Five Weird Memories From Australia's Brief, Ill-Fated Super League Era

This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of rugby league’s weirdest seasons. Jamie Wall looks back on some of the worst bits of the inaugural, and only, Australian edition of Super League.

1997 was the year rugby league in Australasia split in two. The brash, bold Super League competition took on the old order of the ARL as chaos briefly ensued, leading to two competitions, meaning two grand finals and two champions.

The Super League saga was the result of two rich men wanting to get richer, and it almost destroyed the entire code. Super League might not have been a totally meaningless exercise – it pioneered television match officials and the zero tackle rule – but there are also plenty of things better left in the past.

1. The jerseys
While most criticism of sports apparel is about how garish the jerseys are, the main problem with the Super League kits was how boring they were – most were exactly the same design, just with different colour schemes. The players’ enthusiasm for them is pretty evident in this publicity shot, while a comprehensive ranking recently found the Warriors’ Super League jersey to be one of their worst ever – no easy feat when it’s competing with almost 50 other designs.

2. The Tri-Series
To compete with State of Origin, Super League came up with the Tri-Series involving Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand. The final was scheduled to be played in Brisbane, however NSW’s thumping first-up victory over their interstate rivals meant that a commercially-disastrous Queensland-less final was on the cards if NZ could win the final round robin game. With the score at 20-15 to NSW, the New Zealanders copped one of the harshest video ref calls ever with winger Sean Hoppe adjudged to have been offside when scoring the potentially matchwinning try (he wasn’t). Given what was at stake for the competition at the time, it’s not too much a stretch to imagine that someone higher up the chain of command was hitting the ‘no try’ button for that crucial decision.

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3. The Adelaide Rams
The most forgotten, forgettable team in rugby league history, the Rams have the distinction of being the only rugby league club from South Australia to compete at a national level. They also had uniforms that looked like a poor man’s version of the Newcastle Knights, and they played like one too, eventually coming second last. They also failed to entice future Wallabies legend George Gregan to switch codes, which was probably one of his better career decisions. However, there were still some highlights – scary looking mascot Mega Ram, a 5-1 record in the World Club Championship and a pre-match performance from Chubby Checker.

A mate just reminded me about the time Chubby Checker played the pre-game show at an Adelaide Rams game. Quality. Anyone miss the Rams? pic.twitter.com/W25pNOwriC

— Blair Hughes (@MrBlairHughes) November 29, 2016

4. The Hunter Mariners
Anyone remember the Mariners’ logo? Chances are probably not, but it was second only to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the campest pirate-based sports emblem ever. It was always going to be an uphill battle for the Mariners to win over a local public that probably only had enough room for one team in the region, especially when the Knights went on and won the other competition run in 1997. However, as far as teams with only one year of existence go, the Mariners actually did OK, just missing the playoffs of the 10 team competition and then making the final of the World Club Championship. These days just the sight of a Mariners jersey in public is worth announcing to social media.

https://twitter.com/nqc_jono/status/771936741611700224

5. The time the Warriors sneakily beat Broncos by default
In 1995 both the Brisbane Broncos and Auckland Warriors pledged allegiance to Super League, but they were still contractually obliged to play out the 1996 season. The SL-aligned clubs all agreed to forfeit their ARL matches for the start of the season at least, meaning that round one of the then Optus Cup featured no-shows from Penrith, Cronulla, Canberra and Perth. Canterbury and North Queensland’s game went down as cancelled, because neither showed up, which should have been the same for the Warriors and Broncos in Brisbane. However, the Warriors changed their minds at the last minute and submitted a team made up of non-SL contracted Auckland club players, guaranteeing a forfeit from the Broncos and 2 competition points. It didn’t help them in the long run: the Broncos ended up making the semi-finals while the Warriors missed the playoffs altogether.