With the widest television viewership at the domestic rugby league competition level, the National Rugby League has emerged as the most popular Australian Rules football domestic leagues in the country that laid its roots back in 1908. Australians enjoy watching 16 clubs go head to head for over 26 rounds under the same roof of the National Rugby League.
It is a great time to get involved in the National Rugby League. Now that it is more popular than it ever was, thousands of Australians are reaping the benefits from betting on the NRL premiership. The sport is as raw, brutal, energetic, enthralling and Australian as it can get. There’s a reason this sport exceeds in attendance and television viewing in Australia. However, there are quite a few facts most Aussies won’t be aware of about the Four Nations Tournament held under the National Rugby league.
Let’s go through some trivial facts about the Four Nations tournaments and other tournaments held by the National Rugby League that most Australians may be unaware of
- Darren Lockyer has been the last person to touch a Steeden in Four Nations football and this took place in 2011. There has not been another such occurrence in the grounds of Four Nations where a player had kicked the ball off out of anger. The fury was reasonable given that it was Lockyer’s last game at Elland Road, Leeds when he missed a shot at conversion right in front of the posts. Tough luck mate!
- The first Four Nations tournament was held back in 2009. Since then, more than 197 belonging to six different nations played through 21 matches in three different tournaments. Talk about diversity.
- Since 2009, Australia has remained the undisputed champions of the Four Nations tournament. They maintained an impressive winning percentage in the Four Nations tournament. For the longest time, New Zealand was the only team to have defeated Australia even though the Aussies beat the Kiwis with a score of 34-24 just a week earlier. Yikes!
- Oddly, most of the captains in the Four Nations tournament including Sam Thaiday, Paul Gallen, Cameron Smith and James Graham have played a total of 11 matches.
- The National Rugby League Grand Finals have maintained the tradition of holding the tournament in the legendary Telstra Stadium since 1999! An average attendance of the National Rugby League Grand Finals is a whopping 89,270 attendees.
- Roosters seem to be the only club that has participated in multiple National Rugby League Grand Finals at the Telstra Stadium. They have been a part of 4 Grand Finals in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
- The very first National Rugby League Grand Final that took place in Telstra Stadium in 1999 made a world record with an all time high crowd attendance for a rugby league with 107,558 spectators.
So far, Somoa is the only fourth different qualifying team that has been in the top four iterations of the Four Nations tournament, standing amongst the ranks of Australian football giants like New Zealand, Australia and England. The other three teams have been France, PNG and Wales.
