The Winfield Cup was an Australian rugby league trophy awarded to the winner of the New South Wales Rugby League premiership (NSWRL) Grand Final from 1982 to 1994, and then to the winner of the newly-founded Australian Rugby League (ARL) Grand Final in 1995.
The Winfield Cup trophy
The 1995 ARL premiership was the 88th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the first to be run by the Australian Rugby League following the hand-over of the Premiership's administration by the New South Wales Rugby League. For the first time since 1988, the Premiership expanded again, with the addition of two new clubs from Queensland; North Queensland Cowboys, based in Townsville, and South Queensland Crushers, based in Brisbane. And for the first time ever outside the borders of New South Wales and Queensland, and indeed, Australia, the addition of two other new clubs from Western Australia, Western Reds, based in Perth, and from Auckland, Auckland Warriors, based in Auckland. This saw a total of twenty teams, the largest number in the League's history, compete during the regular season for the J J Giltinan Shield, which was followed by a series of play-off finals between the top eight teams that culminated in a grand final for the Winfield Cup between the newly re-branded Sydney Bulldogs and the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.
1995 ARL season
An aerial view of the Sydney Football Stadium (1988), where the match was played