Another chapter of the A to Z of the NRL is here, and with the strangest season of NRL just about to re-commence, what better time for the A to Z of the NRL to remember the somewhat forgotten Optus Cup for the letter O?
The Optus Cup was the name and trophy of the Australian Rugby League for a turbulent two seasons at the height of the Super League war in the 1990s.
Whilst the name of the Optus Cup may have been forgotten like a competitive scrum, one referee and a Sunday afternoon game in Brisbane, it did manage to sign off with one of the more fondly remembered grand finals of the past 40 seasons. Or at least the finish of it anyway.
Here then is a quick trip down memory lane for the A to Z of the NRL featuring two glorious years of the Optus Cup.
THE OPTUS CUP BEGINS
It is 1996, and the infamous branding of the Winfield Cup has finished, and with the Super League war in full swing, and pay TV is just starting out.
Unlike a name change of one of the nation’s great supporting competitions – the Sheffield Shield – Optus didn’t just come in and change everything. There was no lame Pura Milk Cup trophy that looked like everything: the Optus Cup was smart enough to know how much the existing Proven-Summons trophy.
But thanks to expansion of the newly named ARL in 1995, the competition is bulging at 20 teams in 1996; that expansion and TV is at the forefront of the Super League war which is raging throughout this season.
And that off-field drama was at the heart of the Optus Cup, and indeed the first round.
But before we head into the detail, enjoy some Optus Vision footage.
WELL IT SORT OF BEGINS……SUPER LEAGUE CLUBS FORFEIT THE FIRST OPTUS CUP ROUND
Something that may have been forgotten is that the very first round of the Optus Cup season in 1996 saw Super League-affiliated clubs make a statement and refuse to play.
This meant that just four games were played in round 1, all between ARL-aligned sides.
The only all Super League match was cancelled, giving a leg up for all the ARL sides.
Especially good, according to Wikipedia, was when Auckland flew a team of players from the Otahuhu Leopards and Ellerslie Eagles clubs to Brisbane and won the game by default. Sadly, the Leopards and Eagles players weren’t featured much for the rest of the season.
But it wasn’t just the team’s alliances to Super League/ARL that was causing mayhem; specific players who were ARL loyal but playing for Super League aligned clubs needed new homes. As Bill Lowry would say, it was all happening.
ROOSTERS THEN MANLY LEAD THE WAY
The 1996 Optus Cup wasn’t a bad result for the ARL loyalists, with the Roosters leading the competition from Round 2, and Manly the only other club that led the Optus Cup in Round 1 and from Round 12 to the end of the 22 round regular season.
Five of the eight sides that finished in the finals belonged to the ARL. Notably the Western Suburbs Magpies finished eighth, and the popular North Sydney finished third. Certainly a rare Magpies finals appearance in the 1990s.
The size of the competition is proving itself not be great value for the competition in 1996, as the bottom three sides – South Qld Crushers, South Sydney and the North Queensland Cowboys – didn’t win a game between them from Round 16 onwards. Eventually the size of the competition would be addressed, but not before it expanded in 1997…
THE 1996 FINAL LADDER
Not a great season for Queensland-based Souths fan who hated the Broncos, and interestingly the North Queensland Cowboys had the worst points difference despite being only fourth last. They had the worst attack and defence.
The number of different games played is due to the shenanigans in Round 1.
Manly conceded just over eight points a game.
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | |
| 1 | Manly Sea Eagles | 22 | 18 | 0 | 4 | 549 | 191 | 358 | 36 |
| 2 | Brisbane | 21 | 17 | 0 | 4 | 607 | 263 | 344 | 34 |
| 3 | North Sydney | 22 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 598 | 325 | 273 | 32 |
| 4 | Eastern Suburbs | 22 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 521 | 321 | 200 | 31 |
| 5 | Cronulla | 21 | 14 | 2 | 5 | 399 | 268 | 131 | 30 |
| 6 | Canberra | 21 | 13 | 1 | 7 | 538 | 384 | 154 | 27 |
| 7 | St George | 21 | 12 | 1 | 8 | 443 | 360 | 83 | 27 |
| 8 | Western Suburbs | 22 | 12 | 1 | 9 | 394 | 434 | −40 | 25 |
| 9 | Newcastle | 21 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 416 | 388 | 28 | 23 |
| 10 | Canterbury | 21 | 11 | 0 | 10 | 375 | 378 | −3 | 22 |
| 11 | Auckland | 21 | 10 | 0 | 11 | 412 | 427 | −15 | 22 |
| 12 | Balmain | 22 | 11 | 0 | 11 | 319 | 459 | −140 | 22 |
| 13 | Parramatta | 21 | 9 | 1 | 11 | 404 | 415 | −11 | 21 |
| 14 | Illawarra | 22 | 8 | 0 | 14 | 403 | 444 | −41 | 16 |
| 15 | Penrith | 21 | 7 | 1 | 13 | 363 | 464 | −101 | 15 |
| 16 | Western Reds | 21 | 6 | 1 | 14 | 313 | 420 | −107 | 13 |
| 17 | North Queensland | 21 | 6 | 0 | 15 | 288 | 643 | −355 | 12 |
| 18 | Gold Coast Chargers | 22 | 5 | 1 | 16 | 359 | 521 | −162 | 11 |
| 19 | South Sydney | 22 | 5 | 1 | 16 | 314 | 634 | −320 | 11 |
| 20 | South Queensland | 21 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 220 | 496 | −276 | 8 |
THE 1996 FINALS SERIES RESULTS
| Qualifying Finals | ||
| Cronulla | 20–12 | Western Suburbs |
| Brisbane | 16–21 | North Sydney |
| Canberra | 14–16 | St George |
| Manly Sea Eagles | 16–14 | Eastern Suburbs |
| Semi Finals | ||
| Brisbane | 16–22 | Cronulla |
| Eastern Suburbs | 16–36 | St George |
| Preliminary Finals | ||
| North Sydney | 12–29 | St George |
| Manly Sea Eagles | 24–0 | Cronulla |
| Grand Final | ||
| Manly Sea Eagles | 20–8 | St George |
MANLY WIN THE 1996 TITLE
Manly-Warringah were the form side of the Optus years, and won the first Optus Cup, ending the Dragons‘ great run from seventh position; it was the third grand final loss in five seasons for St George, who would have to wait nearly 15 more seasons to break through for their next premiership (as the merged entity St George-Illawarra).
The 20-8 victory to Manly was not quite as interesting as finding out that the Delltones were part of the pre-match entertainment.
Manly led 14-2 at the break, and Geoff Toovey won the Clive Churchill Medal and would no doubt have been thrilled by it.
1997 SUPER LEAGUE SPLIT
By 1997 the Super League shit really hit the fan, and their teams and players were now prepared to break away, with the backing of News Ltd and pay TV giant Foxtel.
So the 1997 Optus Cup featured just the 12 teams, all ARL-aligned.
Fans of the South Queensland Crushers and their French Mustard-coloured jersey would be watching their team for the last time, and they saluted by finishing last, giving the Broncos freedom to Brisbane’s footy landscape ever since.
St George, who were the second+best team of 20, were now 10th best of the 12 ARL teams. Quite the fall from grace.
The Gold Coast Chargers, and in particular Captain Charger, gave rugby league an interesting story away from the Super League battle by giving the Gold Coast their first finals finish.
1997 OPTUS CUP LADDER
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | |
| 1 | Manly Sea Eagles | 22 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 521 | 366 | 155 | 32 |
| 2 | Newcastle | 22 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 512 | 320 | 192 | 29 |
| 3 | Parramatta | 22 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 431 | 359 | 72 | 29 |
| 4 | North Sydney | 22 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 529 | 341 | 188 | 27 |
| 5 | Eastern Suburbs | 22 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 487 | 366 | 121 | 27 |
| 6 | Illawarra | 22 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 423 | 376 | 47 | 23 |
| 7 | Gold Coast Chargers | 22 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 438 | 466 | −28 | 21 |
| 8 | Balmain | 22 | 10 | 0 | 12 | 339 | 340 | −1 | 20 |
| 9 | Western Suburbs | 22 | 10 | 0 | 12 | 355 | 424 | −69 | 20 |
| 10 | St George | 22 | 9 | 1 | 12 | 331 | 392 | −61 | 19 |
| 11 | South Sydney | 22 | 4 | 1 | 17 | 323 | 630 | −307 | 9 |
| 12 | South Queensland | 22 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 321 | 630 | −309 | 8 |
1997 OPTUS CUP FINALS SERIES
| Illawarra | 14–25 | Gold Coast Chargers |
| North Sydney | 21–33 | Eastern Suburbs |
| Newcastle | 28–20 | Parramatta |
| Major Qualifying Finals | ||
| Eastern Suburbs | 32–10 | Gold Coast Chargers |
| Parramatta | 14–24 | North Sydney |
| Manly Sea Eagles | 27–12 | Newcastle |
| Preliminary Finals | ||
| Newcastle | 17–12 | North Sydney |
| Manly Sea Eagles | 17–16 | Eastern Suburbs |
| Grand Final | ||
| Manly Sea Eagles | 16–22 | Newcastle |
1997 OPTUS CUP GRAND FINAL
At least the Optus Cup got to sign off in style, with the grand final going down to the last few seconds, and Newcastle Knights securing their first ever premiership.
Manly made their third consecutive grand final, and looked on track to make it back-to-back Optus Cups when they skipped ahead to a 16-8 halftime lead. They didn’t of course, making it just one win in three grand finals.
Newcastle had the Johns brothers, and Andrew was in the thick of things late as the Knights survived a field goal attempt from Manly with 10 minutes to go, scoring themselves with five minutes to go to set up a thrilling finish.
The finish of course is one of the most replayed grand final moments as Newcastle winger Darren Albert scored with just seconds left on the clock, and the Knights won their first ever premiership, putting a silver lining on a season destroyed by politics.
THE END OF AN ERA
There were quite a few victims in the rugby league world in Australia in 1998 because of the Super League war, and the Optus sponsorship of the trophy was one of them. Being consigned the bin along with the Western Reds, South Queensland Crushers and the term Super League (at least in Australia).
The newly formed NRL didn’t need Optus for the trophy title from 1998, and the Optus pay TV service died a little thereafter, especially for sport broadcasting in Australia. They made a comeback recently by stealing the football rights in Australia off Fox Sports for the Premier League, European competitions and SBS For the World Cup. Although, the less said about their effort in showing the 2018 FIFA World Cup the better.
At the end of the day, the Optus Cup didn’t last long, and the sponsorship of the two seasons has been long forgotten, but it was a part of a key time in rugby league in Australia.
A FULL YOUTUBE 3 HOUR REVIEW OF THE 1996 OPTUS CUP
A FULL YOUTUBE REVIEW of 1997 RUGBY LEAGUE IN AUSTRALIA
THE A TO Z OF RUGBY LEAGUE SO FAR
D is Defunct Clubs and Disused Grounds
E is for English Rugby League Players in Australia
F is for Best Rugby League Facial Hair
H is for Best Rugby League Hair
