bulldogs).

See also

★ Australian Rugby League

★ Winfield Cup

★ Brisbane Broncos 1995

References

★ Rugby League Tables - Season 1995 ''The World of Rugby League''