2006 NRL season

The 2006 NRL season was the 99th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the ninth run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of teams remained unchanged from the previous year, with fifteen clubs competing for the 2006 Telstra Premiership. Throughout the 26 rounds of the regular season ten teams from New South Wales, two from Queensland and one each from Victoria, the ACT and New Zealand competed for the minor premiership. Eight of these teams qualified for the four-week finals series, with the Brisbane Broncos eventual victors over the Melbourne Storm in the grand final. Melbourne finished the regular season first so were awarded the minor premiership, but this was later revoked due to the Melbourne Storm salary cap breach.

Pre season

Newcastle Knights coach Michael Hagan signed a three-year deal to coach the Parramatta Eels, beginning in 2007. Hagan replaced Brian Smith, who had coached the Eels since 1997 whilst Smith replaced Hagan at Newcastle in an unprecedented coach-swap. In other coaching moves, Matthew Elliott was confirmed as the coach of the Penrith Panthers, beginning in 2007.
Penrith Panthers halfback Craig Gower was fired as captain, suspended for four games and fined $100,000 after a string of alcohol-fueled incidents at a charity golf function.
The Charity Shield heralded the unofficial start of the season, with the South Sydney Rabbitohs defeating St George Illawarra 14-12 in their first home game at Telstra Stadium on February 18. All NRL clubs engaged in a series of trials during the month of February.
Wests Tigers premiership-winning captain Scott Prince announced on March 3 he had signed a four-year deal with expansion team Gold Coast Titans, beginning in 2007. Prince relinquished the captaincy of the Tigers for the 2006 season.
New Zealand Warriors salary cap breach

The salary cap for the 2006 season was A$3.366 million per club for their 25 highest-paid players. The New Zealand Warriors were investigated by the National Rugby League over alleged salary cap breaches committed by the team's previous administrators. The club admitted to inflating its salary cap to the tune of nearly $1 million during the 2005 season. The National Rugby League fined the Warriors $430,000 and ordered the team to start the season with a four premiership point deficit. It was the first time in 99 years of rugby league in Australia that a team has started a season on less than zero premiership points.
The Warriors appealed the decision by the NRL to deduct the four competition points but accepted the financial penalty. Prior to the beginning of the season, the National Rugby League confirmed that the points penalty would stand. The penalty would prove the decisive factor in the Warriors missing the finals for the third year in succession.

Teams

Season summary

The season began on March 10 with a match between defending premiers Wests Tigers and the St. George Illawarra Dragons, played at Telstra Stadium. The Melbourne Storm won 20 out of 24 regular season matches to win the minor premiership eight points clear of the Bulldogs. However, in April 2010, the Storm were retroactively stripped of their minor premiership as a result of salary cap breaches occurring over the course of the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons.
The grand finals:

Brisbane Broncos vs Melbourne Storm
Parramatta Eels vs Newtown Jets
Penrith Panthers vs Newcastle Knights

The winners in all grades were:

Brisbane Broncos
Parramatta Eels
Penrith Panthers

The test match

Australia vs New Zealand

The tri-nations Series

Australia vs New Zealand
Australia vs Great Britain
Great Britain vs New Zealand

The State Of Origin Series

Queensland vs New South Wales
Venues

Sixteen stadiums regularly hosted National Rugby league matches, with a further six hosting at least one match in season 2006.

Stadium name	City	Host club	Capacity
Suncorp Stadium	Milton, Brisbane, Qld	Brisbane Broncos	52,500
Canberra Stadium	Bruce, Canberra, ACT	Canberra Raiders	25,000
Olympic Park Stadium	Melbourne, Vic	Melbourne Storm	18,500
EnergyAustralia Stadium	Newcastle, NSW	Newcastle Knights	26,200
Sydney Football Stadium	Moore Park, Sydney, NSW	Sydney Roosters	41,159
Brookvale Oval	Brookvale, Sydney, NSW	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	22,000
Campbelltown Stadium	Campbelltown, Sydney, NSW	Wests Tigers	20,000
Leichhardt Oval	Leichhardt, Sydney, NSW	Wests Tigers	20,000
Oki Jubilee Stadium	Kogarah, Sydney, NSW	St George Illawarra Dragons	20,541
Parramatta Stadium	Parramatta, Sydney, NSW	Parramatta Eels	20,500
CUA Stadium	Penrith, Sydney, NSW	Penrith Panthers	21,000
Telstra Stadium	Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, NSW	Bulldogs South Sydney Rabbitohs Wests Tigers	83,500
Toyota Park	Cronulla, Sydney, NSW	Cronulla Sharks	21,500
Dairy Farmers Stadium	Kirwan, Townsville, Qld	North Queensland Cowboys	25,000
Mt Smart Stadium	Penrose, Auckland, New Zealand	New Zealand Warriors	25,000
WIN Stadium	Wollongong, NSW	St George Illawarra Dragons	20,000

Hindmarsh Stadium	Hindmarsh, Adelaide, SA		15,500
Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium	Gosford, Central Coast, NSW		20,059
Jade Stadium	Christchurch, New Zealand		36,500
Carrara Stadium	Carrara, Gold Coast, Qld		22,000
Waikato Stadium	Hamilton, New Zealand		26,350
Sydney Cricket Ground	Moore Park, Sydney, NSW		43,562

Advertising

In 2006 the NRL and their advertising agency MJW Hakuhodo stayed with the Hoodoo Gurus' "That's My Team" soundtrack for a fourth year, producing a treatment aimed to appeal to the fundamental hope of all players and fans: that it would be ‘their team’ who would win the Grand Final.
Capitalising on the enthusiasm generated by the Wests Tigers triumph of 2005 in only their sixth season, the campaign line and song chorus was changed to ‘That’s My Dream’.
All fifteen NRL club captains featured heavily in the television and outdoor ads holding aloft the Telstra trophy. Eight young real life fans also featured in the TV commercial reflecting the origins of the game from backyard football scenes to Sydney beaches. Each was a fan of one of eight clubs who had not till then won the Telstra Premiership trophy and four different broadcast versions of the ad told the stories of their love of the game and each's dream of their own team's victory.

Dally M Awards

The Dally M Awards were introduced in 1980 by News Limited. The most prestigious of these awards is the Dally M Medal which is awarded to the Player Of The Year. The other prestigious award is the Provans Summons Medal which is the season's best player as voted by the public. As well as honouring the player of the year the awards night also recognises the premier player in each position, the best coach, the best captain, representative player of the year and the most outstanding rookie of the season. The awards night and Player of the Year medal are named in honour of Australian former rugby league great Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger.

Position	Award	Player	Club
	Player of the Year	Cameron Smith	Melbourne Storm
	Provans Summons Medal	Nathan Hindmarsh	Parramatta Eels
	Rookie of the Year	Jarryd Hayne	Parramatta Eels
	Captain of the Year	Ben Kennedy	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
	Rep Player of the Year	Darren Lockyer	Brisbane Broncos
	Coach of the Year	Craig Bellamy	Melbourne Storm

Team of the Year

Position	Award	Player	Club
	Best Fullback	Clinton Schifcofske	Canberra Raiders
	Best Winger	Brian Carney	Newcastle Knights
	Best Centre	Mark Gasnier	St George Illawarra Dragons
	Best Five-Eighth	Darren Lockyer	Brisbane Broncos
	Best Halfback	Cooper Cronk	Melbourne Storm
	Best Lock	Ben Kennedy	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
	Best Second-Rower	Nathan Hindmarsh	Parramatta Eels
	Best Prop	Roy Asotasi	Bulldogs
	Best Hooker	Cameron Smith	Melbourne Storm

Statistics and Records

Clinton Schifcofske ran 3,741 metres with the ball in 2006, more than any other player in the competition.
The Brisbane Broncos set a club record for their biggest comeback win when they came from 18-0 down at half time to win 30-28 against Canberra Raiders in round 8.
The Melbourne Storm set a club record for their longest winning streak with 11 games from Round 12 to Round 23.
New Zealand Warriors defeated South Sydney Rabbitohs 66–0 in Round 16. This set new records for New Zealand's greatest winning margin and South Sydney's greatest losing margin.
The Newcastle Knights and Canberra Raiders set the league record for the highest aggregate score in a match, with a total of 102 points scored in Newcastle's 70–32 win in Round 2. The previous record had stood since 1935.
The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks set a then-club record for longest losing streak with 10 matches from Round 17 to Round 26.
Nathan Merritt became the first player to top the try scoring chart from the wooden spoon winning side.