NRL Trivia
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48 free NRL trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Rugby league in Australia began with a breakaway in 1907 and has never stopped arguing with itself since: a media war that split the game in two, clubs thrown out and fought back in through the courts, mergers that lasted three seasons, and a premiership that can crown a champion from four states, the national capital or across the Tasman. The NRL that emerged from the 1998 peace deal is now the biggest club competition in the sport. These 48 questions cover the competition's settled history rather than this week's ladder. They take in the 1908 origins and the clubs that have survived from them, the expansion sides and joint ventures, the grand finals remembered for comebacks, replays and record crowds, the salary cap scandals, the State of Origin rivalry and the rules that decide who is a Queenslander, plus the medals, trophies and Immortals that mark out the game's greats. Play it to see how much of the game's lore you really know, or print it as a round for a pub or club quiz night. Each answer comes with a short explanation and a detail worth repeating at the next game.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which club thrashed the reigning premiers 44–10 in its first ever premiership match, in 1988?
Brisbane Broncos
The Brisbane Broncos beat Manly 44–10 on debut, yet the new club finished seventh that season and missed the finals.
Q 02Which club beat Balmain in extra time in 1989 to become the first premiers from outside New South Wales?
Canberra Raiders
The Canberra Raiders trailed 12–2 at half-time, and Steve Jackson's try in extra time sealed the 19–14 win.
Q 03Which club's four straight premierships from 2021 were the first such streak since the 1960s?
Penrith Panthers
The Penrith Panthers sealed the fourth title by beating Melbourne 14–6 in 2024, a year after winning the decider from 24–8 down with 18 minutes left.
Q 04Which coach guided Manly to a record 40–0 grand final win in 2008?
Des Hasler
Des Hasler's side kept Melbourne scoreless a year after losing the 2007 decider to the same club 34–8.
Q 05Which club won the 2005 premiership in its first ever finals series?
Wests Tigers
The Wests Tigers beat North Queensland 30–16, a win remembered for Benji Marshall's behind-the-back flick pass that sent Pat Richards over to score.
Q 06Which club, admitted in 1995 under its home city's name, was the premiership's first team based outside Australia?
New Zealand Warriors
The New Zealand Warriors began as the Auckland Warriors and took the national name in 2001, when new owner Eric Watson relaunched the club after its finances collapsed.
Q 07Which Redcliffe-based club was granted the NRL's 17th licence in 2021 and began play in 2023?
Dolphins
The Dolphins beat two rival bids for the licence and then won their first three NRL matches in 2023, opening with a 28–18 victory.
Q 08Magic Round, the NRL's single-venue round since 2019, copied a similar weekend from which country's top league?
England
England's Super League had staged its Magic Weekend since 2007, and Queensland's government paid about $2.1 million a year to bring the NRL's version to Brisbane.
Q 09Which club won the 1999 NRL grand final in only its second season, before a rugby league record crowd of 107,999?
Melbourne Storm
The Melbourne Storm trailed 14–0 at half-time and won 20–18 with a late penalty try, awarded when their winger was knocked unconscious in the act of scoring.
Q 10Which club finally won its first premiership in 2016, its 50th season, with a 14–12 grand final win?
Cronulla Sharks
The Cronulla Sharks had entered the competition in 1967, and captain Paul Gallen's victory speech told fans back home to 'turn your porch lights off'.
Q 11Which club, the NRL's first joint venture, finished runner-up in its debut 1999 season?
St George Illawarra
St George Illawarra led 14–0 at half-time of that decider and lost, then waited until a 32–8 win in 2010 for the joint venture's first premiership.
Q 12Since 2024 the NRL has opened its season with two Round 1 games at which Las Vegas venue?
Allegiant Stadium
Allegiant Stadium, an NFL ground, took the double-header as part of an NRL push to win American fans, under a plan to open the season in the United States for five years.
Q 13Why was the 2021 NRL grand final played in Brisbane, the first time in NRL history it left Sydney?
A COVID lockdown in NSW
Q 21Which Parramatta player received the inaugural Clive Churchill Medal as grand final man of the match?
Peter Sterling
Peter Sterling won it in a 4–2 grand final without a try, and the medal has since been awarded retrospectively to the best player of every decider back to 1954.
Q 22Which halfback, coached at club level by his father Ivan, won Clive Churchill Medals in 2021 and 2023?
Nathan Cleary
Nathan Cleary's 2023 medal came after he dragged his side back from a 16-point deficit with less than 20 minutes left, the biggest comeback in grand final history.
Q 23Which South Sydney forward won the 2014 Clive Churchill Medal while playing with a fractured cheekbone?
Sam Burgess
A COVID lockdown in NSW forced the decider to Lang Park, where crowd limits capped attendance at 39,322, the first major grand final in Queensland since the 1997 Super League decider.
Q 14Which halfback became the first player to win the Dally M Medal four times, taking his fourth in 2015?
Johnathan Thurston
Johnathan Thurston's fourth Dally M came the same year his golden-point field goal won North Queensland its first premiership, 17–16.
Q 15Which hooker retired in 2021 as the only player to pass 400 NRL games, all of them for one Victorian club?
Cameron Smith
Cameron Smith arrived as a halfback and was switched to hooker, then played 430 games and passed Hazem El Masri's 2,418 points as the competition's top scorer.
Q 16Which Queensland captain, nicknamed 'The Emperor of Lang Park', has a bronze statue outside that ground?
Wally Lewis
Wally Lewis played the first Origin match in 1980 as a lock forward, then moved to five-eighth and won a record eight man-of-the-match awards in the series.
Q 17Which Newcastle halfback won the Dally M Medal three times, in 1998, 1999 and 2002?
Andrew Johns
Andrew Johns had already won Newcastle its first premiership in 1997, throwing the inside pass for the winning try in the final seconds of the decider.
Q 18Which 35-year-old captained Queensland in the inaugural 1980 State of Origin match, a 20–10 win?
Arthur Beetson
Arthur Beetson had played for New South Wales for a decade because he was based at Sydney clubs, and the new rule let him captain the state where he was born.
Q 19How many competition points did the Canterbury Bulldogs forfeit in 2002 for systematic salary cap breaches?
37
37 of the 41 points the Bulldogs had earned were taken with three rounds left, which dropped them from the top of the table to the wooden spoon.
Q 20Which winger broke a 16-all deadlock seconds from full-time to win the 1997 ARL grand final for Newcastle?
Darren Albert
Darren Albert took an inside pass from his halfback and scored under the posts, giving the Knights a 22–16 win over Manly and their first premiership.
Sam Burgess suffered the injury in a head clash on the first tackle of a 30–6 win that ended South Sydney's 43-year premiership drought.
Q 24Which fullback kept his 2009 Clive Churchill Medal even after his club's premiership that year was stripped?
Billy Slater
Billy Slater kept the medal because the penalty for the club's salary cap cheating erased its 2007 and 2009 titles but left individual awards standing, and he won it again in 2017.
Q 25Which coach's grand final record stood at seven wins from eight after taking a second club to the 2010 NRL title?
Wayne Bennett
Wayne Bennett lost his first grand final, as Canberra's co-coach in 1987, then won the next seven he reached, six of them with Brisbane.
Q 26Which captain led New South Wales to its first State of Origin series win, sealed at the SCG in 1985?
Steve Mortimer
Steve Mortimer was chaired from the field after the 21–14 win before 39,068, which ended Queensland's run of winning every series played.
Q 27Which rookie coach took a Queensland side without its Super League-aligned stars to a 3–0 Origin sweep in 1995?
Paul Vautin
Paul Vautin was a Channel Nine commentator when he took the job, and he never repeated the trick: he stayed on for two more years and lost both series.
Q 28After Queensland won the 1987 State of Origin series, a fourth game was staged in which American city?
Long Beach
Long Beach's Veterans Memorial Stadium staged the promotional match, won 30–18 by New South Wales, as a bid to showcase rugby league to Americans.
Q 29By what nickname, coined by Barry Muir, do Queenslanders deride the New South Wales Origin side?
Cockroaches
Cockroaches was Barry Muir's label for New South Wales players when he coached Queensland from 1974 to 1978, so the insult is older than State of Origin itself.
Q 30Which Queenslander kicked seven goals from seven on his 20th birthday in the first Origin match?
Mal Meninga
Mal Meninga landed every kick in the 20–10 win on the day he turned 20, and the success of that one-off match and another in 1981 led to a three-game series the next year.