Auckland
Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest urban area in the country, with an urban population of around 1,628,900, it is located in the Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,695,900. A diverse and multicultural city, Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world; the Māori-language name for Auckland is Tāmaki or Tāmaki-makau-rau, meaning "Tāmaki with a hundred lovers", in reference to the desirability of its fertile land at the hub of waterways in all directions. The Auckland urban area ranges to Waiwera in the north, Kumeu in the north-west, Runciman in the south. Auckland lies between the Hauraki Gulf of the Pacific Ocean to the east, the low Hunua Ranges to the south-east, the Manukau Harbour to the south-west, the Waitakere Ranges and smaller ranges to the west and north-west; the surrounding hills are covered in rainforest and the landscape is dotted with dozens of dormant volcanic cones.
The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitematā Harbour on the Pacific Ocean. Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have a harbour on each of two separate major bodies of water; the isthmus on which Auckland resides was first settled around 1350 and was valued for its rich and fertile land. The Māori population in the area is estimated to have peaked at 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. After a British colony was established in 1840, William Hobson Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, chose the area as his new capital, he named the area for Earl of Auckland, British First Lord of the Admiralty. It was replaced as the capital in 1865 by Wellington, but immigration to Auckland stayed strong, it has remained the country's most populous city. Today, Auckland's central business district is the major financial centre of New Zealand. Auckland is classified as a Beta + World City because of its importance in commerce, the arts, education.
The University of Auckland, established in 1883, is the largest university in New Zealand. Landmarks such as the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Harbour Bridge, the Sky Tower, many museums, parks and theatres are among the city's significant tourist attractions. Auckland Airport handles around one million international passengers a month. Despite being one of the most expensive cities in the world, Auckland is ranked third on the 2016 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, making it one of the most liveable cities; the isthmus was settled by Māori circa 1350, was valued for its rich and fertile land. Many pā were created on the volcanic peaks; the Māori population in the area is estimated to have been about 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. The introduction of firearms at the end of the eighteenth century, which began in Northland, upset the balance of power and led to devastating intertribal warfare beginning in 1807, causing iwi who lacked the new weapons to seek refuge in areas less exposed to coastal raids.
As a result, the region had low numbers of Māori when European settlement of New Zealand began. On 27 January 1832, Joseph Brooks Weller, eldest of the Weller brothers of Otago and Sydney, bought land including the site of the modern city of Auckland, the North Shore, part of Rodney District for "one large cask of powder" from "Cohi Rangatira". After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in February 1840, the new Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, chose the area as his new capital and named it for George Eden, Earl of Auckland Viceroy of India; the land that Auckland was established on was given to the Governor by a local iwi, Ngāti Whātua, as a sign of goodwill and in the hope that the building of a city would attract commercial and political opportunities for iwi. Auckland was declared New Zealand's capital in 1841, the transfer of the administration from Russell in the Bay of Islands was completed in 1842; however in 1840 Port Nicholson was seen as a better choice for an administrative capital because of its proximity to the South Island, Wellington became the capital in 1865.
After losing its status as capital, Auckland remained the principal city of the Auckland Province until the provincial system was abolished in 1876. In response to the ongoing rebellion by Hone Heke in the mid-1840s, the government encouraged retired but fit British soldiers and their families to migrate to Auckland to form a defence line around the port settlement as garrison soldiers. By the time the first Fencibles arrived in 1848, the rebels in the north had been defeated. Outlying defensive towns were constructed to the south, stretching in a line from the port village of Onehunga in the west to Howick in the east; each of the four settlements had about 800 settlers. In the early 1860s, Auckland became a base against the Māori King Movement, the 12,000 Imperial soldiers stationed there led to a strong boost to local commerce. This, continued road building towards the south into the Waikato, enabled Pākehā influence to spread from Auckland; the city's population grew rapidly, from 1,500 in 1841 to 3,635 in 1845 to 12,423 by 1864.
The growth occurred to other mercantile-dominated cities around the port and with problems of overcrowding and pollution. Auckland's population of ex-soldiers was far greater than that of other settlements: about 50 percent of the popula
Woolooware
Woolooware is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woolooware is located 24 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the Sutherland Shire, it shares the 2230 postcode with Cronulla. Woolooware stretches from Woolooware Bay in the north on the Georges River estuary to Burraneer Bay and Gunnamatta Bay in the south on the Hacking River and Port Hacking estuary, it borders the suburbs of Cronulla, Caringbah and Kurnell. It was a thickly forested area, with mangrove swamps around Woolooware Bay; those were reclaimed to create parks and playing fields including Endeavour Field, Woolooware Golf Course and Cronulla Golf Course. The area was subdivided after the railway line from Sutherland to Cronulla was opened in 1939; the first public school opened in 1951 and the post office opened in October 1954. The Australian division of Taylor Woodrow, a British construction company, built the first subdivision with project homes in Australia in north Woolooware, including the classic red brick homes in Taywood Street.
A small group of shops, known locally as Woolooware North, is located on Wills Road, close to Woolooware railway station. Shops include a general store, beauty salon, liquor shop, gift shop, doctor's surgery and Chinese restaurant. Another small group of shops, known locally as Woolooware South, is located around the intersection of Burraneer Bay Road and Woolooware Road; these shops, include a fish and chip shop, chemist and general store. A petrol station is located nearby. Woolooware railway station is on the Cronulla branch line of the Sydney Trains Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line or T4 line; the station, like all NSW intercity train stations, is Opal active. All services are double deck electric trains of eight carriages traveling to Bondi Junction stopping at major interchange stations such as Sutherland, Wolli Creek and Central; the station has electronic indicator boards. The main roads of Woolooware are Gannons Road, travelling north-south, the Kingsway which travels in an east-west direction south of the railway, Captain Cook Drive to the north which connects Woolooware to Kurnell and Miranda, Burraneer Bay Road to the bay of its namesake.
Transdev NSW provides these bus services in the Woolooware area:- 962 from Cronulla to Bankstown weekends only. 969 from Cronulla to Sutherland. 971 from Cronulla to Hurstville. 988 from Cronulla to Caringbah See Woolooware station for further details. During events at the Sharkies club a bus runs from the station to the stadium. Woolooware is home to a number of secondary schools. Woolooware Public School is located in Wills Road. Burraneer Bay Public School is located at the southern edge of the suburb on Gannons Road near the small shop area, it is accessed via three entry points, one to the south, one on Gannons Road and one to the north via a short path. A catholic primary school in Woolooware is St Francis De Sales located in a quiet street called Hill street; the high schools located here are Woolooware High School, De La Salle College and Our Lady of Mercy College. Woolooware is home to Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks; the home ground, Remondis Stadium sits beside the leagues club, known as Sharkies Leagues Club, on Captain Cook Drive.
Woolooware contains Woolooware Oval, the home ground for the Cronulla Seagulls FC amateur football club. Woolooware Oval is used for the local touch football competition and in summer is the home ground for the Cronulla Seagulls Cricket Club, it contains Captain Cook Fields, the home of the Sutherland Shire Softball Association, where all of their competition games are held. 1. ^ Since this picture was taken the railway line has been duplicated. The new track runs to the left of the buildings; the bridge was replaced and the station refurbished as part of the project. See: Woolooware railway station
NRL Grand Final
The NRL Grand Final, which determines the Australian rugby league football season's premiers, is one of Australia's major sporting events and one of the largest attended club championship events in the world. Since 1999 it has been contested at Sydney's Stadium Australia, the primary athletics venue for the 2000 Olympic Games; the first year it was held at Stadium Australia, the National Rugby League grand final broke the record for attendance at an Australian rugby league game, with 107,999 people attending. The grand final had traditionally been played on Sunday after the pubs closed,the following year saw the game shifted to an evening start. From 2008, a compromise was reached between official broadcaster Nine Network's preferred starting time of 7 pm and the traditional starting time of 3 pm, with the grand final beginning at 5 pm AEDT. In 2013 the evening start resumed; each year the NRL Grand Final Breakfast, a function, attended by both teams, hundreds of guests and screened live on Australian television is held during the week before the game.
However In 2015 the breakfast was cancelled The game itself is preceded by an opening ceremony featuring entertainment and the singing of the national anthem by well-known Australasian and international musical acts. After the pre-game entertainment it is traditional for the Provan-Summons Trophy, the NRL's official premiership trophy, to be delivered to the field by an Australian Army helicopter shortly before kick off. At the conclusion of the grand final there is a presentation ceremony where the winning team are awarded premiership rings; the player judged to be the man-of-the-match by the Australian national team selectors is awarded the prestigious Clive Churchill Medal and the Prime Minister of Australia is on-hand to hand the Provan-Summons Trophy to the winning captain. In 2010 the Government of New South Wales secured the grand final for Stadium Australia until 2022 for $45 million. First grade rugby league in NSW began in 1908, the first premiership deciding game was played at the Royal Agricultural Society Showground, with Souths defeating Easts 14-12.
From 1912 to 1925, no finals system was in place, however in 1916, 1922, 1923 and 1924, a match was played as a tiebreaker to decide the season's premiership winner. From 1926 to 1953, finals were played under the Argus system, which produced a deciding game in two differing ways. All of these deciding games are now deemed to be grand finals, whether they were referred to as such at the time or not. From 1954 to the present, using a variety of systems, the deciding match has been explicitly termed a grand final, no distinction is made between grand finals played under the auspices of the various governing bodies; the NRL grand final is held in Sydney since it has the most clubs in the NRL and the current venue for the grand final, Stadium Australia is the second highest capacity stadium in Australia, after the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Attendances The winners of the grand final qualify to play the winners of the Super League Grand Final in the World Club Challenge; the runners up qualify to play the Super League minor premiership winners in the second game of the World Club Series.
The Provan-Summons Trophy is the NRL's main prize, awarded to the team. Its sculptured design is similar to the Winfield Cup trophy, introduced for the 1982 NSWRFL season, it is a three-dimensional cast of a famous photo called The Gladiators, which depicts a mud-soaked Norm Provan of St. George and Arthur Summons of Western Suburbs embracing after the 1963 NSWRFL season's grand final, it was not named the Provan-Summons Trophy until 2013, the 50th anniversary of the 1963 grand final. The trophy is awarded following each grand final to the captain of the winning club; the Clive Churchill Medal is the award given to the player judged to be man-of-the-match in the National Rugby League's annual grand final. The award was created to honour Clive Churchill, one of the greatest rugby league players in Australian history, following his death in 1985. A prestigious honour in the NRL, The medal's recipient is chosen by the selectors of the Australian national team and announced and awarded to the player judged best and fairest on the ground at every post-grand final ceremony.
The Clive Churchill Medal has been awarded since the 1986 NSWRL season when its first recipient was Parramatta's Peter Sterling. The only two players to have won the award more than once are Canberra's Bradley Clyde and Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater. In 2010, the Melbourne Storm were stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships due to salary cap breaches exposed by the NRL, however the Clive Churchill Medallists from those years still continue to be recognised; the NRL present premiership rings for the players and coach of grand final winning sides. After the 2004 NRL Grand Final, won by the Bulldogs, one of their players, Johnathan Thurston gave his premiership ring to teammate Steve Price who missed the decider due to injury; the Melbourne Storm were stripped of their premierships in 2007 and 2009, but the players involved in those premierships were still allowed to keep their premiership rings. In 2014 NRL premiership ring was worth $8000 made by Zed N Zed Jewellery; the NRL Women's Premiership Premiership rings for the 2018 NRL Women's Premiership Grand Final where made by Affinity Diamonds Prize money is awarded to the victorious club.
However the amount is not reflective of the magnitude of participating in the event. It is assumed that the winner of the premiership experiences an increase in revenue through increases in membership and merchandise sales. Wins in 2007 and 2009 were subsequently annulled The 1997 Super League grand fin
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league team named after the Manly and Warringah areas of Sydney's Northern Beaches in which the club is based. They compete in the National Rugby League's Telstra Premiership, the premier rugby league competition of Australia; the club first appeared in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League season and plays home matches out of its ground, Brookvale Oval whilst training at the New South Wales Academy of Sport in Narrabeen. The Sea Eagles have never received the wooden spoon making them the current record holders of longest time going without a wooden spoon, over 70 years since their founding, still going to this day; the Manly Warringah Rugby League Football Club competed in the NSWRL, ARL and NRL every season until 1999. At the end of 1999, the club entered into a joint venture with the North Sydney Bears to form the Northern Eagles, which Rugby League statisticians regard as a different club; the Northern Eagles competed in 2000, 2001 and 2002, before the joint venture collapsed, allowing Manly-Warringah to return to the NRL as a stand-alone club in 2003.
They abandoned the Northern Eagles brand at the start of the 2003 season. Since winning their first premiership in 1972, the club has won a total of eight First Grade title, with their most recent premiership being the 2011 Grand Final; the club's eight titles span five consecutive decades. Since their first Grand Final appearance in 1951, the club has appeared in 19 Grand Finals across seven consecutive decades; the club has never won the wooden spoon in the longest period of any current club. Cliff Lyons holds the record for most first-grade games for Manly Warringah with 309; the record for most points scored is held by Graham Eadie with 1,917 points and Matthew Ridge has the highest total in one season, scoring 257 in 1995. Brett Stewart holds the top try scoring record with 163, beating the record held by Steve Menzies who scored 151 tries and is the highest try scoring forward in the history of the game. By the mid 1940s, the movement to expand rugby league in Sydney had gained serious momentum and Manly, as with all the other Sydney district rugby clubs, endured internal agonies as the new "League" was considered.
The NSWRL accepted Manly's application and, along with Parramatta, they were granted admission to the 1947 competition. The North Sydney Bears endured an exodus of players to the newly formed team; the Bears lost half of their games in 1947, before spending the next four seasons at the bottom of the ladder. Manly adopted the maroon and white colours they had used for their Presidents Cup team since its inception and borrowed from the Freshwater SLSC of which Ken Arthurson and other players were members. For their emblem they chose the sea eagle – the native bird of prey of the Sydney coastline. Although a number of media writers referred to Manly as the "sea gulls", the club maintains that it has always been the Sea Eagles. Manly's first premiership game was against the Western Suburbs Magpies at Brookvale Oval on Saturday 12 April 1947. Max Whitehead, who had first played for Norths in 1942 and was a member of their 1943 Grand Final team, was Manly's first captain. Whitehead was a big barrel-chested second rower, used by Bonds as the model for their iconic "Chesty Bond" character.
Their first win was against the Parramatta Eels and the club finished their first season in second last place. Manly's first Grand Final appearance was in the 1951 season. Manly Warringah played in five Grand Finals before winning their first premiership in 1972, they won the following year in 1973 and again in 1976 and 1978. The 1973 final against Cronulla is reputed to be one of the hardest and toughest grand finals, at least in the televised era. There were several incidents of players being hurt, in particular tough and hard English import Mal Reilly was "taken" out early and didn't take any further part in the game. Manly were powerful in the early 80s but were beaten in two consecutive Grand finals by Parramatta, in 1982 and 1983, their next premiership was won against the Canberra Raiders in the 1987 Grand final, the last Grand Final played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Coached by Bob Fulton, the Sea Eagles returned to the play-offs in 1993 and 1994 but were beaten on each occasions in the first elimination semi-final by the Brisbane Broncos.
In 1988, missing six regular first grade players, including captain Paul Vautin, Michael O'Connor and Phil Daley who were all playing in the first Ashes series test just four days plus other stars such as Dale Shearer, Mal Cochrane and David Ronson, put the touring Great Britain Lions to the sword with a 30-0 demolition at Brookvale Oval. Teenage halfback Geoff Toovey was named man of the match, scoring one of the Sea Eagles five tries on the night while the side was led by Noel Cleal who had a point to prove after being a shock omission from the Australian team. Great Britain's coach for their 1988 tour was Mal Reilly who had played lock forward for the Manly in their 1972 and 1973 Grand Final wins, it would be the first time that former premiership teammates Fulton and Reilly would oppose each other from the coaches box. With Fulton taking over as coach of the Australian team from 1989, it would not be their last time coaching against each other. In 1995, amidst the Super League war, Manly produced one of its most dominating seasons in the club's history but in one of the league's biggest upsets, were beaten by the Bulldogs in the Grand Final.
Despite being outplayed by the Bulldogs, the Sea Eagles only lost because of two tries scored from fo
Queensland Rugby League
The Queensland Rugby Football League is the governing body for rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission and selects the members of the Queensland rugby league team; the QRL aims to "foster, extend and control Rugby League Football throughout the State of Queensland". Today the QRL administers the rugby league through its regional divisions, it is responsible for the Queensland Rugby League team. The QRL's headquarters are on Woolloongabba in Brisbane; the Queensland Rugby Football League was formed in 1908 by seven rugby players who were dissatisfied with the administration of the Queensland Rugby Union as the Queensland Rugby Association. Those founding fathers were George Watson, Jack Fihelly, J O'Connor. E Buchanan, Alf Faulkner and Sine Boland. Discussion about breaking away from the rugby'union' and forming a professional'league' in Queensland can be traced as far back as 1905 through the visions of Deputy State Premier, Michael Allison. On 14 March 1908, the breakaway group was first mentioned in the local media, a fortnight the first official announcement was made regarding the formation of the Queensland Rugby Association was made.
On 16 May that year a hastily assembled Queensland team played the touring New Zealand "All Golds" side in Brisbane. That month there were three representative games against New South Wales, which acted as selection trials for a national team. In 1909, club rugby league began, with W. Evans scoring the inaugural try before backing up with another as North Brisbane beat Toombul 8-0 at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, although Valleys were the first premiers. Other teams that entered the competition include: Milton, South Brisbane, West End, Natives and Coorparoo. In 2012, the QRL formally joined with the NSWRL and each National Rugby League club, to form the Australian Rugby League Commission, the overarching governing body for all of Rugby League throughout Australia. Notwithstanding the Commission's role as supreme governing authority for the code, the QRL retains responsibility for both management of the Queensland State of Origin team in Origin series, as well as day-to-day accountability for the operations of the Queensland Cup second-tier league, junior representative Rugby League, plus divisional leagues, throughout Queensland.
The QRL administers rugby league in Queensland through the following divisions. As of 2010 the Central, South West and Wide Bay divisions were amalgamated to form the new Central Division. Callide Dawson Rugby League Central Highlands Rugby League Central West Rugby League Gladstone & District Rugby League Rockhampton & District Rugby League Cairns District Rugby League Eacham Juniors Rugby League Innisfail Juniors Rugby League Mackay & District Rugby League Mid West Rugby League Rugby League Mount Isa Rugby League Rugby League Northern Peninsula Area Rugby League Townsville & District Rugby League Brisbane Second Division Rugby League The Poinsettias Greater Brisbane Junior Rugby League The Stingers Gold Coast Rugby League The Vikings Ipswich Rugby League The Diggers Ipswich Juniors Balonne/Barwick Rugby League Border Rugby League Roma District Rugby League Toowoomba Rugby League Warwick Rugby League Western Rugby League Bundaberg Juniors Central Burnett Rugby League Fraser Coast Juniors Gympie Juniors Northern Districts Rugby League South Burnett Rugby League Sunshine Coast Rugby League The Queensland Cup has been contested since 1996.
Since 1998 the team winning the Queensland Cup is considered to be the premier club team in Queensland. The Brisbane A-Grade Rugby League known as the FOGS Cup, the FOGS Colts Challenge is run by the Queensland Rugby League's South East Division, it is regarded as the division below the Queensland Cup. The Foley Shield competition began in North Queensland in 1948. With the introduction of the Queensland Cup in 1996 the Foley Shield competition was scrapped, only to be reintroduced in 2000. Since the revamp in 2000 it has only contested by the three largest cities in North Queensland; the Cyril Connell & Mal Meninga Cups were introduced in 2009 to provide a pathway for young rugby league players to reach the professional levels of the game. Named after famous Queensland rugby league personalities Cyril Connell and Mal Meninga, the Cups have proved popular. Both competitions have the same structure of sixteen team split into two geographically aligned groups. Pool A contains teams from outside of Brisbane while Pool B comprises teams from the Brisbane metropolitan area and two Gold Coast Rugby League selections.
The teams are: 1908 Queensland Rugby League season 1909 Queensland Rugby League season 1910 Queensland Rugby League season 1911 Queensland Rugby League season Rugby league in Queensland Australian Rugby League Queensland Rugby League team "Constitution of the Queensland Rugby Football League Limited". Queensland Rugby League. 16 October 2009. Archived from the original on 24 October 2009. Retrieved 2 December 2009. Official website League's Queensland page Queensland Rugby League History Rugby League clubs in Queensland Queensland Masters Rugby League Association inc
Brookvale Oval
Brookvale Oval is a sporting ground located within Brookvale Park at Brookvale, New South Wales, Australia. The ground is owned by Northern Beaches Council and is used by the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles rugby league team. Brookvale Oval has an approximate capacity of 23,000 people. By the end of the 2016 season, Brookvale had played host to 664 first grade premiership games. In the late nineteenth century, the suburb of Brookvale was known as Greendale; the name Brookvale was adopted as, the name of the home built by the original grantee of the land, William Francis Parker. It was in this area that Dan Farrell built his stone house called "Inverness", to become Manly Leagues Club; the area known as Lot 47 A was sold to Jane Malcolm in April 1907. Land title records suggest that between 1907 and 1911, Malcolm carried out a subdivision of Lot 47A into four blocks. From Alfred Road in the west to Pine Avenue in the east, these lots measured 2 acres 2 roods 12 perches, 4 acres 1 rood 41⁄4 perches, 2 acres 0 roods 221⁄4 perches and 2 acres 0 roods & 2 perches.
Lot 47A became known in the early 1900s as "Farrell’s Paddock", it was the location of a public gathering in April 1910 to celebrate the extension of the tram line from Manly to the village of Brookvale. In the following year, the State Government reached agreement with Warringah Shire Council to acquire land for a park near the Shire’s Offices; the acquired land plus a smaller parcel of land bought from Miss Jane Malcolm from Brookvale, was opened in 1911 as Brookvale Park. "Presumably inspired by local resident action at that time to secure a public park or village green for the suburb, Jane Malcolm presented to the Minister for Lands the largest of the four lots from Lot 47A – under a caveat that it only be used for public recreation purposes. Although the ‘dedication’ refers to the first lot of land donated by Jane Try, subsequent acquisitions by Council of the other lots owned by Mr & Mrs Try were described for the purposes of public recreation or for enlarging the Park"The Park was transformed into a showground within the first decade.
In 1921, the Brookvale Show was established with the formation of the Warringah Agricultural, Amateur Sports and Athletic Association. Between 1919 and 1928 children from Brookvale School planted trees to commemorate Arbor Day and it was the setting for school sports days and Empire Day picnics. During World War II, Brookvale Park was utilised by the Defence Force for training purposes. On 25 April 1951, a new attendance record at Brookvale was set at 9,447, with spectators overflowing onto the field for a match between Manly and South Sydney. Over fifty annual shows were held at Brookvale Park. Trotting and ring events were features of early shows at Brookvale; the trotting track occupied a substantial area of the Park with lighting of the ring for night entertainment. Substantial improvements were made to form a sporting oval by the addition of stands. Pavilions were constructed along Alfred Road to house show exhibits. Outside of the annual show period these pavilions were used for local church services and meeting rooms for the local community.
They were used by local bands as a place to practice.'With the formation of the Manly-Warringah Rugby Club, known as the Sea Eagles, the situation changed. The horse events of the Show had to be transferred to an oval in Frenchs Forest because the horses’ hooves did too much damage to the turf of the rugby ground, the Show itself ended its long association with the Park in 1992; the growth in popularity of the Rugby League competition led to the re-forming of the oval into a rectangular field in 1970-71, with major earthworks undertaken to form spectator ‘hills’ on the eastern and southern sides of it. Following this came the construction of simple but large concrete grandstands on the western and southern boundaries of the field, the Ken Arthurson Pavilion that linked the two; the construction of these facilities necessitated the removal of the original grandstand and the various exhibition halls and show pavilion, with that, the termination of their use by community organisations and their hiring out for social functions'.
While Manly Council favoured rugby union and would not permit league to be played at Manly Oval, Warringah Council was more sympathetic to the rugby league cause and encouraged the playing of rugby league matches at Brookvale Park. Thus when the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles were granted first grade status in 1947, the team's first match in the big league was a home game at Brookvale Oval against Western Suburbs in April 12. Manly, captained by Max Whitehead and featuring others such as Johnny Bliss and Mackie Campbell, played well against their more fancied opponents in that historic first match at Brookvale scoring three tries to one but narrowly losing the match 15-13 courtesy of a string of scrum penalties from referee Aub Oxford that allowed Wests fullback Bill Keato to kick six goals. Brookvale has three grandstands stretching the southern sides of the ground; the Jane Try Stand, running along the western side is the biggest of the three. It is one of the few grandstands of major Australian stadiums to be named after a woman.
The Ken Arthurson stand in the south west corner, is the latest addition to the ground. It is named after the long serving Manly-Warringah, NSWRL and ARL administrator, known as the "Godfather of Manly"; the Fulton-Menzies Stand located at the
Rugby league
Rugby league football is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field. One of the two codes of rugby, it originated in Northern England in 1895 as a split from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of payments to players, its rules progressively changed with the aim of producing a faster, more entertaining game for spectators. In rugby league, points are scored by carrying the ball and touching it to the ground beyond the opposing team's goal line; the opposing team attempts to stop the attacking side scoring points by tackling the player carrying the ball. In addition to tries, points can be scored by kicking goals. After each try, the scoring team gains a free kick to try at goal with a conversion for further points. Kicks at goal may be awarded for penalties, field goals can be attempted at any time. Rugby league is the national sport of Papua New Guinea, is a popular sport in Northern England, the states of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, South Auckland in New Zealand, southwest France and Lebanon.
The Super League and the National Rugby League are the premier club competitions. Rugby league is played internationally, predominantly by European and Pacific Island countries, is governed by the Rugby League International Federation; the first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954. Rugby league football takes its name from the bodies that split to create a new form of rugby, distinct from that run by the Rugby Football Unions, in Britain and New Zealand between 1895 and 1908; the first of these, the Northern Rugby Football Union, was established in 1895 as a breakaway faction of England's Rugby Football Union. Both organisations played the game under the same rules at first, although the Northern Union began to modify rules immediately, thus creating a new faster, stronger paced form of rugby football. Similar breakaway factions split from RFU-affiliated unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, renaming themselves "rugby football leagues" and introducing Northern Union rules.
In 1922, the Northern Union changed its name to the Rugby Football League and thus over time the sport itself became known as "rugby league" football. In 1895, a schism in Rugby football resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union. Although many factors played a part in the split, including the success of working class northern teams, the main division was caused by the RFU decision to enforce the amateur principle of the sport, preventing "broken time payments" to players who had taken time off work to play rugby. Northern teams had more working class players who could not afford to play without this compensation, in contrast to affluent southern teams who had other sources of income to sustain the amateur principle. In 1895, a decree by the RFU banning the playing of rugby at grounds where entrance fees were charged led to twenty-two clubs meeting at the George Hotel, Huddersfield on 29 August 1895 and forming the "Northern Rugby Football Union". Within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby revolution.
In 1897, the line-out was in 1898 professionalism introduced. In 1906, the Northern Union changed its rules, reducing teams from 15 to 13 a side and replacing the ruck formed after every tackle with the play the ball. A similar schism to that which occurred in England took place in Australia. There, on 8 August 1907 the New South Wales Rugby Football League was founded at Bateman's Hotel in George Street. Rugby league went on to displace rugby union as the primary football code in New South Wales and Queensland. On 5 May 1954 over 100,000 spectators watched the 1953–54 Challenge Cup Final at Odsal Stadium, England, setting a new record for attendance at a rugby football match of either code. In 1954 the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the International Board introduced a rule that a team in possession was allowed three play-the-balls and on the fourth tackle a scrum was to be formed; this was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover.
1967 saw. The first sponsors, Joshua Tetley and John Player, entered the game for the 1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season. Television would have an enormous impact on the sport of rugby league in the 1990s when Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation sought worldwide broadcasting rights and refused to take no for an answer; the media giant's "Super League" movement saw big changes for the traditional administrators of the game. In Europe, it resulted in a move from a winter sport to a summer one as the new Super League competition tried to expand its market. In Australasia, the Super League war resulted in long and costly legal battles and changing loyalties, causing significant damage to the code in an competitive sporting market. In 1997 two competitions were run alongside each other in Australia, after which a peace deal in the form of the National Rugby League was formed; the NRL has since become recognised as the sport's flagship competition and since that time has set record TV ratings and crowd figures.
The objective in rugby league is to score more points through tries and field goals than the opposition within the 80 minutes of play. If after two halves of play, each consisting of forty minutes, the two teams are drawing, a draw may be declar
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