2007 Telstra Premiership
| 2007 National Rugby League | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Teams | 16 |
| Premiers |
 |
| Minor premiers |
|
| Matches played | 201 |
| Points scored | 8539 |
| Attendance | 3332114 |
| Top points scorer(s) |
 Hazem El Masri (210) |
| Player of the year |
 Johnathan Thurston (Dally M Medal) |
| Top try-scorer(s) |
Matthew Bowen (22) |
The 2007 NRL season was the one hundredth season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the tenth run by the National Rugby League. Sixteen teams contested the NRL's 2007 Telstra Premiership, and with the inclusion of a new team, the Gold Coast Titans, the competition was the largest run since the 1999 NRL season.
The Melbourne Storm were the Minor Premiers in 2007, six points clear of second-placed Manly Warringah Sea Eagles. The Storm eventually ran out 34-8 winners in the 2007 NRL Grand Final to claim the premiership. However, they were subsequently stripped of both their Minor Premiership and Premiership titles on 22 April 2010, after they were found to be guilty of breaching the league's salary cap.
Pre-season, 2006 Premiers the Brisbane Broncos travelled to England to play the Super League champions in the 2007 World Club Challenge.
The 2007 NRL Season kicked off on Friday 16 March 2007 with eight games to be played in each round. The 2007 season saw the return of Monday Night Football, which helped the NRL to set new first round aggregate attendance record of 174,475. The opening round also saw two matches at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, one featured reigning champions Brisbane playing fellow Queensland side the Cowboys, while the second match introduced the newest club to be admitted to the competition, the Gold Coast Titans.
The North Queensland Cowboys' Jason Smith was the NRL's oldest player in 2007 at 35 years and 186 days.
Teams had fewer byes in 2007 than in the 2006 competition. With an odd number of teams contesting between 2002 and 2006, the draw meant that at least one team would have to have a bye each weekend. With the inclusion of the 16th team for the 2007 season, the National Rugby League had the option of reverting to the system used between 2000 and 2001 in which every team played in each round. However, this option was not chosen. In 2007, teams had just a single bye during the year, grouped in periods that will assist clubs around representative fixtures.
...
Wikipedia