[2] In December 1997, the company hired Colin Myler of Widnes, a former Daily Mirror editor and member of an old rugby league family, as chief executive.

This was poorly received by the game's more progressive observers due to the Super League's already palpable lack of depth, as seen during the World Club Championship.

[11] At the end of the season, the Paris Saint-Germain team, which had brought the league some of its most favorable headlines, was dissolved for failure to generate sufficient income.

Its chairman John Quinn called for a freeze of the relegation system, a measure that Widnes and Keighley had successfully fought to repel at the Super League's inception.

[16] The tensions between chief executive Lindsay, the advocate of a perceived Super League elite, and chairman Walker, who had the favors of the rank-and-file clubs, escalated throughout the season.

[18] Unrest was such that Murdoch's right-hand man Rob Cowley was dispatched from Australia to help pacify the situation, which actually marked the first in-person meeting with a high level News executive since the signing of the Super League agreement twenty-eight months earlier.

[23] With the advent of professional rugby union, a number of league players were now tempted back into the ranks of the fifteen-man code by lucrative winter offers.

[26] The RFL's Strategic Planning Commission led by technical director Joe Lydon put forward a proposal to officially recognize farm team agreements between Super League and Division One clubs, acknowledging the relationships that already existed on a case-by-case basis between Bradford and Dewsbury, as well as between Leeds and Bramley.

In the 28 September final held at Manchester's Old Trafford, Wigan Warriors beat rivals St. Helens 33–20 thanks to a Harry Sunderland Trophy-winning performance by captain Andy Farrell.