2006 | NRL Grand Final|||||||||||||
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Date | 1 October 2006 | ||||||||||||
Stadium | Telstra Stadium | ||||||||||||
Location | Sydney, New South Wales | ||||||||||||
Clive Churchill Medal | Shaun Berrigan (BRI) | ||||||||||||
National anthem | Jade MacRae | ||||||||||||
Referees | Paul Simpkins | ||||||||||||
Attendance | 79,609 | ||||||||||||
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The 2006 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding match of the NRL's 2006 Telstra Premiership season. It was played between the first-placed Melbourne Storm and the third-placed Brisbane Broncos clubs on the night of Sunday, 1 October. The 2006 grand final was the first ever to feature teams which were both from cities outside the borders of New South Wales, in this case the capitals of Queensland and Victoria, yet was played at Sydney's Telstra Stadium. It was the first time the two sides had met in a grand final. They had played each other twice during the 2006 regular season, with Melbourne winning both times. The Storm went into the grand final as favourites, having won the minor premiership (although this was later discounted when salary cap breaches at the club were exposed in 2010). Both teams were looking to keep their perfect grand final records intact: the Broncos with 5/5 and the Storm with 1/1 heading into the game.
The 2006 NRL season was the 99th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the ninth run by the National Rugby League. Fifteen clubs competed for the 2006 Telstra Premiership over the 26 rounds of the regular season. Eight of these teams qualified for the four-week finals series
The 2006 Brisbane Broncos season was the nineteenth in the club's history. Coached by Wayne Bennett and captained by Darren Lockyer, they finished the regular season in 3rd place before going on to reach their 6th grand final.