1997 Telstra Cup

1997 Super League
Teams	10
Premiers	Brisbane (3rd title)
Minor premiers	Brisbane (2nd title)
Matches played	96
Points scored	4035
Attendance	1251777
Top points scorer(s)	Ryan Girdler (197)
Top try-scorer(s)	Matthew Ryan (17)

The 1997 Super League season (also known as the Telstra Cup due to sponsorship by Telstra Corporation) was a breakaway professional rugby league football competition in Australia and the only one to be run by the News Limited-controlled Super League organisation. Eight teams which had broken away from the existing Australian Rugby League, in addition to the newly created Hunter Mariners and Adelaide Rams, competed over eighteen weekly rounds of the regular season. The top five teams then played a series of knock-out finals which culminated in a September grand final played in Brisbane between the Brisbane Broncos and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.

Super League was a rugby league competition that was held in Australia in 1997. It was created by News Corporation after an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the pay television rights to Australian rugby league games. After two years of legal battles the competition was played for a single season in 1997 before merging with the rival Australian Rugby League competition in 1998 to form the National Rugby League.

For this season video refereeing was introduced to rugby league for the first time. The Telstra Cup premiership was held over eighteen rounds. The season was dominated by the minor premiers, the Brisbane Broncos, who won 14 of their 18 matches, losing only to the Penrith Panthers, the Hunter Mariners and eventual runners-up, the Cronulla Sharks. The Grand Final was played at Brisbane's ANZ Stadium in front of 58,912 people; the ground record for that venue. The Broncos defeated the Sharks 26-8 to win their third premiership. The Auckland Warriors had teams in both the reserve grade and under-19 Grand Finals but lost both.

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