2004 NRL season

2004 National Rugby League
File:NRLlogo.gif Logo of the NRL
Teams	15
Premiers	File:Canterbury colours.png Bulldogs (8th title)
Minor premiers	File:Eastern Suburbs colours.png Sydney (16th title)
Matches played	189
Points scored	9086
Attendance	2942231
Top try-scorer(s)	File:Penrith colours.png Amos Roberts (23 tries)

15 clubs contested the seventh National Rugby League season, the 97th season of professional rugby league football in Australia. The Bulldogs defeated the Sydney Roosters in the grand final, claiming their eighth premiership in the club's history. It was the Roosters' second consecutive grand final loss.

Season Summary

For the 2004 season the Hoodoo Gurus reworked their hit song What's My Scene? as "That's My Team", for a new promotional campaign for the National Rugby League. (The original film clip of What's My Scene included shots of band members in Wests and Cronulla jumpers.)

2004 was also notable for the emergence of teenage players Sonny Bill Williams (Bulldogs) and Karmichael Hunt (Brisbane Broncos), and their performances, mature beyond their years, would be critical to the fortunes of their clubs.

The beginning of the season was largely overshadowed with several Bulldogs players questioned by police in relation to an alleged rape of a 20-year old Coffs Harbour woman. An independent investigator, former New South Wales chief of detectives, would later fail to find any evidence of misconduct on behalf of the players, and no charges were pressed.

It would not be the last unsavoury headline for rugby league in 2004, with a crowd incident at a Bulldogs-Roosters game on March 26, whilst two New South Wales State of Origin players were stood down from the squad on May 21 for unprofessional conduct.

Rounds 15-16 saw the Wests Tigers kept to zero whilst conceding over 50 points in the space of six days (Dragons 50-0, 20/6/04, Roosters 56-0, 25/6/04). They were also kept to zero by the Sydney Roosters twice in 2004, losing 22-0 in round 9 and 56-0 in round 16. The Tigers have won every match against the Roosters since.

Several players and coaches also made the headlines for the wrong reasons. Jamie Lyon walked out on the Parramatta club after the first round citing burnout and dissatisfaction with living in Sydney, and would later be linked with Manly in 2006. Coaches Daniel Anderson and Paul Langmack would have their contracts terminated at the New Zealand Warriors and South Sydney Rabbitohs respectively.

Andrew Johns was injured in Newcastle's third game of the season against Parramatta, and subsequently missed the remainder season. The Knights missed the finals of the NRL for the first time since 1996.

Hazem El Masri's tally of 342 points was, at the time, an individual record for most points scored in a season in Australian club rugby league history.

The North Queensland Cowboys qualified for the finals for the first time in their ten-year history, and shocked everybody by finishing just one game short of the grand final. During the finals, they won their first ever game against Queensland rivals, Brisbane, thus ending the career of Broncos stalwart Gorden Tallis. Also retiring in 2004 were Brad Fittler, Ryan Girdler, Kevin Campion, Scott Sattler and Robbie O'Davis.

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	File:Eastern Suburbs colours.png Sydney	24	19	0	5	2	710	368	+342	42
2	File:Canterbury colours.png Bulldogs	24	19	0	5	2	760	491	+269	42
3	File:Brisbane colours.png Brisbane	24	16	1	7	2	602	533	+69	37
4	File:Penrith colours.png Penrith	24	15	0	9	2	672	567	+105	34
5	File:St. George Illawarra colours.png St George Illawarra	24	14	0	10	2	624	415	+209	32
6	Melbourne	24	13	0	11	2	684	517	+167	30
7	North Queensland	24	12	1	11	2	526	514	+12	29
8	File:Canberra colours.png Canberra	24	11	0	13	2	554	613	-59	26
9	File:Wests Tigers colours.png Wests Tigers	24	10	0	14	2	509	534	-25	24
10	File:Newcastle colours.png Newcastle	24	10	0	14	2	516	617	-101	24
11	File:Cronulla colours.png Cronulla	24	10	0	14	2	528	645	-117	24
12	File:Parramatta colours.png Parramatta	24	9	0	15	2	517	626	-109	22
13	File:Manly colours.png Manly	24	9	0	15	2	615	754	-139	22
14	File:New Zealand colours.png New Zealand	24	6	0	18	2	427	693	-266	16
15	File:South Sydney colours.png South Sydney	24	5	2	17	2	455	812	-357	16

Finals Series

	Home¹		Away¹		Referee	Venue	Crowd
QF	Penrith	31	St Geo. Illa.	30	S.Hampstead	Penrith Stadium	21 963
QF	Brisbane	14	Melbourne	31	S.Clark	Suncorp Stadium	31 100
QF	Bulldogs	22	North Qld	30	T.Mander	Telstra Stadium	18 371
QF	Syd.Roosters	38	Canberra	12	P.Simpkins	Aussie Stadium	18 375
SF	North Qld	10	Brisbane	0	T.Mander	Dairy Farmers Stadium²	24 989
SF	Bulldogs	43	Melbourne	18	P.Simpkins	Aussie Stadium	23 750
PF	Penrith	14	Bulldogs	30	T.Mander	Aussie Stadium	37 868
PF	Syd.Roosters	19	North Qld	16	P.Simpkins	Telstra Stadium	43 048
GF	Syd.Roosters	13	Bulldogs	16	T.Mander	Telstra Stadium	82 127

Clive Churchill Medallist: Willie Mason

¹ Home field advantage applies only for quarter-finals, with remaining games played at neutral venues, unless otherwise notified. The home team in each instance is the higher ranked team on the competition table.

² Game relocated to Dairy Farmers Stadium, the Cowboys' home ground, from Aussie Stadium. Cowboys designated home team despite the Broncos finishing higher on the table.

See also

• National Rugby League
• 2004 NRL Finals Series
• Brisbane Broncos 2004

External links

• NRL official website