2002 saw the fifth National Rugby League (NRL) season, the 95th season of professional rugby league football in Australia. The New Zealand Warriors won their first minor premiership and made it to the grand final for the first time, playing agianst foundation club the Sydney Roosters who won the match and collected their first premiership in 27 years.
| 2002 National Rugby League | |
|---|---|
| File:NRLlogo.gif Logo of the NRL | |
| Teams | 15 |
| Premiers | File:Eastern Suburbs colours.png Sydney (12th title) |
| Minor premiers | File:New Zealand colours.png New Zealand (1st title) |
| Matches played | 189 |
| Points scored | 9083 |
| Attendance | 2656198 |
| Top try-scorer(s) | File:Canterbury colours.png Nigel Vagana (23 tries) |
Season Summary
Pre-season
In February 2002, the National Rugby League's Director of Legal and Business Affairs, David Gallop was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the NRL.
This season saw the return of legendary halfback Allan Langer for his final year playing professional football, fifteen years after his debut for the Broncos in their first ever match.
The Return of South Sydney
Following the club's departure from the NRL after the 1999 season, there was a continuing push from both fans and the wider rugby league community to reinstate the South Sydney Rabbitohs back into the NRL competition. After two unsuccessful years of lobbying, South Sydney finally got a court ruling in their favour in 2001. On March 15, 2002, the Rabbitohs opened the NRL season with a home match against long-time rivals, the Sydney Roosters.
It turned out to be a tough year for the Rabbitohs, winning only 5 matches from 24 played, but not collecting the wooden spoon after the stripping of 37 competition points from premiership frontrunners the Canterbury Bulldogs.
The Salary Cap Breach
In mid-2002, the Bulldogs were found guilty of serious and systemic breaches of the salary cap. NRL Chief Executive David Gallop described the violation as "exceptional in both its size and its deliberate and ongoing nature". The club received a $500,000 fine, and was stripped of all 37 competition points. The latter action was particularly harmful, as the club were poised to take the Minor Premiership and had won 17 consecutive matches (the second highest in Australian club rugby league history at the time). The salary cap has always been an exploited flaw in the game but the Bulldogs were the only team to be publicly caught in such an excessive nature[citation needed].
The stripping of the Bulldiogs' points also enabled the Canberra Raiders to make the finals with a points differential of -170, the poorest such record of any finalist in the competition's history.
Season advertising
In 2002 as in 2001 the NRL's advertising was handled by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney.
Again there was no big budget season launch ad. The NRL again focussed on stretching its marketing spend throughout the season with newspaper ads promoting individual rounds and clubs and with simple TV ads to promote key games.
Ladder
- Bulldogs stripped of 37 premiership points due to salary cap breach.
Finals Series
Grand Final
For the 2002 Grand Final, Billy Idol was set to perform before the match, but was prevented from doing so due to an embarrassing power failure. The New Zealand Warriors had reached the Grand Final for the first time and faced the Sydney Roosters in front of 80,130 spectators.
The match, which was refereed by Bill Harrigan, was a close one at the beginning of the game. The deadlock was not broken until the 23rd minute, when the Sydney Roosters completed a successful play which had begun in New Zealand's half of the field. An overlap had allowed Brett Mullins to sprint down much of the left hand side of the field uncontested before offloading to Shannon Hegarty who ran the remaining 30 metres to score the opening try of the match. Craig Fitzgibbon's conversion allowed the Roosters hold a 6–0 lead until New Zealand brought the scoreline back to 6–2 with a successful penalty kick.
Less than two minutes from half-time, New Zealand halfback and captain Stacey Jones kicked the ball downfield from just inside his own half early in the tackle count. With only one player behind the defensive line for the Sydney Roosters, fullback Luke Phillips had to sprint across field to try and prevent New Zealand winger Francis Meli getting to the ball first. As it turned out, only a bad last bounce for Meli prevented him from getting to the ball first, with Phillips knocking the ball dead right on his own line and ultimately led to the score being unchanged at half-time.
New Zealand took the lead for the first time in the match six minutes after the break when Stacey Jones scored after stepping past five Sydney Roosters defenders before accelerating to cross the line in what has been described as a "spectacular solo try." The subsequent conversion gave New Zealand an 8–6 lead.
Approaching the 60th minute, commentator Paul Vautin stated that the Roosters would require "something special" from captain Brad Fittler to come back into the match. That very set, Fittler drove a kick downfield to capture a 40/20, allowing the Roosters to get the ball back well within New Zealand's own half. Just a minute later, Fittler linked up with halback Craig Wing on the Warrior's line to capture the try to get the Roosters back in the lead.
After the subsequent kickoff and a few plays, Fittler got the ball to kick downfield only to be struck down by a Warriors defender who was preparing to charge down the ball. As Fittler fell on the ground, Richard Villasanti made what pulled off what looked to be like a deliberate head clash, forcing Fittler to lose the ball. However, referee Bill Harrigan thought otherwise and rewarded a scrum feed to New Zealand. Some reporters later wrote that the incident had fired up the Roosters and ultimately turned the game around to be a one sided affair.
During the next set, Villasanti and his teammates were hit hard by Michael Crocker and Adrian Morley. Craig Fitzgibbon, Chris Flannery and Brian Fletcher then all scored tries within 15 minutes at the end of the game to make the final scoreline 30–8. The win secured the Sydney Roosters their twelfth premiership and their first since the 1975 season. Craig Fitzgibbon was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal with one try and a perfect conversion rate of 5/5.