National Rugby League
Updated: Wikipedia source
The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which is currently contested by 17 teams from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, and New Zealand. Tracing its origins back to the New South Wales Rugby League, which formed in 1908, premier rugby league competition in Australia had gone through numerous iterations, most notably during the Super League war in the 1990s, which resulted in the NRL being formed in 1998 as a joint partnership between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the News Corporation-controlled Super League. The partnership was dissolved in 2012, with control of the NRL going to the re-constituted ARL, which was re-structured with an independent board of directors and renamed the Australian Rugby League Commission. Each NRL season typically runs from March to October, with each team playing 24 matches. The first-placed team at the end of the regular season are awarded the J. J. Giltinan Shield for winning the minor premiership. This is followed by a finals series contested between the top eight placed teams from the regular season, which determines the two teams to compete in the NRL Grand Final held at Stadium Australia. The team that wins the match are awarded the Provan-Summons Trophy in recognition for becoming the premiers of the season, and qualifies them to compete in the World Club Challenge against the champions of the English Super League. The reigning premiers are the Brisbane Broncos, having won their seventh premiership in the 2025 NRL season. As of 2023 the NRL is the richest Rugby league league and overall Rugby league (including rugby union and rugby league) in the world by revenue. It is also the 31st richest sports league in the world and the 2nd richest in Australia behind the Australian Football League.