LeagueCast

It's often said it's a good thing not to stand still, but why is the sport's governing body never happy? In a game which seems to be constantly re-inventing itself, this time on Rugby League Top 10 we're talking innovations.

A lot of change has followed the move to summer rugby in 1996, when Super League was born. With it came the introduction of the video referee, now widely copied in many other sports. While two years later, winning the league suddenly wasn't enough and so the play-offs and Grand Final were introduced giving broadcasters the major event at the end of the season they craved.

Often, it's the rules which have been altered to improve the game. In 1993, the reference point for measuring the defensive line at a play-the-ball was extended to 10 metres. The new rule promoted more lateral ball movement, but in typical rugby league style it was introduced mid-season and the players had to just get on with it.

This season has witnessed the addition of the Captain's Challenge, to mixed reviews. The goal was to reduce incorrect referee calls, though it's been said the system just disrupts the game's flow. Wigan's Liam Farrell was the first Super League player to make a Captain's Challenge. It was unsuccessful!

Off the field, the sport has also been creative in its collaboration with sponsors. When a haulage company took the naming rights for Super League it was sold as a progressive deal where, instead of paying any money, the haulage company agreed to plaster Super League players on the side of their vehicles to increase awareness. In the end, sightings of those trucks were few and far between.

And not to be confused with a later tie-up with a pizza company. In 2020, during Covid, they supplied post-match pizzas to the teams in exchange for perimeter advertising. It was, to be fair, a cunning plan to feed the players safely during those restrictions, but Sam Tomkins wasn't quite as convinced. He tweeted after one match, "I hope we can negotiate new toppings on the next pizza deal. We can accept no money, but tuna pizza is taking the ****."

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What makes a great coach? Sustained success obviously plays a huge part, but there are several other deciding factors which elevate some coaches above others.

Alongside the arbitrary 40-year rule to qualify for the top ten, and to make it a level playing field, our nominees need to have coached a club to a Super League title, that is, during an era when the sport was fully professional. Unfortunately, that rules out legendary leaders like Dougie Laughton and Alex Murphy, alongside a few others who did, but still missed the cut.

However, it does include the likes of John Monie, the hugely successful Wigan coach who claimed the very first Super League Grand Final. That was after guiding them to four consecutive league and cup doubles between 1990 and 1993 as Monie won over 80% of the games he coached with the Cherry and Whites.

Brian McDermott won four Super League Grand Finals with Leeds, twice guiding the Rhinos to victory after finishing fifth in the regular season and led them to the treble in 2015. While the current England coach, Shaun Wane, steered Wigan to three Grand Final triumphs and will be hoping to add to that success in this autumn's Ashes series.

Current Wigan boss, Matt Peet, won a quadruple in 2024, making it seven trophies in his first three seasons in charge of the Warriors. While Kristian Woolf was victorious in each of his three seasons in charge of St Helens and also coached Tonga to victory over Australia in 2019, one of the greatest upsets in rugby league history.

Others under consideration include Tony Smith, a winner with Leeds and Warrington, who also took charge of England and Great Britain. Kiwi, Brian McLennan, secured back-to-back Super League titles with Leeds, Ian Millward was a multi-trophy winner with St Helens and Daniel Anderson who led Saints to a treble and two different NRL clubs to Grand Finals. Finally, there's panellist Brian Noble, a three-time Grand Final winner with Bradford Bulls and coach of Great Britain.

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For many, the Challenge Cup Final was their first real taste of the sport. Either watching on TV and listening to legendary commentators such as Eddie Waring and Ray French, or travelling down to Wembley to witness rugby league's 'big day out' in person.

The 1968 'Watersplash' final remains iconic, but this list of top ten finals begins forty years ago with a record crowd of 99,801 inside the national stadium witnessing a classic encounter between two teams of rugby league superstars wearing their classic hooped kits.

Peter Sterling and James Leuluai of Hull manufactured some memorable moments, and there was a sensational try for Wigan’s Henderson Gill, but it was Brett Kenny of Wigan who became the first Australian to win the Lance Todd Trophy as man-of-the-match after scoring a stunning try.

Martin Offiah's 1994 length of the field score and iconic celebration, slumped to his knees with his head in his hands, is now immortalised as part of the rugby league statue at Wembley. Bradford Bulls superstar Robbie Paul scored the first-ever final hat-trick two years later and in 1998 Sheffield Eagles caused one of, if not, the biggest shock in a major final in any sport in any era.

Head coach John Kear was at it again with Hull FC in 2005 as Paul Cooke danced his way over the line for a crucial late score. While one of the great Wembley tries occurred in 2011, a real family affair, made by Sam Tomkins and finished by brother Joel.

Catalans Dragons played in the first final at the newly developed Wembley in 2007. They lost that day to St Helens, but just over a decade later returned to become the first non-English team in 121 years to win the cup. And when Papua New Guinea international half-back Lachlan Lam travelled half-way round the world to play for his father Adrian, his crucial golden point drop goal which claimed the cup for “Little old Leigh” 52 years after their last success, was the stuff of fairy tales.

But which one will come out as the most memorable Challenge Cup Final?