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 was a close one at the beginning of the game, with the deadlock only being broken in the 23rd minute after 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.
However, the Roosters were able to capitalise off a Brad Fittler 40/20 kick that allowed Craig Wing to score. The Roosters then ran away with the match in the final 20 minutes after captain Brad Fittler was involved in a head clash with Warriors prop Richard Villasanti. The final score was 30 - 8, with the Roosters winning their first championship in 27 years. Craig Fitzgibbon was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal. The win put the Roosters ahead of the Balmain Tigers on the all-time winners list with 12 premierships, still 8 premierships behind South Sydney.