User:Bongomanrae/National Rugby League champions

''This article is about winners of the current National Rugby League competition. For information on winners of the previous competitions, please see Australian rugby league champions.''

National Rugby League champions is a title given to the winning team of the National Rugby League, an Australian rugby league competition. The tournament started in 1998.

The tournament consists of each team playing the other in a round robin. The final table position at the end of the round robin determines the teams that go through to the semi finals. 2 points are awarded for a win and 0 for a loss. The 8 highest ranked teams at the end of the round robin go through to the semi finals, consisting of first hosting fourth and second hosting third. The two winning teams would then go through to the grand final, held at Sydney's Telstra Stadium.

The NRL was created by the merger of the Australian Rugby League and Super League (Australia). The tournament involves 16 teams. As of 2006 the NRL has had almost as many cham,pions as it has had seasons. The most successful of which was the Brisbane Broncos, who have won the tournament 3 times.

Qualification for finals series
The eight highest placed teams at the end of the regular season have the opportunity to compete in the finals series, which is contested using the McIntyre System. This system has been used for every National Rugby League season with the exception of the first, in 1998. . The system consists of a number of knockout and sudden-death games over four weeks between the top eight teams in August and September until there are only two teams remaining. These two teams then play in the Grand Final, on the first Sunday of October. In the first week, the top four seeds play at their respective home grounds. In week two, matches are played within the home city of the two lower seeded winning teams from week one. In week three, teams will play within the home regions of the two seeded winning teams from week one.

In 1998 the Grand Final was held at Sydney Football Stadium. Since 1999 the Grand Final has been contested at Telstra Stadium, the primary athletics venue during the 2000 Olympic Games held in Sydney. In June 2006, the NRL announced that the National Rugby League Grand Final will continue to be held at Sydney's Telstra Stadium until at least 2012, when it will be considered to be moved interstate if certain circumstances arose.

Competition scoring

 * win = 2 points
 * loss = 0 points
 * for = Total points scored
 * against = Total points conceded
 * difference = Subtraction of against from for
 * Golden Point Extra Time:
 * The NRL introduced Golden Point Extra Time in.

Tournaments (1998-present)
Teams mentioned are those which finished in the top 8, qualifying them for the semi-finals. Scores mentioned are written so that the team in that column is mentioned first. The highlighted team won that season's Super 12 final.