1989 NSWRL season

1989 New South Wales Rugby League premiership
Teams	16
Premiers	Canberra (1st title)
Minor premiers	South Sydney (17th title)
Matches played	183
Points scored	5537
Attendance	2040375
Top points scorer(s)	Ricky Walford (146) Andy Currier (146)
Player of the year	Gavin Miller & Mark Sargent (Rothmans Medal)
Top try-scorer(s)	Gary Belcher (17)

The 1989 NSWRL season was the 82nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen clubs competed for the New South Wales Rugby League's J J Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup Premiership during the season, which culminated in a grand final between the Canberra Raiders and Balmain Tigers. This season NSWRL teams also competed for the 1989 Panasonic Cup.

Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Souths, Penrith, Balmain, Canberra and Cronulla (who finished equal with Brisbane but beat them in a play-off for fifth) to battle it out in the finals.

This year Penrith forward Geoff Gerard set new record for most first-grade NSWRL permiership games at 320 before retiring at the end of the season.

The 1989 season's Rothmans Medal was shared by Cronulla-Sutherland forward Gavin Miller and Newcastle Knights front-rower Mark Sargent. Miller also won the Dally M Award and was named Rugby League Week's player of the year.

The lineup of teams remained unchanged from the previous season, with sixteen clubs contesting the premiership, including five Sydney-based foundation teams, another six from Sydney, two from greater New South Wales, two from Queensland, and one from the Australian Capital Territory.

1989 was a watershed year for the New South Wales Rugby League's advertising commencing an association with Tina Turner that would last until 1995. In those years the NSWRL, its ad agency Hertz Walpole and promotions consultant Brian Walsh would fundamentally change the image and popular perception of the game in Australia.

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