The advent of
mandatory grand finals in 1954 loosened the traditional stranglehold of minor
premiers taking out the title, while the shift to five-team, and later
eight-team, finals series further exacerbated the likelihood of the season’s
most consistent team failing to hold up the trophy on grand final day. Between the first season of the Sydney premiership
in 1908 and 1953, the last year before the introduction of mandatory grand
finals, just eight minor premiers failed to take out the title (note: seasons
1912-21 and 1925 operated under a ‘first-past-the-post’ system of the minor
premiers being declared champions).
The fledgling
mandatory grand final system immediately brought the minor premiers
undone. Newtown won consecutive minor
premierships in 1954-55, but went down to South Sydney in the grand final in
each year. Despite topping the ladder in
1967, St. George’s record run of 11 consecutive premierships came to end after
losing both finals matches to Souths and Canterbury – thus becoming the first
minor premiers to fail to qualify for the grand final.
The introduction of a
five-team finals series in 1973 provided even bigger hurdles for the minor
premiers. Between 1977 and 2010, just 15
of 35 minor premiers have gone on to win the grand final. Easts finished the regular season in top spot
in 1980-81 but faltered in their premiership bid in both seasons and missed the
grand final in the latter year.
Consecutive minor premiers Cronulla (1988) and Souths (1989) also bowed
out of the title race with successive finals defeats. The Bulldogs suffered a straight-sets finals
exit in 1993 and were thrashed by Canberra in the 1994 grand final after
winning the minor premiership each year, while three-time minor premiers Manly
(1995-97) garnered just one grand final win for their regular season dominance.
It got worse for
minor premiers during the NRL era following the introduction of the
controversial McIntryre finals system.
Since 1998, just five minor premiers have progressed to a grand final
victory lap. Cronulla (1999) and
Parrmatta (2005) suffered preliminary final defeats after wrapping up minor
premierships, while St. George Illawarra acquired an unwanted piece of history
in 2009, losing consecutive finals matches to become the first minor premiers
to be eliminated before the preliminary final stage. Melbourne, who won three minor premierships
(2006-08) that were later stripped due to the club’s well-documented salary cap
breaches, collected just one grand final win during those seasons – mirroring
Manly’s dominant side of a decade earlier – before crashing out at the preliminary
final stage after claiming the minor premiership in 2011. Incredibly, the Broncos have won the grand
final in each of the seasons they have claimed a minor premiership – 1992, 1997
(Super League), 1998 and 2000 – accounting for four of the eight times the
minor premiers have won the ensuing grand final since 1992.
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