Sixteen clubs, including 14 from within the borders of New South Wales plus two from Queensland, competed for the J J Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final match for the Winfield Cup trophy between the Canberra Raiders and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

[2] In total, twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Canterbury-Bankstown, North Sydney, Canberra, Manly-Warringah and Brisbane who went on to battle it out in the finals.

At the end of the season control of the Winfield Cup would be passed on to the Australian Rugby League and re-branded as such, as part of the move to become a more national competition.

The closing scenes of the commercial made it appear that Turner was singing the song high up in the Sydney Football Stadium's stands in front of its identifiable stretched-sail roofing.

On the outer for most of the year, Osborne won a reprieve, playing at Prop after team-mate John Lomax was suspended for a high tackle in the preliminary final against North Sydney.

Meninga then outlasted the cover defence, running almost 40 metres and palming off his opposite Centre Jarrod McCracken to score the try beside the posts, sending the 42,234 strong crowd at the Sydney Football Stadium into raptures.