These included Bill Harrigan, Graham Annesley, Tim Mander, Steve Clark and Brian Grant.

The season was dominated by the minor premiers, the Brisbane Broncos, who won 14 of their 18 matches, losing only to the Penrith Panthers, the Hunter Mariners and eventual runners-up, the Cronulla Sharks.

The Grand Final was played at Brisbane's ANZ Stadium in front of 58,912 people, the ground record for that venue.

New South Wales defeated Queensland 23–22 in the final at ANZ Stadium In 1997 the Super League Australia team played two games against New Zealand, winning the inaugural ANZAC Test and losing the return match.

As News had signed up most rugby league organisations outside of Australia, the ARL was starved of international competition.

The competition was unpopular in Australia, and it lost $6,000,000 due to small crowds and heavy travel expenses.

The Brisbane Broncos won the final defeating the Hunter Mariners 36–12 at Ericsson Stadium, Auckland.

From 2001 the NRL has played its grand finals on the Sunday night in October (although in the afternoon/early evening between 2008 and 2012 because of television scheduling), to coincide with a public holiday in New South Wales the following day.

Some in Sydney also believe that holding the grand final at night dissuades parents with young children attending.

A number of rule changes were introduced in both the Super League and the ARL during the war that have been adopted by the NRL.

Under this rule, attacking teams kicking the ball into touch 'on the bounce' from inside the 40 metres closest to their goal line, with the ball crossing the sideline inside the opposing team's 20-metre area, receives a scrum feed.