The League Leaders' Shield is a shield awarded to the team finishing the season top of Super League in the sport of

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

football. Currently, and for most of Super League's history, the championship is decided on the basis of a play-off series with a Grand Final, so the Shield is regarded as a lesser prize.

History

From 1907 until 1973 the Championship was awarded to the team winning a top-four play-off (excluding the 2 seasons 1962–63 and 1963–64, when the championship was awarded to the top-placed team). From 1907 to 1962 no prize was awarded to the team finishing top. From 1965 to 1973 a 'League Leaders' Trophy' was introduced to reward the team finishing top. In 1996, Super League was formed but continued to use the league to decide the champions until 1998, when they adopted a play-off structure for the championship. The League Leaders' Shield was first awarded in 2003. Between

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

and 2002 the league leaders were not awarded a trophy. In 1996 and

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

the League Leaders were declared champions as the

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...

was not introduced until 1998. In 2015, it was announced that the League Leaders would qualify to take part in the expanded

World Club Challenge The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australasian National Rugby League (NRL) and the European Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport. The first such match was pl ...

and the prize money would be inecreased from £50,000 to £100,000. In 2016, the League Leaders were awarded medals for the first time.

Shield winners

*^a: Shield winners decided by win percentage rather than points

Winners

The Treble

The ''Treble'' refers to the team who wins all three domestic honours on offer during the season; Grand Final, League Leaders' Shield and Challenge Cup. To date six teams have won the treble, and only

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

, St. Helens and

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headin ...

have won the treble in the Super League era.

References

External links