The 2014 NRL season was the 107th season of professional
rugby league in Australia and the 17th season of the
National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in
New Zealand, for the
Auckland Nines
The NRL Nines is a rugby league nines competition, normally held during the NRL preseason each year. It was initially held in Auckland, New Zealand, between 2014 and 2017 before going on hiatus. Returning in 2020, hosting duties moved to Perth ...
, replacing the
Rugby League All Stars Match for the year, in the pre-season. After 26 rounds of the regular season, the
Sydney Roosters were again crowned minor premiers and the competition had been reduced to a top eight teams to contest the finals series. The grand final was won by the
South Sydney Rabbitohs, ending a 43-year premiership drought, winning 30-6 against the
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
Teams
The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 8th consecutive year. The 2014 season also presents a record 7 teams naming co-captains. The NRL's salary cap for the clubs' top 25 players was $A6.3M for 2014.
Pre-season
The 2014 pre-season featured the inaugural
Auckland Nines
The NRL Nines is a rugby league nines competition, normally held during the NRL preseason each year. It was initially held in Auckland, New Zealand, between 2014 and 2017 before going on hiatus. Returning in 2020, hosting duties moved to Perth ...
competition, held over a weekend at Auckland's
Eden Park
Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...
. Hailed a success with its large attendances, the tournament was won by
North Queensland Cowboys, claiming their first piece of silverware. The following weekend the
2014 World Club Challenge
The 2014 World Club Challenge was the 15th consecutive annual (and 22nd overall) World Club Challenge and was contested by Super League XVIII champions, Wigan Warriors and 2013 NRL Premiers, the Sydney Roosters. The 2014 World Club Challenge mar ...
was played in Sydney, the first time the match was held outside England since 1994, with the
Sydney Roosters defeating the
Wigan Warriors convincingly.
Unlike previous seasons' advertising campaigns that featured a pop song, in 2014 the NRL's ''You're the difference'' was a spoken-word piece that focused on the game's fans. The NRL's official season launch was on 26 February at the
Sydney Exhibition Centre
The Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre was a convention, exhibition and entertainment complex in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Designed by Philip Cox, the complex opened in 1988 as part of an urban renewal and redevelopment of the Darling Har ...
and featured Roosters captain
Anthony Minichiello speaking as the face of the game.
In the annual pre-season
Charity Shield match, the Dragons hosted the Rabbitohs but were beaten.
Regular season
The regular season commenced on Thursday, 6 March in Sydney between the
South Sydney Rabbitohs and the
Sydney Roosters. A number of themed rounds featured in the 2014 season, including Men of League Heritage Round (round 5), Women in League Round (round 10), and Indigenous Round (round 23). In addition, the NRL chose to designate round 19 as 'Rise for Alex' round in order to allow the rugby league community to show their support for
Newcastle Knights player
Alex McKinnon, who suffered a severe neck injury in round 3. One dollar from each ticket sold across all eight games were donated to support McKinnon's recovery, where it raised over $147,000 in total.
For the first time in the code's 106-year history, not one player was
sent off from the field during the regular season.
NRL referees says they are not afraid to send off players in the finals series
''Fox Sports Australia'', 14 September 2014
Bold – Opposition's Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin
Ladder
Ladder progression
*Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 8.
*Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
*Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round.
*Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.
Finals series
For the third year the NRL uses the finals system previously implemented by the ARL competition from the 1990s (also used as the AFL finals system) to decide the grand finalists from the top eight finishing teams. All but two teams retained a top-eight position to feature in this season's finals series. The Brisbane Broncos made a return after finishing 12th in 2013, whilst the Penrith Panthers made their first finals appearance since 2010 and only the second time since 2004.
By the time of the 2014 NRL Grand final
The 2014 NRL Grand Final was the concluding and premiership-deciding match of the 2014 NRL season. Played on the evening of Sunday 5 October 2014 at ANZ Stadium, the match was contested by the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Canterbury-Bankstown B ...
list-determining preliminary finals, the top four finishing teams remained except for the 2nd-placed Sea Eagles, who'd been replaced by the 7th-placed Bulldogs.
† Match decided in golden point extra time.
Chart
Grand final
Regular season player statistics
The following statistics are of the conclusion of round 26.
* South Sydney's winger Lote Tuqiri was the oldest player in the 2014 NRL Season at the age of 35, he is three days older than Parramatta's Fuifui Moimoi
Top 5 point scorers
Top 5 try scorers
Top 5 goal scorers
Top 5 tacklers
2014 Transfers
Players
Coaches
References
{{National Rugby League seasons